I didn't know there were so many with broken glass. I haven't experienced that. About ten members of my family carry iPhones and we haven't had one broken yet.
I bought one of the original iPhones for $600 a few weeks after they were released. I've had an iPhone on me every day of my life since. No failures, no problems. My current iPhone is a 4. Using it right now, even.
People make a big stink over the closed platform. I don't see it as a problem. It hasn't affected functionality at all. It does everything I want. On the other end of that spectrum, I run Linux on a desktop. If I want to tweak, I can do anything. But, thing is, the stock distro works fine. If, somehow, I woke up tomorrow morning and my distro was locked down, it would still be 100% functional for my needs. As a philosophical point, total freedom sounds ideal. But how much are you
really going to do with it? I have total freedom with Linux, and I don't really use it. So, to me, restrictions on an iPhone aren't a big deal. I have better things to do than recompile the kernel for a phone. (To keep the discussion under control, I'm all for freedom of speech, etc. And I'm a lawyer - don't get me started on that stuff. A smartphone has nothing to do with civil rights.)
As for actual flaws, I don't like iPhones for long telephone conversations. They're hard to hold and get uncomfortable. The old RAZR I had (original model) was much better as a telephone. But I don't make too many phone calls and I'm planning to get a landline
eek
soon. I have a small collection ofnold rotary phones that I want to start using. Now
those were engineered to be held comfortably for long conversations and I will use them for that.