Apple's iPhone: The Future is Here
by Anand Lal Shimpi on July 2, 2007 6:13 PM EST- Posted in
- Smartphones
- Mobile
Final Words
The iPhone's interface is its biggest selling point. For years you've had to force yourself to conform to your cell phone's UI, the iPhone is the first phone I've used that works the way you'd expect it to. The elegance and simplicity of the interface just makes sense, and I would expect elements of it to find their way into Macs of the future.
The iPhone is in no way perfect, it's lacking in a number of areas and has wonderfully paved the way for years of subsequent iPhone releases to come. Battery life is ok but far from usable without a recharge under heavy use; Blackberry users that are accustomed to being able to beat the hell out of their phones for a full day only to charge it the next may be in for a disappointment with the iPhone.
Email is handled wonderfully on the iPhone, but the device is very clearly aimed at filling the gap in access between when you're at your desk and when you can power on your notebook. It doesn't have the battery life to handle days of tons of email, so the iPhone isn't going to be infiltrating large corporations anytime soon.
You can't make videos on the phone, you can't copy/paste, there's no IM client, you can't replace the battery on your own, you can't add applications to it, there's no Flash/Java support, it's heavy and the list goes on. But here's the catch: there isn't a phone out today (smart or not) that doesn't have at least as long of a list of issues.
It's a device designed for the tech savvy consumer and it's a true revolution in interface, but not as a smartphone. Just about everything you can do on the iPhone, you can do on present day smartphones and in many cases, there are things you can't do on the iPhone that you can on its competitors. What the iPhone aims to do however is master the things it can do.
My initial reaction to the iPhone announcement in January was this:
"It's in the UI that Apple's iPhone is the most revolutionary, at least upon first glance. Those users who have pointed out that there's nothing truly new about the iPhone are right; fundamentally most of the features of Apple's iPhone can be found in other phones, but it's in how those features are implemented that sets the iPhone apart from its competition.
At first glance the iPhone doesn't look all that impressive, but in the usage videos at Apple's site and during the Jobs keynote you really get insight into the strengths of the UI. Its speed, simplicity and organization of things like text messages and voicemails just makes sense, to the point where we wondered why it hadn't been done before."
Six months later, having the device in hand, I can say that my first impressions were correct. The iPhone makes no advancements in what you can do, but it really perfects how you do them. The distinction is important because for years cell phone manufacturers have simply been tacking on more functionality to their devices, resulting in a significant loss in ease of use. It's the same feature clutter that plagues many software applications as they get older. Apple took some of the most important aspects of today's smartphones and did its best to perfect them, and for the most part with success.
There are many complaints that you can levy on the iPhone, it's too slow, expensive, it can't do X Y or Z, but the praise you can sing is arguably more powerful. The iPhone perfected text messaging, it made mobile web browsing usable, it integrated the smartphone and the iPod, it brought forth an interface that just makes sense. There are no convoluted layers of menus, no poorly made graphics with sluggish interaction; the iPhone works like a computer, but in the palm of your hand.
The excitement around the Ultra Mobile PC (UMPC) died down because no one's hardware/software implementation was really done properly. Well folks, the iPhone is a couple generations away from being a true UMPC, it just needs some faster hardware and more storage space. There's no doubt in my mind that Intel's ultra low power x86 projects are being eyed by Apple for use in future iPhones, it's only a matter of time before we have the power of the first Centrino notebooks in our pockets.
The Blackberry UI versus...
Everyone has asked me if it's worth it, if they should buy an iPhone, and honestly it's a difficult question to answer. It is expensive and it isn't perfect, but going back and forth between it and the Samsung Blackjack or the Blackberry Curve just highlights how much of an improvement in usability it is over the competition. You know it's going to be updated with faster hardware and better wireless, you know that you can technically do anything the iPhone does already for much less money, but that being said I'd still recommend it.
The iPhone UI
The iPhone just does it all so well; it's much like the argument for OS X vs. Windows, they can both do the same stuff, OS X's approach is simply preferred by some. I expect that the iPhone's UI is a bit easier to attract converts than OS X, but the point remains the same: it's not what you can do, it's how you do it.
Quite possibly the best thing about the iPhone is that it doesn't matter if you buy one or not, it's impact on the phone industry will be tremendous regardless. Competition is a very good thing and in a market that seems dominated by players uninterested in improving user experience, I'm thankful Apple lit the fire that it has. The iPod brought about a revolution in MP3 players, and I expect the iPhone will do the same for the smartphone market. It will take a while but eventually we will get real competition for this thing, which is a good thing for everyone.
For years I'd wanted a device that could let me be more productive, and RIM finally gave that to me with the Blackberry. Since then I've been looking for a device whose interface would truly impress me, and that's what Apple has done with the iPhone. We may not have flying cars, but the iPhone is what I, as a kid, imagined we'd have by now.
