iLash

The iPhone backlash begins, predictably, on the day after the product finally shipped. There’s no way the product will ever live up to its hype. I am not saying it won’t be a breakthrough product which many users will love. But the "jesus phone" surely won’t cure cancer.

The first salvo in the iLash comes from Joe Nocera in a column on the front page of today’s New York Times business section. I’d link to it but it’s behind a wall that makes linking worthless. Arghhhhh.

I have half a mind to reprint the whole column here just to stick it to the idiots at the NY Times who continue to reject common sense and good business judgment and who won’t play nice on the web. But I can’t even get into Times Select without getting a free trial which I refuse to do on principal. So no cut and paste here.

Anyway, enough of that. Joe explains that the iPhone doesnt’ have a removable battery and that after 300 to 400 charges, the battery will stop charging and you’ll have to send your phone (that’s right your phone) back to Apple for a replacement. He tried and tried to get an answer from Apple about how they plan to handle this issue, but could not.

You would think that the black eye that Apple got over the iPod battery issues would have knocked some sense into them. But Apple is like the NY TImes. Stubborn and consumer unfriendly.

I expect that bad behavior like this will bring more grass roots "open source" mentality to the consumer electronics business. I sure hope we see the open source hardware movement gaining momentum from nutty stuff like this battery business from Apple. I am betting on it, frankly.

#VC & Technology