The critiques have nothing to do with technology or needs as the author purports. There are FAR more mass market things our there in the smartphone arena, all with their respective limitations. The iPhone (and many other Apple products) are on the other hand very dichotomic in that on one side they are marketed (and sometimes contain) super high tech and design, but at the other hand fail at basic things/use-cases that were taken by granted by that same 'mass market' - and that's why it's so sweet for many to bash.