What is the life expectancy of an iPhone?

Posted November 9th, 2009 by Kimberly Dowd

My mom got me an iPhone for Christmas two years ago.

It is the original iPhone, and about six months later, the iPhone 3G came out. A bunch of the movers & shakers jumped to that model. The 3GS came out this June, and a lot of people made that jump as well.

Me? I still have the original, which is fine except…

It doesn’t really work as a phone well anymore. I’m missing calls and voicemails and getting late texts, which is seriously bugging me because it makes me look like I’m blowing people off.

My signal is rarely strong anymore. I can be in Applebees with Mom, who’s also AT&T (regular cellphone) and she’ll get 5 bars and I have 2. I can be standing next to WM and his iPhone (3G) and he’ll have 4 bars and I’ll have 1.

I can’t help but think of my sweet little Samsung phone which worked like a champ for over 3 years and took much better photos.

Anyway, the purpose of this whine is that I’m wondering with all the hype over the 3G and the 3GS if Apple knew all along that the regular model was wonky.

I’m doing a system restore this morning. I hope it helps because I’m THISCLOSE to giving up the apps and geek cred and going back to a regular old cell phone.

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Filed under:Miscellany

3 Responses to “What is the life expectancy of an iPhone?”

  • Dave Says:
    November 9th, 2009 at 11:10 am

    This is exactly why I still have my relable LG enV. It’s almost 3 years old, bulky, scratched, and even has a crack on the (real, physical) keypad but the thing just works. I’m eligible for an upgrade but I just won’t do it until the thing dies. And I can buy batteries on the cheap at eBay.

    Besides, I’m on Verizon and we don’t get the iPhone. But I do love my iPod Touch :)
    Dave´s last blog ..Proofreader Fail My ComLuv Profile

  • Gregg D. Magnin Says:
    November 10th, 2009 at 11:31 am

    I try to resist the “herd” instinct, won’t buy things beginning with “i” and stick with a phone that’s reliable. I’m with MotoRazr, via Sprint for years. Could care less about photos (have a nice camera for that), mindless “apps”, etc. I do text important stuff, so will probably upgrade to a blackberry for 50 clams that I’m eligible for.

  • Kimberly Dowd Says:
    November 10th, 2009 at 12:03 pm

    I formatted the phone yesterday and at 5:30pm I found a new voicemail on the phone from a call that never came through.

    I think I’m going to go back to a phone with a keyboard.