Ok, let's follow your car analogy. Can you drive a car without learning how to drive first? When people shop for cars, what generally takes precedence in the decision: Form or function?
Well, there's learning the basics of driving, which is easy, and then learning how to maximize performance, fuel economy, or minimize wear and tear, etc. on said. vehicle. The latter is what I was referring to. Also with a new vehicle, you still have to get accustomed to where buttons, dials, and controls are. Some cars have a very intuitive layout. Some cars don't make any ergonomic sense at all. That's also what I was referring to.
I've personally used four different Fascinates right out of the box, and while they're not shabby by any means, they don't offer the kind of experience I feel like they should, for a power user or even a non-power user. My dad (non power user) and my sister (very non power user) and one of my co-workers (non power user) each have their own specific criticisms of their Fascinate, even though overall they like it as a smartphone. The redeeming qualities of the hardware really shine. Nearly every single common complaint from my family, AND friends that also own and overall like the Fascinate, is SOFTWARE related - "GPS is slow to lock, contact syncing doesn't work, it won't delete emails right, I can only sync with one calendar account???, where ARE all my contacts??? Why are they all doubled?, etc." The list goes on, and most of the gripes are relatively minor. The point is, few of them can be fixed to a limited extent, or even at all, with a 2.1 non-rooted Fascinate. On the other hand the majority of the major complaints I hear frequently are addressed with the 2.2 update that is currently only in leaked form. Upon rooting and modding that leaked 2.2 further, which I have done a few times now, I have been able to virtually eliminate all complaints.
Software software software. The software being behind is making this phone a little bit of a disappointment for the tweakers, rooters and modders, and slightly more of a disappointment for those who are unable or unwilling to root, tweak and mod their devices.
Even with the current leak of 2.2 in its pre-OTA state, I still think if all the Fascinates would've shipped with that, folks would have had, overall, a little better out of box experience.
With the rumors that this is an update you can get done in the store (which I hope is true at least for the non-developer and non-root community) there is hope that the VZ stores will make customers backup their stuff first and then do complete wipes of their devices while they update the customers' phones. I think so many issues are caused by doing major OTA updates and not wiping. Even underwear is not immune to stains that can occur from not wiping. (sorry for the PG joke. It's late and I'm running on 4 hrs. of sleep!
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