PC World has a fine write-up on the top 15 big tech disappointments of the year. Included are things like the Zune (which I recently criticized here, and didn’t even cover all the problems it has), Amazon’s unbox (for sucktastic video which you have very little convenience or access to), and the newer, more suckitude version of Microsoft’s Office suite (which I planned to gripe about, but lacked sufficient energy after fighting the interface for 30 minutes to do 5 minutes of work).
#5. The Great, The Bad, The Ugly: Apple iPhone
Yes, we know. Sliced bread only wishes it were as great as the iPhone. And aside from minor flaws like a tiny touch keyboard and lack of Flash support, the phone itself is pretty terrific. But AT&T’s broadband service? Definitely second-rate. And if you want to switch to a more reliable or faster carrier, you have to take your chances with the hackers.The $600 price tag–which soon dropped by $200 and then was followed by a $100 quasi-rebate–didn’t help. “I think the biggest debacle of 2007 is the iPhone pricing bait and switch,” says Peggy Watt, a PC World contributing editor and professor of journalism at Western Washington University. “People do expect tech prices to drop, but not as quickly as the iPhone did. Apple’s response was pretty lame, too; a partial credit that couldn’t be used for a lot of popular items (such as iTunes).”
Yet still it sells like discount “Any-area-Annie” dolls at a fetishist convention.
Overall, the list is well-built, and I really can agree with most of the list. There are 1 or 2 things I thought would make the list that didn’t, and 1 or 2 that I was surprised to see on the list because I wasn’t sure the really were that disappointing. In the end, though, this is really a good guide to what should have been better this year for those following the tech world.