Tech Watch | InfoWorld Staff » TAG: Mobile devices

May 06, 2008 | Comments: (0)

Missing the iPhone's point

TAGS: Mobile devices

Every week, it seems, some device maker or cellular carrier is announcing its iPhone killer. The latest is the HTC Touch, whose main claim to fame is that it has beat Apple's iPhone to the 3G market (3G being the set of faster cellular networks than what the current iPhone uses). Never mind that the HTC Touch won't ship until June -- around the time that the new 3G iPhone is rumored to launch -- so any claims of being first are premature.

But who cares if the HTC Touch is first to run on 3G networks? Apple has proven that being first is not critical to success. The iPod came years after other MP3 players. The iPhone came years after other so-called smartphones.

Now, I haven't used an HTC Touch, so it could be a worthwhile iPhone competitor. In our last smartphone comparison, InfoWorld chief technologist Tom Yager had good things to say about several predecessor HTC devices.

I have played with another iPhone competitor, Verizon Wireless's XV6800, which is a remarkably bad device. It is this ilk that best demonstrates how competitors to Apple routinely miss the point.

What Apple does well -- most of the time -- is create a compelling user experience that delights customers. The iPod did that for MP3 players and the iPhone has done that for mobile Internet devices. (The AppleTV did not.) So much so that people pay more for these devices than for competitors -- so many people in fact that Apple all but owns the MP3 player market and is coming on very strong very fast in the smartphone market.

Then look most of the iPhone competitors. Grafting a touchscreen to a unusable UI doesn't make a device an iPhone killer. People don't buy iPhones because they have touchscreens; they buy iPhones because they are useful, cool devices. The touchscreen is just part of what makes the iPhone cool and useful.

That Verizon travesty is a great example of such Frankenthinking. The touchscreen works on the outside (though the GUI is unusably bad), but when you open it up to expose the physical keyboard, the inside screen -- the one you would use with the keyboard -- isn't a touchscreen as you would expect. So, you can touch but not type, or type but not touch.

And did I mention the GUI is so bad that any other features that might be on the phone don't matter -- it's too painful to try to find them, much less use them. Who could possibly have thought this product should have been put on the market?

When competitors gets the real point that Apple has repeatedly made -- people prefer stuff that works well and delights them -- and start designing and engineering accordingly, the iPhone will stop being the archteype of the smartphone done right and instead become just another smartphone.

HTC and Nokia seem to have the best shot of getting this point. We'll see when the HTC Touch is actually available and what Nokia does in its forthcoming N96. History tells me they might come close, but that Apple will change the rules again and restart the competition at a new level. We'll see.

Posted by Galen Gruman on May 6, 2008 05:31 PM

December 20, 2007 | Comments: (0)

Nokia N96 pictures leaked to Net

TAGS: Gadgets, Mobile devices, iPhone

Corporate ploy to steal iPhone pulpit thunder from Steve Jobs' pre-Macworld 2008 or some kind of Think Smart-esque Nokia lawsuit in the making, who cares?

I mean, is that a Carl Zeiss lens?

That's right, leaked photos of the forthcoming Nokia N96 smartphone are available for drooling over on the Net. And this, only a few days after the first Android prototype was spotted in the wild.

Of course, until fruition, such toys remain figments. In the meantime, there's always Tom Yager's comprehensive smartphone comparison to help you make the most practical tide-me-over choice.

As for the iPhone, which Yager declared the $1,975 iPod in his July InfoWorld Test Center review, the six-month mark has InfoWorld colleagues Kevin Railsback and Eric Hill waxing familiar on this year's gadget darling -- check out Two geeks and an iPhone Part 2 and Part 3 for their deep-dive video foray into the functionality of the iPhone six months since their first-look Two geeks and an iPhone Part 1.

Railsback, who has already MS Exchange-ified head honchos' iPhones, knows a thing or two about the impact of mobile devices worming their way into the enterprise. And with Avaya's announcement that it will bring its one-X Mobile platform to the iPhone early next year, the din from execs clamoring for IT iPhone support will only grow louder.

Whatever you do in 2008, don't step into the personal iPhone support jockey role at your enterprise uninformed. After all, mobile workers – and those bringing unsanctioned devices into the enterprise, in particular -- continue to be a top security concern.

Additional resources
Review: Supersmart phones for extreme mobility
We pick seven serious business phones with all the bells and whistles, plus the power and flexibility that real mobile professionals need
Review: iPhone: The $1,975 iPod
Apple's and AT&T's high-price gadget is a heartbreaking triumph of greed over genius
Video: Two Geeks and an iPhone: Part 2
Tips and tricks for e-mail, safari, and more
Video: Two Geeks and an iPhone: Part 3
How to add third-party apps to your iPhone

Posted by Jason Snyder on December 20, 2007 11:31 AM