The story so far... Ewan's got himself a Nokia N95 and, while at Global Messaging 2007, heard the N95 denounced for having the grand total of 18 physical keys or buttons. After all, if the iPhone's only going to need one.... It turns out that Ewan thinks the aforementioned buttons are actually quite useful...
Read on in the full article.
iPhone fans criticising the N95 for having more buttons is like a moped owner criticisng a car for having more wheels. There is no right amount of buttons, there's just tasks that you personally consider important and buttons may or may not be the best way to get those tasks done.
It's a serious mistake to categorise all phones and smartphones into one bundle just because they all use telephony. No one would categorise desktops, laptops and servers together just because they're all PCs, because they're built for different purposes.
There is no perfect phone, whatever you do is a trade-off, and no one who enters a lot of text should even consider getting an iPhone. Not everyone does enter much text of course, particularly in less SMS-oriented America where text messaging was scuppered for so long by deliberately non-compatible networks. This could be one of the main reasons why far more Americans than Europeans are keen on the iPhone, because the two markets use phones significantly differently.
I do not see why having more buttons is a problem, as long as they all perform clearly defined, useful functions. After all, your PC keyboard has in excess of 102 buttons.
PS: And yes, some of them are useless
PPS: Yes, I mean those goddamn "Windows" buttons
If I was a more violent man, and if I had been there, I would have probably provided some haptic (I have no idea what that word really means) feedback on the commentators nose.. ;-D
I think the biggest mistake Jobbs made was to call iPhone smart (btw, I think he actually did not call it a smartphone, just a phone that is smart). This one little mistake got all of us riled up, as it clearly is not what we have come to known as a smartphone. 😊
Perhaps in the end the consensus will emerge around something like that iPhone does provide pretty nifty and innovative and even intuitive UI solutions for consuming data/content, but that it fall short for people who want to actively input and manage such data. And that it gave a nice little jolt to UI developers everywhere...
Am I missing something? I make it 29 buttons on my N95. And I actually wish there was another one for rotating the screen too.
It's 18 keys when closed
up down left right select
power rock-up rock-down gallery camera
call hang-up pencil clear apps
media left-soft right-soft
And another 12 inside (0-9 * and #) for a total of 30
Krisse: You cannot possibly call a server a 'PC'. The very idea of a server is that it's a 'C' which is not 'P' :tongue:
Windows key is an essential key on a PC keybord. Using windows without it is a big pain. (I'm looking at you IBM laptop creators)
I agree with 18 on the outside, but I'm not agreeing on total, if any of this matters.
I count 30 with the slide open and 34 counting the media keys.
And who said T9 is slow? I can spit out a text or an email twice as fast on T9 than any other method, and it'll be much more accurate as well. The iPhone will be clumsy, the folding keyboard (ala E70) requires two hands, the BB-style keyboard is too small, handwriting recognition requires two hands (especially slow), and the butterfly keyboard found on the BB Pearl or some of SE smartphones is slow too.
The only potential contender would be a full QWERTY keyboard attachment. Using the SU-8W is almost as fast as T9, but still not as accurate.
All the buttons on N95 are well placed and useful. If they are 18, 30, what�s the problem? Is a very user friendly phone.
Heh. This brought back an argument I had with a friend a while back, concerning buttons and interfaces, both on computers and mobile phones.
What about if you want to call 999? On most phones, its simple, just press hang up once or twice, and then press the 9 key thrice, and the operator will be asking what service you require. Even without a sim. Or 112, if you're outside the UK.
Another point: Tablet PCs have a little ctrl-alt-del button specially for when things go wrong. Even microsoft recognise the need for at least 1 button on a touch screen interface.
And last but certainly not least: what about the blind?
Apple products are actually used in Inclusive Design classes as an example of non-inclusive products. Little audible feedback and no tactile feedback from the "click wheel". Easiest to use products, eh? Not if your eyesight is sub-optimal or you find it difficult to control your hands. Both the deaf and the blind were some of the earliest users of mobile phones, because they are much more inclusive than landlines. We need more buttons, not less! The simple phone that vodaphone give to non-tech-savvy customers have a lock switch. Oh how I wish my phone had one of those! And one for silent, too, so I could just switch it in my pocket, without having to pull it out, long press the hash key and re-lock it.
Remember: One mouse button doesn't simplify the user experience, it just forces you to use two hands. And the average person has less than two hands...
Tom