iPhone, the Phone of the Future!

Ok, so it's been over two months since the iPhone debuted. I'll admit to being late on the blog buzz around the iPhone, but life insists on happening and this is my first chance to really sit down and compose my thoughts about the iPhone. Despite being a little late, I do have 11 weeks of real world usage to draw from, along with a lot of experience with other mobile phone platforms. As CTO of Midprofile, I test a lot of mobile phones; I can tell you the iPhone beats the pants off of all of them.



I figured it appropriate to include this action shot of the The Last Starfighter, as it captures a little of the iPhone's significance. I remember seeing The Last Starfighter and being amazed by the Cray-generated graphics. It was all so amazing. And while the images are nothing compared to the special effects and CGI we can do today, it captured my imagination as a kid growing up. Science-fiction always held out the promise of new and exciting things that were waiting just around the corner for the clever and dedicated adventurer.

So here I am in this picture, lying on the couch (wasn't feeling well), watching a movie from my childhood on a device I could have only dreamed of when I originally saw the movie. I know that the iPhone isn't the first device to let you watch movies (the Sony PSP, for instance, did this well before the iPhone), but it's not the movie watching that makes the iPhone so special. In the case of the iPhone, it is a device that is truly more than the sum of its parts (or bundled applications).

This is an important, but difficult point to drive home: the iPhone has less features than many advanced mobile phones and smartphones, but it is still superior to these other devices. The iPhone is superior because of how its features plus its UI work together to provide a truly better user experience. Some would argue this is a subjective observation, and I would partially agree. The iPhone is something to be experienced, not discussed. You have to really try the interface for yourself to get a feel for the device and its capabilities. I would argue that most people (save for die-hard Apple haters) will come out of the experience seeing how the iPhone experience is superior. Perhaps they would still find a missing feature that prevents them from ditching their old phone, but they would not go back to that old phone happy with how it works.

Windows Mobile is an incredibly flexible and feature rich platform, with the ability to load all manner of applications. However, it's user experience is a flawed desktop computer model shoe-horned into a device that has neither the desktop space nor the input ability of a desktop computer. Could Windows Mobile compete with the iPhone? Sure. There's nothing stopping the platform from becoming a contender—except for its user experience and UI concept. Part of the UI limit is because WM draws from an existing API and that it doesn't have the ability to dictate the hardware platform. Consider that Apple has total control over both the software and the hardware, down to what kind of memory is in each device. This gives Apple a huge advantage over Microsoft. That said, Windows Mobile requires hefty hardware resources to run smoothly; it is not the hardware that holds Windows Mobile back from changing its user experience and challenging the iPhone. Perhaps it's just never occurred to anyone that there is anything wrong with how the WM UI works (although HTC seems to have caught on quickly)?

Nokia is the world leader in mobile phones. Their Symbian OS is on more phones than any other operating system. But despite this huge success, Symbian is still a very clunky user experience compared to the iPhone. Like WM, Symbian is limited by the fact that it can't dictate the exact hardware platform. In Symbian's case, this is even more so, as the OS runs on every device from the cheap $30 phone you can buy at the gas station to the high-powered E-series. But, despite the range of devices, the general UI concepts and user experiences remain the same for the Symbian OS: even the more advanced E-series phones feel just like their older brethren. You could go from an aging Nokia 6620 to a new Nokia e62, and you would find an OS that acts and feels just the same. While this is a good thing in terms of users not having to relearn concepts or usage habits, it does show one problem: if you basic UI concept has flaws, it still remains even in the newest devices.

Motorola makes some of the most popular mobile phones in the US market. The RAZR was an incredible success for Motorola and AT&T who had the original exclusive deal. But after the shiny, slick device became the norm, users began to notice that inside this incredible, well-designed hardware was a very frustrating user experience. From my wife not being able to figure out how to use the address book to save numbers to my best friend who has to respond to his voice mail notification (otherwise it rings every 5 minutes, forever), Motorola devices suffer from a poor user experience.

Which is a long-winded way to get back to the iPhone. The iPhone suffers from several deficiencies and missing features, but what it does not suffer from is a poor user experience. After waiting in line at the local AT&T store, I met up with friends at the bowling alley. When I arrived, they demanded to see the fabled iPhone. I handed off the device with no instructions on how to use it, and it was then handed from friend to friend the whole night. I watched one friend who knows nothing about computers start taking photos with it. I watched another pull up YouTube and search for his favorite video. Still another friend sent me emails via my own email account. Another left me a note in the notepad, talking about how cool the iPhone was. And another found the bowling alley in Google Maps, switched to satellite view and browsed around the city using satellite imagery.

Now, here's the point: are all these features accessible or available on a WM device, a Motorola device, or a Nokia device? Sure they are; purchase the right smartphone with the right data plan, and all of these features could be found in any of these devices—and probably for a lot cheaper than my initial $599 (and even the newer, lower price of $399). But could any of these devices be handed off to a group of people who aren't tech experts, and could these same people access all the features without any instructions or a manual? No.

I haven't done any double-blinded tests to back up this observation. It's based on my own experience with the devices and in watching others use such devices. All of the devices before the iPhone had all of the features of the iPhone—and many features the iPhone does not have—but none of them have delivered that elusive, intuitive user experience. And that's why the iPhone is the "Phone of the Future". Not because of the features it supports, but how those features are presented and accessed by the user.

I've been critical of Windows Mobile, Nokia, and Motorola, but I don't count them out—not by a long shot. Microsoft itself got started with Windows in the first place by seeing the work of Xerox PARC and Apple's Macintosh. Many would argue that Apple's Mac was better, but they cannot argue with the ubiquity and success of Windows as a platform. Nokia continues to refine Symbian, and now they are developing Linux based solutions; they are not standing idly by like Palm did in the 90s. Motorola continues to create great devices. None of these companies will let the iPhone go by unnoticed. And that is again why the iPhone is the Phone of the Future: because your next mobile phone will never be the same because of the iPhone.

I don't expect Microsoft to give up on Windows Mobile. I don't expect Nokia to fold up shop. I don't expect Motorola to ignore the changes that are taking place. All of these competitors will be changing their strategy, reviewing how their products work, copying concepts pioneered in the iPhone. HTC is already fighting back, releasing what many are dubbing an iPhone killer. It won't kill the iPhone, just as the many devices of the past have not killed the iPod. But it's proof of how much disruption the iPhone has caused in the mobile phone industry. It's the new gold standard: whatever phone comes out now, it will always be compared to the iPhone in both features and user experience.

So fear not, if you couldn't afford an iPhone. In two years, iPhones themselves will be much cheaper. But even more than that, every other phone out there will be building on the concepts pioneered by the iPhone. They may not look exactly like it or work exactly like it, but they will draw from it. And that's the phone of the future: more like the iPhone, more user experience focused, and totally, totally cool to any kid who grew up in the 80s ;-)