Nice article, but I have one thing to say: your list of priorities for features is probably what you think you want. Before I got the iPhone, I never browsed the internet on my Treo because the experience was just absolutely terrible (the experience on blackberry is also terrible). Now I browse the web on my iPhone more than I use it as a phone.
While investigating how to make the best UI, I've found that people's priorities come from their habits and not necessarily from their needs. At first this seemed kind of illogical to me. But if you think about it, before the iPhone, no normal people really could imagine a mobile browser as good as mobile Safari, so no one really put "a desktop experience web browser" at the top of their requirements lists for phones (obviously tech people did, but average people did not).
I wonder what would happen if you bought an iPhone.
I think you underestimate the importance of his items 1 and 2 (call quality and email/SMS) to the business population.
A dropped call at the wrong moment can cost a sales guy a lot of money; and a hard-core Blackberry user is not going to give up that keypad for a nice browser. For them, the importance of reliable, rapid communication with business contacts outweighs the pleasure of a good browsing experience.
With the Palm, you theoretically will get to have a keypad, a choice of carriers, and a nice browser (assuming the fact that it uses the same HTML rendering engine as the iPhone means the browsing experience will be equally good).
Hence his assertion that "Apple’s strategy has worked well, but it has major holes, and this Palm unit looks like it exploits them".
So, (1) a dropped call at the wrong moment is not going to cost a sales guy a lot of money unless that sales guy works in Scranton and is trying out for the CIA, and (2) am I the only one here who uses an iPhone as their primary phone and has never had a dropped call?
I've never had a dropped call with my iPhone either. The only person complaining about call quality in this thread is Matt.
It's a bit disingenuous to make declarations about how poor a product is when you don't even own one. It seems to be a common theme when he writes about Apple.
There was a tremendous amount of negative publicity around dropped calls specifically when the 3g launched. I'm sure you're not the only one, but it's clearly a common problem, just as some people still have an Xbox 360 from launch day that works, while I'm on my third.
Call quality goes beyond just that too. There's the abysmal maximum volume. General sound. Etc.
Yes. iPhone isn't a serious contender in business.
It may be a threat to the iPhone in the pro-sumer market (yeah, I hate that term too) also though, since it too has a full-screen WebKit based browser, a UI people are raving about, $200 price point, and potentially (jury's still out) awesome platform. And, most crucially, it will be on many networks. I like it's chances.
The funny thing about the Apple iPhone keyboard, in that respect, is it actually does work just as well as a blackberry keyboard (and this is within the first week of usage...). I find that I can type just as fast on my iphone as I could on my blackberry.. In fact, I'm typing this on my iPhone, as it happens.
The iphone keyboard is a fantastic piece of design. I honestly believe that those who think of it as inferior just haven't tried using it for a few days. I actually think of the on-screen keyboard as one of the iPhone's key features, and the lack of it would discourage me from buying another phone.
"I honestly believe that those who think of it as inferior just haven't tried using it for a few days."
I just don't believe it. I've had an ipod touch for nearly a year and it's just not there. I am twice as fast on the blackberry keyboard. What's your wpm on iPhone? Do you think it would be faster typing with a standard computer keyboard or a touchscreen keyboard on a tablet?
If you type really slowly, they might be roughly equivalent. If you are fast on the blackberry, there's no way.
I am all for physical keyboards, but comparing it to a full size touch keyboard isn't exactly fair. There's about 5x more stuff going on with a full size keyboard.
I love my iPhone to death - and despite a few features I would love in the phone (such as copy/paste and possibly a physical keyboard) the phone does exactly what I need it to.
I spend a lot less time talking on the iPhone because I have the ability to use txting/email/twitter/facebook much more easily (I know other phones offer these features, but the interface is nowhere near as intuitive). I barely surfed on my old phone and I feel I would die without a 3G network and Mobile Safari now.
I live in Canada so I am with Rogers/Fido - and to be honest, even though we get screwed on pricing most of the time, I haven't had any problems with network coverage. I get awesome 3G speeds at home and all over the city (I live in Vancouver).
I really like what the Pre has to offer, but I can't see myself moving away from this iPhone. If Palm brings me an unlocked quad-band GSM Pre I would likely drop the cash, but that's extremely unlikely so I'll just stick with my iPhone.
Agreed. I had my iPhone for about a week before I actually used it for a voice call. It's a portable macbook really. As you say, the browser is ridiculously good.
Reading about the Palm, it looks like it's insanely based around the web, which is awesome.
Essentially he's saying he likes the Pre because its imagined features are better than the iPhone ones that he hasn't tried. The article is about pitting an ideal vs. a bias. Who will win?
Are they imagined features when you can watch a video of them? Why would you think I've never tried an iPhone? I actually wanted to buy one before I did.
Seems like kind of a silly comment to have 25 points. I wonder if it were about Microsoft instead...
That's the feeling I got too. Criticising something as different as the iPhone keyboard (which I'm using to type this) when you haven't tried it is very unconvincing and possibly slightly dishonest both with yourself a d with your readers.
