Apple's iPhone sees 68 'bugs' so far

When Apple Inc.(NASDAQ: AAPL) released the hotly anticipated iPhone just a few shorts weeks ago, the Apple fanatics across the U.S. began sleeping in lines (again) to be the first to own the $500 or $600 phone-of-all-trades. Despite some glaring omissions to veteran cellphone customers (like voice dialing), the iPhone has raked up about 500,000 to 700,000 in unit sales so far, according to several estimates that change by the day.

So, the iPhone madness is starting to wear down and people are actually using them for phone calls, music listening and Internet browsing over the painfully slow AT&T(NYSE:T) EDGE network. Is everyone satisfied? Most of them are, but that is not keeping some from uncovering a mountain of defects and flaws in Apple's new flagship consumer electronics product. In fact, 68 known "bugs" have been discovered so far, although many customers will never run into them unless they spend way too much time trying to "break" the iPhone's software.

Contrary to what some readers seem to think, I am not anti-Apple. As I have said dozens of times, I am a huge admirer of the company and the product and marketing finesse it has. As most customers really want products "to just work," Apple excels better than anyone at fulfilling that need. That does not mean the company is perfect; far from it. When a comprehensive list of bugs is published on a brand-new Apple product, conversations are sure to fly. But, just as with Microsoft products, nothing is infallible and given enough time, the power of the masses will uncover product problems that companies just can't match in terms of voracity. After reading this iPhone bug list, I have a feeling some of these folks do nothing but sit around trying to find problems in products. If that saves a headache for a normal customer later, I say great.