The pull of Real Estate, Intensity and Interaction
Published by Steve Litchfield at 7:44 UTC, August 17th 2008
Steve tries to explain the lure of Apple's iPhone. How does the Symbian world compete?
So there I was, playing host to my sister. An utter normob, to use the current term. Her phone dates from 2004 or thereabouts and it was probably a budget model then. I thought she might be interested in seeing some of the current flagship and wanted to see her reaction. So I showed her my Apple iPhone iPod Touch and Nokia N95 8GB.
A day later, I did exactly the same to a fellow band member, whipping out both devices (appropriately, don't worry, I wasn't bible phone-bashing) and demonstrating them.
The reaction in each case was identical: tremendous enthusiasm for the 'iPhone' but significantly less for the N95 8GB, even though I helpfully explained (several times) that the Nokia could 'do more'. I've been trying to analyse the instant appeal of the iPhone and wondering what lessons the Symbian world can draw from it.
And, before you shout "Boring - we know all about Apple's user interface - usability, blah blah....", this article doesn't address usability or simplicity. UI factors only kick in once you start to use the devices for more than a few minutes - in the case of the two situations above, the user wasn't doing much more than holding the device - it was that crucial 'first impressions' scenario where viral enthusiasm is either generated or lost.
In the case of my Nokia N95 (or E90 or whatever I'm trialling or using at the time), the friend/relative generally gets bombarded by a catalogue of it can do this, it can do that - very impressive from their point of view, no doubt, in fact usually overwhelming, but I rarely see the light turn on in their brains that says 'I've got to have one of those'. Maybe it's that Nokia's Symbian phones do too much, maybe they are perceived to be too fiddly, maybe they just don't stand out enough physically?
It's been very interesting watching more positive first reactions to Apple's device. After much thought, I put this down to three factors:
- Display size
At 3.6", the Apple iPhone's display is almost 30% bigger than the very largest 'standard' S60 phones, the Nokia N95 8GB and the Samsung INNOV8. As I have often observed in the past, screen size increases aren't linear in terms of their impact. I.e. a 2.4" display is noticeably bigger than a 2.2" one, despite there (theoretically) only being a fraction of an inch between them. So the jump from 2.8" to 3.6" is enormous.
Apple have achieved this at the expense of making their iPhone/iPod Touch wider and longer (than the N95 8GB, for example), but people don't seem to mind the size because of the sheer impact of a large, easy to read screen. Far too many people end up squinting at tiny phone screens and the iPhone comes as a breath of fresh air in this respect.
- Display brightness
In addition to the sheer size, the brightness of Apple's backlit screen is something to behold. Normally I'd castigate the apparent readability of a touchscreen device because I knew that it would be utter rubbish outside, yet Apple's capacitive touch technology means that visibility in sunlight is just as good as on my N95, amazingly. Indoors, even with the Nokia's backlight cranked up to the max and with an artificially 'white' theme installed, there's still no comparison - the brightness of the iPhone/iPod Touch screen still blows it out of the water.
When looking to make an impact, the gloriously bright colours streaming out of the iPhone do the job well. I still remember the kick I got from seeing the Palm IIIc, back at the end of the last century(!), with its bright colours seeming AWESOME to a generation used to boring and dull, half-backlit monochrome displays. The Apple screen has a similar impact on today's mobile buyers, in my opinion. - Involvement
With a S60 phone, you 'drive' the device. Using the d-pad and other buttons, you navigate the UI and kick off various functions. To do wonderful things, often, and hopefully fairly efficiently, but there's still the idea of driving things along using buttons around the display, using pop-up menus and on-screen indicators to give you clues as to what to press next. It's a good system that works very well, especially when on the move and using a phone one-handed.
However, the finger-driven touchscreen on the iPhone moves up a whole dimension - by manipulating objects, icons and pages directly - tapping, dragging, pinching - there's a huge sense of involvement. Effectively, you're inside each application, controlling it from within rather than driving it from outside. As a phone 'power user' I can see that the button-driven system is often more efficient and flexible, but the average acquaintance is far more likely to have their mental switches flipped into 'Buy' mode by an attractive, responsive, involving, finger-driven interface.
Competing
Now, Nokia's sales remain very healthy, so there's clearly a lot of demand for 'phone-like' products. But I can't help thinking that winning the hearts, minds and eyes of normobs should be somewhere on the shopping list of Nokia, Samsung and other Symbian licensees.
Display sizes can be increased. Look at the jump from 2.6" to 2.8" in the N95/N95 8GB pair, without increasing the frontal area one iota. The Nokia 6650 I reviewed last week was immensely frustrating because of its screen size. In my mid-forties, I had to really stay still and concentrate in order to read text on its 2.2" display - and yet there was plenty of room the hardware for at least a 2.4" unit or even a 2.6" - which would have made a world of difference. The upcoming Nokia N96 and Samsung INNOV8 both have 2.8" QVGA screens - I know there are cost issues, but these should both have had 3" and VGA displays in order to create the same sort of impact that the iPhone makes.
Display brightness can be increased, surely. Nokia's deliberate crippling of maximum brightness in the Nokia N82 was rather telling, presumably to help battery life. A good motive, but if we're talking about making an impact then more and not less brightness is needed. Symbian phone displays need to shine.
The involvement factor is rather harder to replicate, although prettier icons and screen layouts can help. S60 touch-driven phones will arrive in time, although they'll need to use similarly innovative technologies to Apple if they're to have screens that stand up in terms of outdoor visibility. Can a Symbian partner pull this one off? I'm a little sceptical but prepared to be pleasantly surprised.
