iOS 4 Poses the Worst Problems Apple Has Ever Had with iPhone OS

The problems surrounding iOS 4 appear to to be substantially more difficult to resolve, if we are to look at how Apple has dealt with minor iPhone OS problems in the past.

Soon after introducing iPhone OS 2.0, the first major upgrade to the iPhone OS (now iOS), Apple was faced with having to tweak a feature here and there from time to time, nothing too major.

iPhone OS 2.0 also marked the introduction of the App Store which wasn’t really all that perfect in its prime time.

In the meanwhile, Apple managed to iron out all the bugs, established a great application reviewing system, and improved its relationship with developers tenfold.

Everything seemed to be resolvable by the Cupertino-based electronics vendor.

With the launch of iPhone OS 3.0, Apple introduced a few more features, like cut/copy/paste, MMS support - which wasn’t officially supported on 2G handsets - and more.

Here, Apple had some problems too, particularly with MMS. The problem was not software-bound, though.

It was actually a holdup on behalf of AT&T.

The operator explained that it was not yet prepared to handle the estimated amount of MMS messages about to start traveling as radio waves over its network.

The usual nip-and-tuck activity was then carried out by Apple through incremental updates like 3.1, 3.1.2, and 3.1.3, with all minor issues seeing their respective patches, while development cycles were short.

However, with the introduction of iPhone OS 4.0, now iOS 4.0, things started to fall out of proportion, in terms of issues typically posed by an original (point 0) software release.

Apple was faced not only with an immense backlash from the media, following tests of its iPhone 4’s external antenna, but also with an outcry from the entire iOS userbase (including iPod touch owners), as these users installed iOS 4.0 onto their devices.

Currently, iOS 4 poses so many problems, that Apple doesn’t even know what issue to focus on first. Or so it seems.

By far, the biggest number of complaints comes from the iPhone 3G userbase which, as of yet, is still waiting on Apple to make their phones usable again.

According to these customers, iOS 4 slows down the phone, resulting in a virtually inoperable device.

To make matters worse, Apple doesn’t support downgrading to an older version of the iPhone software. This would be greatly appreciated by owners of the iPhone 3G, as noted by Softpedia earlier this month.

iPod touch owners come second in line, with widely spread reports of battery drainage, following the installation of iOS 4. If you're not in the loop, have a look at these stories.

iOS 4 Severely Affects iPod touch Battery Life - Post Your Case

Softpedia Readers Speak: iOS 4 Affects Battery Life

Even owners of newer hardware - iPhone 3GS - are signaling issues, including freezing apps (presumably because of multitasking), poor wireless capabilities, reboots during calls, and more.

iPhone 4 owners aren’t too happy either.

Many adopters of Apple’s latest iPhone are frustrated because of the proximity sensor issues that cause them to mute their calls accidentally, or drop them entirely.

In response to a report published by Softpedia today - Apple Currently Unable to Address iPhone 4 Proximity Sensor Issue - one of our readers tells us (this comment just came in):

“It doesnt [sic] matter really, i and everyone I know has already returned their iPhone 4 and returned to earlier versions," bob writes.

"Apple never had this problem from day one. And it ruins the iPhone 4 handset,” he stresses.

Not to mention Apple still hasn’t convinced the world that ‘Antennagate’ was a fabrication on behalf of the media, although this was (admittedly) hardware-related.

But the Mac maker did have a messed up algorithm of displaying signal bars to begin with, Softpedia readers will recall.

Needless to point out, none of these issues have been fully addressed since the public release of iOS 4.0, despite Apple rolling out not one, but two firmware updates since.

We wonder: is Apple ready to admit hitting a roadblock, or will the iconic gadget vendor prove, as always, that nothing is unresolvable when it comes to the iPhone?

Share your own thoughts in the comments.