Great, another article pushing the viewpoint that hardware and software doesn't matter, that investment in technology is a waste of time, that what really matters is slick marketing and pretty packaging.
What do they think makes the iPhone battery last more than 20 minutes or an Android app pop up on your phone when you click install on their pc website -- pixie dust?
>"Because of the hardware similarities, the major differences of these devices appear within the software - specifically, the design, functionally and experience of the software."
It's not saying that hardware and software doesn't matter. According to their definition, Nokia lost because design (software) is secondary to hardware (engineering).
Actually, the article brought up a very good point: "In comparison to early mobile phones, most smartphones on the market today look identical."
And what do they look identical to? The original iphone.
Most hardware manufacturer are trying to compete on Apple's turf. The result is that most consumers will naturally compare their design to Apple's. It's going to be extremely difficult to catch up.
Remember the original Apple's phone collaboration with Motorola?
That's Apple trying to compete on Nokia's turf. Result: Failure.
Now the mobile manufacturers are trying to compete on Apple's turf essentially by mimicking iphone. Is it any wonder that they will find a hard time competing?
I'd like to emphasize the point that in the smartphone market, software is king to hardware. It is the software that ultimately determines what you can do with the device and the hardware is simply there to facilitate the execution of the software.
Hence the desperate need for a software ecosystemem.
And what do they look identical to? The original iphone.
Kind of a tangent here, but the reason they look identical to the iPhone is partly because the iPhone is so well designed but also because the competition is completely unimaginative.
Is the full-screen + one button the last word in smart phone design? I hope not.
I worked at Black & Decker when product engineer deservedly took back seat to marketing as the premier discipline.
Makita was cleaning B&D's clock in the marketplace and all engineering could say was, "But ours test better than Makita's"
Joe Galli took a dozen of the best Black & Decker tools; changed the housings from grey to yellow, and changed the labels from B&D to DeWalt. He hired a dozen new college grads to drive around to job sites and sales took off like crazy. The exact same tools labeled and sold differently outsold Makita. In a strategy masterstroke, when Makita dropped their price he sued them for dumping products on the US for below cost.
It was a true marketing breakthrough -- engineering had nothing to do with it.
This happened a year or so ago: Microsoft conducted a usability test where they put a different skin on Windows Vista service pack 2 and told the users that it wasn't Vista.
The users said that they preferred the Vista in sheep's clothing.
"He said the company’s engineering driven culture is also responsible, explaining that the engineers at the company see the design of the software on a mobile phone as secondary to the guts of the device"
The conflict is not between technology and marketing, but between hardware and software. The NYT columnist is using the term engineering in a manufacturing rather than intellectual sense.
"Great, another article pushing the viewpoint that hardware and software doesn't matter, that investment in technology is a waste of time, that what really matters is slick marketing and pretty packaging."
Bless your heart, my friend. You are dedicated to substance over appearance, and for that, I give you an upvote.
Sadly, most people are more complicated than that.
If engineering alone mattered, then the dominant desktop computer would be the Commodore Amiga. OS/2 Warp would be the standard business platform. TOPS-20 would be the server operating system of choice. They would all be written in concurrent versions of BLISS and run on multicore descendants of the DEC Alpha microprocessor. Microsoft would be a third-tier maker of programming languages. The Intel 8086 line would be long forgotten. Unix and C would be unknown outside of Bell Labs. Finally, academics and the cool open source hackers would be using different flavors of portable Lisp Machine.
"Man has as much of a sensible as of a rational nature."
- Alban Butler
What do they think makes the iPhone battery last more than 20 minutes or an Android app pop up on your phone when you click install on their pc website -- pixie dust?