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5 Areas Where Apple's iPhone Falls Short

For two weeks now, I've been the relatively happy owner of an iPhone. Still, I have some major complaints, and I know the folks in Cupertino are just waiting to hear what I've got to say. The problem is that the iPhone is a great gadget and conversation-starter, but not yet a true corporate tool.

Don't believe me? Consider this experiment: If, like Charles Lindbergh, you have to pare your travel-weight budget down to the bare essentials, you'll carry your BlackBerry and leave the iPhone at home. (That's what I'm doing next week when I head out to Web 2.0, though I admit I'll miss looking at family photos and surfing through the iTunes store to listen to stuff like this.)

OK, so here's my short list of five items which could vault the iPhone onto more equal terms with RIM's BlackBerry. (True, Apple also would have to shed a big chunk of weight. They don't call the thing an iBrick for nothing!)

1. Push E-Mail.

Apple is bringing support for enterprise e-mail to the iPhone via its 2.0 software update, which is currently in beta. This will include support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync. That's great, because right now the iPhone's e-mail operation stinks. It's too slow, and more finicky than a cat.

My Roadrunner e-mail loads or not, depending on the accessibility of the POP3 server in question. Even Yahoo Mail takes longer than it should. Push e-mail solves all such problems. My only question now is how much grief I'll have to go through to get the iPhone 2.0 software downloaded and running on my unit.

2. Faster Web surfing.

AT&T's EDGE network is simply too slow for decent over-the-air (aka mobile-phone) online browsing. This is just as I expected it to be, before I owned the phone. I'm kind of annoyed that I bought into the protestations of iPhone devotees that the thing was mad fast. No way, Steverino. The EDGE network is as annoying slow on the iPhone as it is on the Blackberry.

Wi-Fi enabled browsing is the only way to surf the Web on the iPhone. Maybe that's as it should be, until 3G is properly built out. (AT&T has deployed 3G in a bunch of metro areas and says it might bring the service to the iPhone sometime in 2008.)

3. Longer battery life.

The thing has to be recharged far too frequently, and I'm not even making that many phone calls. Maybe it's all my Wi-Fi browsing, but I'd like to be able to go through a full day without the battery bar running down near the bottom.

I'd also really like a removable battery, not only so I could replace it without mailing the phone cross-country, but so I could buy a high-capacity aftermarket power source. But, hey, this is Apple we're talking about, so I'm barking up the wrong tree.

4. A better soft keyboard.

Maybe my fingers are just too darned fat, but you'd think a 150-lb. man (yeesh, bloggers have to reveal everything) would be able to type at least two consecutive words without hitting adjacent keys every other stroke. I don't get these kinds of errors with my Blackberry Chiclets.

5. Scratch-resistant screen.

I don't care that much about this one, because I use one of those clear, stick-on Taiwanese screen protectors you can get for $2. I'm just trying to fill out the list, because "4 Bad Things About The iPhone" doesn't quite cut it. I'm actually more annoyed about the weight, and also that the Apple earbuds use a proprietary connector, so I can't swap them for aftermarket phones equipped with a standard micro plug.

What do you think? Are there only five flaws with the iPhone, or have I missed any? For the record, I'd like to stipulate that the purpose of this post isn't to bash Apple. I really do admire Steve Jobs's marketing and product-design acumen, though I've found that writing anything perceived as less than total praise for Saint Steve brings out the worst from the fan boys. (Check out the comments below if you don't believe me.)

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