People made that assumption because your opinions do not match their experiences as iPhone users. I assumed the same thing. With regard to your first three points:
1. My call quality is excellent in NYC. I get a dropped call maybe once a week. It's not even something I think about much. I see Verizon customers around me dealing with more dropped calls.
2. Email and SMS are fantastic. Better than my work-issued Blackberry.
3. Network. I have 3G almost everywhere I go, but I understand that this varies widely by geographical area. People without coverage obviously won't benefit much from an iPhone.
With regard to the Blackberry comparison, I'll flat out say this: I prefer the iPhone keyboard to the Blackberry keyboard. Plain and simple. Maybe I figured out the right places to touch the screen, but I type faster and more efficiently on the iPhone. I didn't make any scientific comparisons, but every time I'm forced to compose something on the Blackberry, I inwardly groan. My fingers and hands are not particularly small.
If you heavily use Exchange, I imagine iPhone's integration leaves something to be desired. I haven't tried it. However, IMO, Blackberry's Exchange integration through the Blackberry server leaves something to be desired, too. For example, I have rules set up in Exchange so that my sent mail goes into the same folder as the folder which contains the message I have replied to. Doesn't work on on the Blackberry.
1) Call quality issues have been highly-publicized, and refer to more than dropped calls. Voice quality, volume control, reception (different phones on the same network often get better or worse in the same location), etc.
2) You can find a litany of blog posts from people who switched from Blackberry to iPhone and then went back because they couldn't live without the keypad. You can also find people who share your sentiment too. Neither sentiment is uncommon or would lead me to believe that the person expressing it hasn't tried one.
3) Also tons of complaints about spotty reception even in big cities.
None of those three may match your experience, but they all match highly-publicized experiences of others.
This sort of information should be included in your article, too. It's an obvious hole in your article and you should probably have thought of it when you were writing it.
Long enough to discover that I have sausage fingers. Long enough to realize that they did a great job with the automatic corrections, but that when that fails, the process of correcting a word is brutal, and that it happens enough to make the whole experience grating when you're used to a keypad. Long enough to discover that there's no way I could shoot off a text one-handed without looking like I can on a device with a dedicated keypad. Long enough to know Blackberry-esque models are for me.
I don't know how many minutes if that's what you're asking. I don't think it's a hole in what is clearly an opinion piece that I didn't describe the exact length of time I spent typing on one.
>> "But the iPhone platform is also, in many ways, problematic. Programming native apps in Objective C is really hard work (or so the friends who’ve done it tell me). Palm greatly reduces the barriers to entry by making app development html/css/javascript-based, meaning any web developer (maybe even me) could get started."
A warning to bloggers: when you don't know what you're talking about but talk anyways, it's very obvious. And it hurts your credibility. I wouldn't complain about problems with the World Series of Poker in a blog post, and if you've never used Objective-C/Cocoa, it's best if you don't complain about it.
Palm’s embrace of “developer friendly” open platform philosophy for its new handset in development, in constrast to the decidedly unfriendly sandbox approach Apple has taken, certainly must be applauded. And a flock of delighted developers are cheering them on, as indicated by the cited article discussion, as well as tech sites across the net. However, I see no reference to a factor that looms larger than software platform — quality of the hardware.
Palm devices (PDA and their foray into mobile phone market space) are notorious for their unreliability and low quality. Historically, they are poorly made and break rather easily. Back when I toted a Palm PDA in my work travels, it frequently had to be replaced. And I remember giant pallets of refurbished PDAs in Fry’s Electronics, where devices would be recycled for second and subsequent deaths.
Experience with Blackberry devices, I do not have, but my iPhone performance and reliability (other than on OS upgrade days) has been stellar. In fact, the iPhone is more solid that it was nearly 15 months ago. I have not even witnessed battery degradation yet on my first generation model. Yes, I realize there are iPhone lemons, but I’d assess the iPhone defect rate at a fraction of all those Palm products.
Not sure I understand the point about development at all. You can program apps for the iPhone using HTML/Javascript/CSS as well. In fact, when it was first announced, many people criticized Apple for not having a native SDK. People felt that it was too limiting and you couldn't really tap into the power of the phone. We've seen some great applications since the SDK has come out that shows that these folks were justified in their initial critiques.
As it is now, you can still program apps for the App Store using web technologies through the WebView object.
>> "The iPhone’s call quality is notoriously abysmal"
I've heard other people complain about call quality with the iPhone, but only people in the US. Is this a US only phenomenon?
Surely this is down to the network, and not the handset. I know that doesn't help much if you don't have a choice of network, but I haven't heard of any UK users complain about call quality.
All in all my experience of call quality in the US on any phone has been abysmal, including land lines...
Also I think you place way too much importance on the app store. I doubt that many people buy a phone based on the apps they can install on it, obviously to hackers it's important, but for most people I'd say the app store is a sort of bonus they didn't know about.
I tried out a G1 yesterday, and although it looked quite nice, the keyboard is so small it's impossible to use :( Still thinking of getting one sometime, wondering how it stacks up against the iPhone.
