With all the iPhone hype reaching fever pitch here are just a few quick thoughts on the impending launch, and in particular the hype and silliness surrounding it. People seem to be falling over themselves to be the one to either praise the iPhone the most or to be the one to have “predicted” the potential impending disaster. Some are reporting every possible failing with almost glee as nothing would enjoy bigger ratings than something falling from so dizzy a height.
Most of the commentary on the iPhone fails to grasp the totality of it. It’s not just the touch screen or the features or the internet or the OS but the total amalgamation of all the above. Rather than try and shoehorn a touch screen onto an existing phone like many of the competitors seem content with doing, apple designed the experience from the ground up to be all encompassing, so that every part complimented every other part.
I saw one editorial that dissed the iPhone as a compromise product. In I way I guess you could argue that is true, but in another it is the least comprimised product ever to come out of an electronics manufacturer. There are many far simpler routes that Apple could have taken to create a cell phone, including leaving out many of the controvercial items like the touch screen, but what would have been the point. The could have even created a far simpler operating system for the phone, based on the ipod, but rather than take that route they created an elegant reimagining of what a user interface could be based on gestures and natural movements.
If you look at other touch screen phones coming to the market, they are all just basic buttons and scroll bars. Most are pretty (in some cases) interfaces bolted onto windows mobile but none offer the organic approach of the iPhone. It seems for the rest of the electronics industry “good enough’ is always going to be “good enough”. Why re-invent the wheel if consumers are happy witht he one they’ve got. Of course most consumers aren’t happy with their cell phones. They are just “good enough”, and until now that has been fine with the industry.
But while some in the industry bemoan Apple’s entry into the cell phone market, dismissing it on the grounds of it’s feature set alone, failing to grasp the total approach that Apple has taken will almost certainly be a grave mistake.
My other favorite iPhone moan is about the keyboard. The best one was someone giving out because using the keyboard would require a “learning curve”. This comment of course completely dismisses the fact that to use multi tap or predictive text on a normal cell phone takes quite a bit of time to get used to too. My treo with it’s full sized keyboard took quite some time to get the hang of as well, so suggesting that the keyboard “learning curve” will be the iPhone’s un-doing is utterly ridiculous. Of course some are taking it even further and claiming “inside sources” are telling them that the iPhone’s keyboard will be a disaster. It’s funny how for such a secretive company with tight control over it’s unreleased products, every apple bashing journalist or blogger seems to know someone who’s had an iPhone for weeks.
The thing is though, some people will have issues with the iPhone be it the keyboard or other functions of the phone. No matter what Apple does, it can never create one product that suits every single human being on the planet. The problem is, after June 29th everyone who’s fingers are too stubby or who can’t find their house on google maps and blogs about it is going to drown out those who post good impressions of the iPhone and are derided as “fanboys”
Make no mistake, you can’t hype a product as much as the iPhone has been hyped and not have an equally huge backlash. Unfortunately until it dies down, the true success or failure of the iPhone will be hard to guage.
No related posts.
Subscribe To RSS feed