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ninjit - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link
Argh, looks like everyone bogged down the image server.I just happened to hit refresh right when the article went live, and was happily reading it for the first 10 pages, but now none of the images are load for page 10 onwards.
grrrr
goinginstyle - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link
I just finished it, took a minute for the last two images to show up. Great article by the way and now I know what to get the wife for her birthday next week.ButterFlyEffect78 - Monday, July 2, 2007 - link
I love my iPhone. I love texting all my friends and showing them my poop. Its great. Thank you Apple.rADo2 - Thursday, July 5, 2007 - link
This phone is horrible.My needs e.g. are much higher than those offered by $500-600 dumbphone with Apple logo on it.. There are dumbphones on the market for $0 - 29.95, that can do more than iPhone. Take any Nokia phone (and they have MMS, voice dial, and record video)... And there are also many $199 smarpthones with Windows Mobile and/or Symbian UIQ that can install 10,000+ apps, many of them being freeware.
No need to lock yourself in Apple overpriced monopoly with little functionality.
If your needs are simple, and you value Apple logo above all, iPhone may still appeal to you. Why not. But "dumbphones" with many lacking features sold for $500-600 with 2 year contract most certainly do NOT appeal to smart and advanced users.
In fact, biggest disadvantage of iPhone is not even missing features like voice dial, MMS, HW keyboard and/or GPS, but completely missing SDK. Developing SDK and giving it for free to developers is a major expense, and even companies like Nokia or SonyEricsson, which are on the market for "centuries", had problems with it. Microsoft has excellent SDK for Windows Mobile.
Apple has no development platform / SDK. They try to hide this huge shortcomming by saying "Safari is your SDK". Hehe. They can fool "sheeps" that JavaScripts widgets running under Safari are real apps, but not tech people and business people. You cannot code (e.g.) GPS navigation handling 1GB maps, or advanced IM client under JavaScript/HTML/CSS.
Thus their phone is basically a "dumbphone", not a smartphone, as installing native apps is a primary thing that distinguishes dumbphones for smart ones.
Why devote 50+ pages review to something dumb? "Sponzored" by Apple?
michael2k - Thursday, July 5, 2007 - link
You have to use it to understand, I think.You talk about features, but as the review mentions explicitly, it's the interface, a feature in it's own right, that sells the iPhone. Does any 0-$29.95 have a touchscreen as nice as the iPhones? You kind of have to compare it to other touch screen phones to "get it".
Cygni - Thursday, July 5, 2007 - link
Exactly. The strength of the iPhone is that it DOESNT have hundreds of features tacked onto it, all done, but none done well. The iPhone does what 95% of the phone buying public wants to do with a phone, and does those functions better than any other phone produced today. That is it strength. That is why its bound to change the way cellphones are made and sold.The reason smartphones havent taken off for a vast majority of the public was that they were simply too dificult to use, big, ugly, and counterintuitive. They were systems of endless ugly windows, with terrible fonts, on grainy screens. They were huge fields of buttons with multiple functions for each key. They tried to do everything. Thats NOT what the majority of phone buyers want in a phone. They want something functional, useable, and enjoyable.
To put it simply, the iPhone does what nearly everyone wants to do on a phone better than anyone else. Anyone who touches it and slides that unlock bar over for the first time has fallen in love. I personally wont be purchasing one for another year, while i wait for my contract with Sprint to expire, and i hope that the second gen has arrived by that time.
How can you justify spending $600 on a phone that doesnt do everything? The average american spends an ABSURD amount of time with their phone, doing standard phone things. Calls, Alarms, Texts. If i can make those hours of my day far more enjoyable for barely the cost of 2 car payments? I would say thats worth it.
rADo2 - Thursday, July 5, 2007 - link
Well, iPhone SW is poorly done IMHO, e.g. not being able to search through contacts by typing is major drawback. I cannot imagine having to scroll through my 1000 contacts...There are e.g. great Samsung and/or Nokia phones sold for $0-50 (with contract) that are better "dumbphones" than iPhone, have 3G, MMS, can record video, play music on stereo BT headset, etc.
iPhone does lack some very basic features, and I consider it to be hype only. Apple has brilliant advertising and "wow" factor, but this will wear-off within next few weeks.
dborod - Thursday, July 5, 2007 - link
There is an onscreen alphabet that lets you easily jump to contacts starting with that letter so you don't have to scroll all the way.rADo2 - Thursday, July 5, 2007 - link
Yes, but that is only single letter. WM5/6 devices can do initial search (multiple letters) or even sequantial search, see e.g. http://www.sbsh.net/products/contactbreeze/">http://www.sbsh.net/products/contactbreeze/If you have like 100 contacts beginning with "K", it will be very hard to use iPhone to find and dial the right contact. And voice dial will not hell either.
michael2k - Sunday, July 8, 2007 - link
You make it sound like Apple won't be adding search.To my knowledge Apple has updated/upgraded via firmware every single one of it's iPods.
Why do you think the software on an iPhone is "stuck" the way it is now? I imagine within a month of use, with feedback and real world experience, Apple will release an updated browser, mail client, media client, and text interface.
Then what about your complaints?
The iPhone is, for Apple, a miniature computer, and as such can be updated with fixes and software.