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Cingular Nationwide Outage and iPhone Batteries

A friend just sent me an email from Cingular saying:

Cingular Wireless has noted a nation wide outage since 4:00 AM today. Some subscribers have been able to get their blackberrys working again by taking out the battery and the sim card, leaving it out for a few minutes and reinstalling them into the blackberry. Cingular does not have an estimated time for the outage to end.

He then says "that would be a bit difficult with the new iPhone, no?" I agree.

I think the lack of a user-replaceable battery on the iPhone is a huge mistake, and one I hope Apple can correct by June. People abuse their phones, and two years is a long time for a battery to last. Power users will be charging their iPhone once or more per day. Unless the batteries are rated for 1500 charge cycles, they'll fall short of expectations.

Also, imagine if the iPhone batteries suffered the "exploding battery" problems we've seen from time to time. On a computer, if I'm not mistaken, you simply get a new battery. Is Apple really prepared for the possibility of replacing everyone's entire iPhone should such a problem be found with them?

4 Responses to "Cingular Nationwide Outage and iPhone Batteries"

  1. Steve Jobs was right! A rogue app on one of those other "smartphones" has taken down the Cingular network! What better rationale to have to the iPhone's closed platform nature?

  2. Also, imagine if the iPhone batteries suffered the "exploding battery" problems we've seen from time to time. On a computer, if I'm not mistaken, you simply get a new battery. Is Apple really prepared for the possibility of replacing everyone's entire iPhone should such a problem be found with them?

    Apple just sold 21 million iPods in the last three months, all with nonreplaceable batteries. I don't know that the iPhone is so distinctive that Apple would be particularly worried about whether its battery can be replaced.

  3. [quote comment="38717"]Apple just sold 21 million iPods in the last three months, all with nonreplaceable batteries. I don't know that the iPhone is so distinctive that Apple would be particularly worried about whether its battery can be replaced.[/quote]

    An iPod is not as business-critical, used nearly as frequently, "locked in" for a two-year period, nor as costly as an iPhone.

    It's quite likely they won't have any problems with exploding batteries in the iPhone (which simply means all the other problems with it still exist), but you can't guarantee it.

  4. [quote comment="38719"]An iPod is not as business-critical, used nearly as frequently, "locked in" for a two-year period, nor as costly as an iPhone.[/quote]

    I use and charge my iPod much more frequently than I do my cell phone. I buy a new iPod on average every two years and I've never had any problems with diminishing battery life. I also imagine that Apple is going to have a battery replacement program just as they do for the iPod. If I'm spending $600 on a phone, I'm probably not going to mind shelling out $100 to replace the battery every couple years.

    Also, just because you have to lock into a two year contract to get an iPhone doesn't mean that you're not going to be able to buy a second iPhone in the middle of that contract. You'll probably pay more for the phone at that point, but having a two year contract doesn't mean that you're only allowed to buy one phone every two years. I've bought new phones from Cingular in the middle of a contract several times, and I can't see the iPhone being any different.