Having now had a day or so to mull over the iPhone launch and the media frenzy surrounding it, I've been pondering the fact that in one important way, the iPhone definitely IS a 'break through' device, while Ewan refutes Jobs' 'Five years' boast by casting a satirical eye back five years instead and then describing what we have today.
Read on in the full article.
Mmmm.... and already the iPhone has redefined the smartphone space, with a sentence like "this phone is just like the iPhone (only better)" 😉
It's not the phone itself that is important, it is the complete user experience including iTunes SW and Cingular network integration. S60 devices are designed to work without a host PC... not the iPhone. Therefore, all the difficult setup you had to do on a N-serie are easily done from the host PC with iTunes.
This is exactly the same improvement that Apple provided with the original iPod: the proposed product was a combination of a device and a software for the host PC.
Regards,
Arnaud
My understanding is that noone/ very few people have actually had the opportunitiy to play with the device. Journos banned from touching them etc. As such I find it rather bizarre that people are assuming that the UI is 'easier to use' thats its a wonderful phone etc
Only a single button - erm sounds like the P800 with flip removed.
In what world are two taps easier than 1 ?
Touch sensitive scn - yes and, WM, Palm, Symbian all been there.
Pretty average overall spec.
1 trick pony.
Styling, oooh really good - but if it cant hold phone calls in dodgy reception areas it sort of defeats the object of it being a phone.
Physical size. maybe my hands are the size of a giants, but comparing my normal phone with the percentage of hand covered by the iPhone photos, this is not a small device - probably E60 size (which has higher res scn)
Fully agree WM, Palms, Symbian phones are not always that easy to configure + set up, especially when purchased SIM free, + some of the UI sucks, however modern phones are extremely complex computing devices and without actually having real iPhones to play with I cant see how its possible to make rational, non emotional judgements as to their ease of use or otherwise.
I hope it does well, if nothing else to educate the man in the street what their phones are capable of
As for Apple having the brand so they dont have to go via operators, maybe Ive missed something but Nokia and Sony Ericcson are pretty big brands. If they go that route you are instantly into SIM free land - and just how many of the Apple SIM free device purchasers are going to know how to set up their SMSC so basic stuff like texting works.... sure some of this can be automated but...
E.g. Just exactly how is the PC and iTunes going to be able to cause my iPhone to be able to connect to the local, private WiFi 'trivially', or set up the IAP for my second SIM
The entire debate seems to revolve around entirely emotive personal opinions rather than any real facts at this time. As such attempting to compare iPhone with anything else is rather pointless - so until real phones are really available for real people to play with I suggest we compare the iPhone with the Nokia N9999i+++X - whose spec I am sure I can dream up.
The iPhone is not a phone, its a tablet and an expensive tablet! Will it really survive normal use? Will iPOD owners now buy the iphone instead and have less memory (potentially) than before...
Here is a very interesting link regarding the iPhone.
http://www.engadgetmobile.com/2007/01/11/iphone-and-lg-ke850-separated-at-birth/
maybe the first change Nokia will offer is Mac compatibility for PC Suite, Sports Manager, etc. 😉
The device isn't even complete yet. Apple hasn't revealed its hand yet. Perhaps it is best that we all wait to actually use one?
Everyone is comparing this to everything that's already out. OSX (even in it's reduced form on the iPhone) is an extremely powerful OS. Apple is also thought of throuhgout the computer/electronics industry as one of *the* innovators.
I'm not very impressed with my N70 or N73. My Treo was fancy, but didn't do very well. Windows Mobile, clumsy interface and power power and ram management. S60 is the best of them all but I don't understand why it is SO slow. It takes seconds to load a text message. I didn't believe that Apple was "Thinking Different" until I really started to use them... and I mean *really use it* not saying, a few minutes in an Apple store or in school 5 years ago. When a Mac user said to me,"You have no idea what your computer can do til you use a Mac." Well, I understand now cuz I run Mac OS X next to an XP and I beta tested Vista. You have no idea what your computer can do or how it works til you use a Mac.
I haven't used this phone, you haven't used this phone, and many probably haven't used a Mac. If Apple puts its mind to it, I'm sure they will change how we view phones. Lack of 3g, fine, but it has WiFi and a real web browser. The email application kicks the butt of my N73's SLOW email app. Before we all get defensive about who's for the better smartphone, let's see what it does when it is released.
I think someone should have taken out their N91 and thrown it at him.
But seriously, when I walk to work listening to music on my amazing N91 and I get there and everyone is there using their (in my opinion) dorky, old-fashioned Ipod, I don't even get it. I'd be so jealous of me I'd just run out and buy an N91.
I have to say it's a bit worrying, if the Iphone starts a craze. Yes, people do use MP3 players now because of the Ipod, but the bad news is, almost EVERYONE uses an Ipod to do it on! The problem is most people are technology "sheep", unadventurous and willing to buy whatever they are told to buy, whether it be a salesman or an ad, or Steve Jobs. Just as after the Ipod came out there wasn't a sudden rush on other brands, we may see the same problem with smartphones.
