Just yesterday, Apple released iPhone OS 2.2. With it comes a handful of features:

• Google Street View in the Maps app
• Reduced drop calls
• Bug fixes in Mail
• UI tweaks in Safari
• Podcasts in iTunes
• Bulk app updates
• Various other tweaks

As much as I love my iPhone, and as much as I love Apple, this software release is pathetic. First of all, I think they need to align their release numbers with those of OS X. Going from 10.5 to 10.6 on the Mac requires a couple years and even inherits a new code name. Apparently for the iPhone, earning a .1 increase can come with mini features.

These new enhancements, while cute and cuddly, are as far from user-defined priorities as anything I’ve come across. Who cares about Google Street View when you still can’t send a picture in a text message? Who cares about modifying mobile Safari’s address bar when you can’t sync over WiFi? We get better HTML email in Mail instead of copy and paste? Apple, who’s calling these shots?
Please Fix the iPhone is a fabulous site dedicated to allowing iPhone users to vote on features they think should be given priority. I’ve read a variety of blogs on iPhone feature priorities, and this site’s information is spot-on. I wish the iPhone’s product manager would pay this site a visit and execute against the top ten feature requests.

Now, as a whiny blogger, I must qualify my gripe. I really love my iPhone. It’s clearly the best phone in the world, and it has brought nothing but satisfaction since I got it on October 7th of this year. Incidentally, I got my wife one, too, and I think she’s happy (despite some early reception issues). Okay, that’s all for now. Just wanted to give a shout out to Apple’s product management to look first to users’ wants.