I have a 1st generation iPhone in the US on AT&T and reception and clarity are as good as they eve were on HTC, Blackberry, or Treo.
It's possible this is a 3G issue as all of the above ere 2G phones. But given the author's demonstrated propensity for writing things he's only heard about third hand, we might want to brand this entire line of criticism [citation needed].
> I tried out a G1 yesterday, and although it looked quite nice, the keyboard is so small it's impossible to use :(
I have to completely disagree with you here. The keyboard is one of the G1's redeeming features. I type much faster and make much fewer mistakes on it than when typing on my iPhone. It's especially better than all those phones with physical keyboards with weird non-standard layouts. YMMV...Just thought I'd offer a counter example to yours :)
I replaced my ancient mobile with the latest LG Cookie last week. It's just a £100 pay as you go model, not really a smartphone, but it has a touch-screen and turning it on its side when writing a message reveals an on-screen QWERTY keypad. But it's almost unusable. I don't have fat fingers and I do about 90wpm on a PC keyboard, but these on-screen keypads are terrible for hitting the wrong letter. It's actually quicker to drop to T9 texting mode on the number buttons. Perhaps the iPhone's better, I've never seen one "in the flesh", but I can't imagine how they'd make a touchscreen QWERTY keypad work.
I had a play with the G1 in the phone shop just out of interest (the disappointment on the shop assistant's face when I said I didn't really want a £35 contract but just wanted the pay as you go phone was quite shocking). It was most impressive and the keyboard was very quick to type on. Hopefully, since I'm under the impression that Android is freely available for manufacturers to use on their phones, we'll start to see some budget manufacturers (Huawei?) using Google's OS at some point in the next couple of years to give users a decent experience without spending loads of money on putting together a proprietary OS.
Yeah you may be right, I just couldn't work out how I'm supposed to use it... One finger, two thumbs, 2 fingers? With the iPhone i use 1 finger and can type pretty fast, but with the G1 it was just really hard to hit the right key, and you actually have to press pretty hard which slowed me down a lot.
How long did it take you to get used to it? Does it always take so much effort to register a keypress, or does that 'loosen up'.. :/
I've had mine for about two months, and the keyboard feel hasn't changed. I haven't noticed that it takes a lot of effort, but I tend to press buttons much harder than necessary anyway, since my proprioception is poor. By the same token, I'm fairly abusive of hardware, and I was really worried that the G1 would come apart quickly, but it's held up very well, aside from the occasional ominous creaking sound.
One thing I really like about the G1 keyboard is that there's a definite "break" when the key is pressed, so if I'm paying attention, I can tell when the key goes down. The physical feedback helps a lot for me.
If you're trying to do 1-finger typing, no wonder you found the G1 inconvenient. Use the G1 keyboard with two thumbs, holding the device with both hands. (I can't even figure out how you would use it with two fingers.)
I find the call quality great over 3G, or good enough for my standards at least. I have yet to experience a dropped call or bad connection, but that's more about the network than the phone.
No, I use AT&T just fine. But my son has an iphone and it doesn't have nearly as good reception as my old Razr. I can make and receive calls standing next to him when he can't. An since I need my phone to be a phone first, I'm waiting.
O2 have always had a very good network. I'd imagine that unless you're using a really awful phone, call quality is similar on the prehistoric Nokia 3210 or the latest state of the art iPhone.
I've had a few dropped calls (the display on my iPhone froze, so I suspect something on the phone had crashed), I've had it not pick up calls (unlock to answer the phone -> the phone won't unlock) and calls where I can hear the other party but they can't hear me.
iPhone: great internet device, questionable phone.
"If your phone is on multiple carriers that collectively serve four times as many customers, it only needs to be some amount greater than 25% as appealing to get the same market share."
If you measure "appeal" by market share, then this is a tautology. If you measure appeal by some other method, it's almost certainly false.
That math is wacky. The >25% number is assuming that people won't switch carriers for a really cool phone like the iPhone. So it's obviously wrong. The point he is trying make is that if it's the best Sprint phone, the best Verizon phone, and the best T-Mobile phone, it's going to get a lot of sales, even if it isn't the best AT&T phone.
Because this adds a fuckton of standard libraries to JavaScript -- a full set of syscalls for manipulating files, contacts, etc -- it's not just a standard browser, and your shit is stored on the device.
It has a "notify me" button to register when there is more info. Since noone outside Palm has touched a Pre yet but we _all_ know about it, I think somehow I'll be kept informed either way ;)
I think the Pre looks interesting, but the biggest draw for me when it comes to the iPhone is the tight integration to my mac. If a smart phone isn't going to synch easily and seamlessly with my PC I'm not interested.
While investigating how to make the best UI, I've found that people's priorities come from their habits and not necessarily from their needs. At first this seemed kind of illogical to me. But if you think about it, before the iPhone, no normal people really could imagine a mobile browser as good as mobile Safari, so no one really put "a desktop experience web browser" at the top of their requirements lists for phones (obviously tech people did, but average people did not).
I wonder what would happen if you bought an iPhone.