If Nokia doesn't come out with something that attracts "sheep" as much as the Iphone does in the next year, they may never be able to take over a big share of the US market, and lose European and Asian customers just trying to be "trendy"...why did so many people like the Nokia 7610? It wasn't because it was a smartphone, it was because it was eye-catching...well, it's about time to come out with the "Iphone Killer" before the first Iphone is ever sold, otherwise, Nokia smartphones will become even more "geek niche" and there's no reason for that, since Nokia is making amazing products RIGHT NOW which I'm sure will always in an overall way, kick this and future Iphones a**.
Good luck, Nokia! I'm rooting for you!
Yeah! Guzzles, but the iPod syncs with my Mac, which is where all the music is! Actually running music through the house is all I use the thing for, but I have 500 CD's on it so I just plug in the iPod and don't worry about what music is on it...because it all is.
Other than that, I'll keep my Symbian-powered phone and hope the E90 rumors are true and to be reveales as so in the very near term. That or a P990 for the USA bandwidths.
Another issue is how open will it be, if we judge from apples past the conclusion isn't good. Even though S60 hasn't been completely open and certain things have been disabled by operators it is still very usable and easy to develop for.
I don't get what's so great about syncing...are we supposed to be so dumb that we can't copy and paste files from the hard drive to the hard drive/memory card? I mean, I never use the N91 option to sync...it's so annoying and starts putting music you don't want onto the phone.
I like FREEDOM...which, in an unlocked N91 is absolute; just take the music and put it on the phone...no annoying "player"...also, it doesn't encrypt files like apple stuff so you can just view it as a file when USB'd to your computer...wow, what a concept! It's a file and remains one on the phone!
I think Apple and Sony just have this undeserved "mystique" about them, but when you look at all the proprietary poo you have to use just to listen to music (or use their notebooks, for that matter), I just don't get why people stand for it.
Give me a dumpy Windows computer and a Nokia anyday.
Syncing:
Its called "ease of use". People want to press a button and have files sync'd automatically. Its great.
Its great that I can plug in my iPod into my Mac and have all my songs, photos, address book, calendar all sync'ed to my iPod with very little effort. That goes for my E70 tooo - for Calendar and AddressBook. I don't want to be bothered with details, it takes up too much time - too much hassle. I like the 'ease of use'.
I don't want to have to find my music, photos files on my Mac and then copy them to the correct locations on my phone. I want it done fore me.
I certinly don't want to have to enter addressbook and calendar entries multiple times - once for OSX, once for E70 etc.
Computers are supposed to make live easier ( and OSX, really does in comparison to Windows ) - and not make life harder.
Forgot one thing, will this slick little baby have swappable batteries? Doesn't look like it...uh...it's a phone! What do you do when it runs out of batteries when you aren't next to a charger, just go "Oh well!" and put it away???
I bought first generation ipod the day it was available on the on-line store and a colleague, who didn't have a pc of any sort at home and used to just shut his pc off at the wall at work beause he could never get it to shut down, picked it up the first day it was charged and had music on it and was wowed by it and really got it with no instruction.
When a very computer literate colleague played with my E61 he decided to get one and although he thinks it great we both agreed that settings etc are very obscure, shortcuts are odd etc. "how the hell do you do .... " "I trawled the web blogs last night and they suggested this ..."
I hope for an ipod experience with the iphone not an E61! (although I do like my E61 and syncing contacts and calendar works great with Mac )
Bill
When apple mentioned in their key note that yahoo will provide free push email to the iPhone. This made me think of my brother who I convinced to buy an n73. I tempted him to buy it because it had a good camera. I’m sure he wouldn’t be interested in a smartphone in it’s own right but he has surprised me. He uses push email, skype and surfs the
Internet on it all the time! And the reason for this is not because he was secretly a geek or that he loved delving deep into menus but because he got his phone from Three as part of their X series package which offers a bundle of smartphone apps pre-installed on the phone plus a big enough data package to use them.
If lay users are going to adopt smart features they need them handed on a plate and tightly integrated into the whole package. Here Nokia may have an advantage as a number of operators have already stated that they are working on integrating network features with S60
The 2nd thing that the Apple keynote made me think about was that iTunes is Apples real killer app. The reason the iPod became so ubiquitous is in fact because iTunes was so good. With a minimum of fuss a user could insert a CD and sync it over to their iPod correctly titled and ready to play.
When I copy music to my N80 it doesn’t even get the titles of the artist and the albums. The reason for this appears to be that the song has no ID3 tag. My ipod has no such problem because iTunes figures out the album titles and artists from the directories that they are in and then sends the file over to the ipod correctly tagged.
