The slow decline of the iPhone

While John Gruber is busy predicting the slow decline of Microsoft, I’ve been meaning to blog about what I’ve been noticing with the iPhone: the slow decline of the iPhone–particularly with early adopters and the tech influentials.

Today Michael Arrington is expressing his frustrations with Apple, AT&T and the iPhone. He’s ready to move on. He’s not the only one either. There’s Om Malik. There’s Steven Frank. And there are the comments on Twitter, on FriendFeed, and on various blogs too.

Yep, there’s growing discontent.

I’d even noticed it within myself. There’s no doubt the iPhone’s been one of the most influential devices I’ve owned over the last two years and one of the devices I’ve advocated for more than most others, but with that said, I want and need more. Sorry, the dropped calls, the Safari crashes and lockups, the app blocking and requirements placed by Apple on them, the incremental charges for things I see that should be part of the base connectivity costs, and more are making me look elsewhere. I don’t see an alternative for what I need quite yet, but the Palm Pre and Android phones are getting close.

Many are blaming AT&T. That could be a significant chunk of the problem, but to me, this is Apple’s game to win or lose. It’s up to them to innovate, it’s up to them to manage the partner relationships. That’s why I focus the most on Apple in all of this. That’s why I’m not merely thinking of jailbraking the iPhone and migrating it to another carrier. It’s time for seek out another platform.

Is this the end of the iPhone? No, but we very well may see a slow decline of the iPhone’s market dominance and the increasing fortunes of its competitors, including Google, Palm, Microsoft, Nokia, and the like.