Far too many people own S60 devices but never link them to a computer. I doubt very much that we’ll find many iPhone users who didn’t connect their device to a computer as soon as they get them (if only to get music on them). Once it’s connected to your computer and syncing information that’s when a smartphone can really become smart.
My iPod syncs with outlook but to be honest it’s the last place I would think of looking if I needed a phone number!
Nokia’s efforts on the desktop are not all bad but maybe they should consider making the focus of their desktop offering a slick application that is about getting media on and off the phone.
So, Mr. Cabbage�s n80 doesn�t transfer names or titles of mp3 files? I never realized cause I "Lime" mp3�s off the net. Interesting.
Anyway, as someone mentioned earlier the "biggest" setback of iphone will be the 2 megapix camera. Most phones will be 5 by 2008! And video recording won�t be up to snuff either.
My problem�s that I�ve got greasy fingers. It�d be awful for me to wipe and wipe before and during video clips. I�d feel "unclean".
Nokia has thought ahead. N-series have good cameras / video features available now (N95 soon). And I like a "stand alone" phone, especially mc with backup on it. HHD phones still give me the creeps. Maybe they�re bullet-proof but I feel saver swapping mc�s.
Sometimes I sync, and sometimes drag n drop. My hp laptop�s got bt and cable so I�m really prepared. It�s just I don�t carry it everywhere.
That�s why I got a smartphone in the first place 🙄
Cheers and Happy This Year!
bills2north
Stewart01 Nails it:
Comment: Syncing:
Its called "ease of use". People want to press a button and have files sync'd automatically. Its great....
Now, I am no fan of iTunes, particularly as it LOVES to break-up CDs by keeping some cuts with the CD while putting others into the collection of compilations - again - more work that I haven't time for....OSX - hell, iAnything - is no panacea folks nor is Window$.
That said, Symbian need to cut a deal with some of the music management software boys to allow automatic sync. And, of course, Cingular needs to unlock this darned E62 so the LCG Jukebox will work and I have a wider choice of file formats to play on my phone.
Someone - in this or another forum - mentioned that it is all about the experience. If the iPhone provides a better and more media-integrated user experience it will be a success as a media phone. A very big success. NOK and Sony should be worried.
cabbageshop wrote:When apple mentioned in their key note that yahoo will provide free push email to the iPhone. This made me think of my brother who I convinced to buy an n73. I tempted him to buy it because it had a good camera. I’m sure he wouldn’t be interested in a smartphone in it’s own right but he has surprised me. He uses push email, skype and surfs the
Internet on it all the time! And the reason for this is not because he was secretly a geek or that he loved delving deep into menus but because he got his phone from Three as part of their X series package which offers a bundle of smartphone apps pre-installed on the phone plus a big enough data package to use them.If lay users are going to adopt smart features they need them handed on a plate and tightly integrated into the whole package. Here Nokia may have an advantage as a number of operators have already stated that they are working on integrating network features with S60
The 2nd thing that the Apple keynote made me think about was that iTunes is Apples real killer app. The reason the iPod became so ubiquitous is in fact because iTunes was so good. With a minimum of fuss a user could insert a CD and sync it over to their iPod correctly titled and ready to play.
When I copy music to my N80 it doesn’t even get the titles of the artist and the albums. The reason for this appears to be that the song has no ID3 tag. My ipod has no such problem because iTunes figures out the album titles and artists from the directories that they are in and then sends the file over to the ipod correctly tagged.
Far too many people own S60 devices but never link them to a computer. I doubt very much that we’ll find many iPhone users who didn’t connect their device to a computer as soon as they get them (if only to get music on them). Once it’s connected to your computer and syncing information that’s when a smartphone can really become smart.
My iPod syncs with outlook but to be honest it’s the last place I would think of looking if I needed a phone number!Nokia’s efforts on the desktop are not all bad but maybe they should consider making the focus of their desktop offering a slick application that is about getting media on and off the phone.
You can use windows media player for music sync. N80 has Media player mode in the newer firmware 😊
I can see why Apple are locking the phone as well as it seems like its really a media phone. S60 has alot of streaming apps and also p2p apps so you can download shared music and media. Thats always been a problem with windows etc.
Well, we can speculate from now until June about what it will and won't be able to do and who has a better phone out already.
One fact remains - the iPhone has had more coverage in the mainstream media in the last 3 days than all of Nokias, Sony Ericssons and Microsofts various smartphones over the last 5 years combined. When was the last time the BBC 10 o'clock news reported a new Series 60 launch? When was the last time The Independant carried a double page article about the latest and greatest UIQ phone?
Steve Jobs is a master showman and he has earned his money. The trademark dispute with Cisco is another touch of genius... what a great way to get free press for the next 6-12 months! Many members of the non-geek public in the market for a PDA phone/ Smartphone/Media phone are likely to postpone their next phone purchase until June, just in case it really is good...