Steve Litchfield, All About Symbian, 18 August 2008
Categories: Hardware
Platforms: General, S60 3rd Edition
Feature Discussion
There seems to be a "can I safely put it in my back pocket?" mentality in some quarters which scares people away from most smart devices, which is why it's so important to create a diverse range of form factors.
Except that I'm errm, on here posting, but it's only to tell you all about it and it's gonna be the last time that I know.
iPhone schmiphone, get a life. Smartphone fartphone. Bye.
"As a phone 'power user' I can see that the button-driven system is often more efficient and flexible"
Unquote
A little elaboration on this would be helpful
I was with T-Mobile here in the US, and finally got tired of not having proper 3G. I was also beginning to travel to places where the coverage was rubbish.
So I switched to AT&T, and thought I'd give the iPhone a spin for 30 days while I wait for the E71 to drop a little more in price.
So far I'm not blown away. I do love that screen though. I don't 'hate' the "keyboard", but I'm certainly not enamored with it. I reckon it'll be a great phone for it's next owner.
My girlfriend on the other hand loves her "new" E51!! Says it's a night and day difference in usability from her previous Blackberry Perl. Getting the BIS working on it was a bit of a pain for her, but she figured it out all on her own, and she's not what I'd call a power user.
Intuitive I think she called the E51.
Elaboration was requested 8-)
By this, I meant (as I've mentioned numerous times in the past) that although the iPhone is super when you're stationary and have both hands free, a button-driven, one-handed interface is superior when you're on the move (walking, cycling, jogging, hanging from a tube strap etc) and/or only have one hand free (kid, briefcase or shopping on other, etc)
The 2" screen is FOUR times bigger.
This is why some may perceive 0.2" difference as nothing but in reality is quite a bit larger and does make a noticeable difference.
Best to view for every mm in screen size is not linear but exponential!
Mark
From my experience with showing people the iPhone, I would say that Apple (and the media) have been very good at communicating the additional features of the iPhone to the point where even Joe Public perceived it as something beyond the standard smartphone.
To me it looks pure marketing genius.
What steve (jobs and not litchfield!) has done. He has simply divided the market into 'us' and 'them'. The touchscreen vs the phonepad people. He has made sure the touch interface of apple remains the best in class. (we know touch diamond is a good phone but its nowhere near an iPhone when you feel both.
And the marketing has given this product more of an aspirational value than the usability.
Ofcourse, to normobs, having multiple apps thru s60 platform will be more of secondary factor.
The look and feel of iPhone plus the desire of common people to join a niche community will definitely make it more attractive.
Come on nokia, your phones have been 'generalized' in the marketing world!
Have you guys read this? HSBC intends to dump rim as its official phone for iPhone. They are supposedly going to order 200,000 iPhones to replace blackberries.
Stupid stupid decision if this is true. They should have ordered 50,000 innov8, 50,000 e90, 25,000 e71, 25,000 n 95 8 gig, 25,000 n82, 10,000 p1i, and 15000 e66. !!!! That would had made more sense for their employees and so much good for symbian!
As for getting all hyped up about some company swapping out RIM for the iPhone. So what? HSBC actually thinks that the iPhone is a biz phone. They will see that it isn't when they can not send biz cards, do OBEX transfers. Apple sound them on a bill of goods that will come up short. The same can be said of Nokia. Their phones are lacking or missing features that others deem important but it does not stop the show. Nokia sells their millions of phones, and Apple will do the same.
All this hand wringing over the iPhone vs. Symbian is really simplistic and in the end amounts to nothing.
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Originally Posted by Bassey
A keypad may be better for one-handed use whilst "on the go" but then, people who use mobile phones whilst walking along the street should be shot. Twice.
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Don't interprete "on the go" to walking on the street. There are multiple locations where you can complete short tasks like checking email (POP3/IMAP), reply to a text msg, check some RSS Feeds, etc. I actually do a lot of these on occasions like walking to my car in the parking lot in the office, waiting for the lift in my building, a restaurant lobby, etc. And on such occassions, having a easy-to-use one hander is really, really handy. Trust me.
A cousin of mine has a HTC with a slider keyboard. He always complains that he needs 2 hands to use the keyboard (though he is able to manage small tasks on the touch screen with one hand)
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Originally Posted by sapporobaby
All this hand wringing over the iPhone vs. Symbian is really simplistic and in the end amounts to nothing.
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Use what you like. Don't behave like kids and get into the mode of comparing toys and fighting on why mine is better than yours.
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Originally Posted by malerocks
I agree. I simply fail to understand why we keep arguing so much on which is better. Each phone has its own set of features and let people decide what features they are happy with. So for some people having loads of options on a phone is important, while some will be very happy having just 5-6 options. I know people who are very happy using phones like the Nokia 1110.
Use what you like. Don't behave like kids and get into the mode of comparing toys and fighting on why mine is better than yours. |
P.S. I will never go WinMobile no matter what though. :)
At the same time, the iPhone is large, heavy, requires two hands and there's no really useful implementation of multi-tasking (and in fact, apple's SDK prevents 3rd party apps from running in the background!) There's also no handwriting recognition (apparently apple has forgotten all about the Newton) so text entry is worse than using T9, and a virtual keyboard strips you of screen realestate when you write. So for everything outside of the display, the iPhone blows chunks. But that display is a winner, every single time ...
Hopefully, what the iPhone will do is force Nokia to increase screen size and screen resolution. There's no way a 240x320 screen can compete with a 480x320 screen. And also, hopefully, Nokia will keep the numeric keypad to allow one-handed operation, but at the same time include a touch interface to allow rapid selection of on-screen elements when you have two hands. That'd be my perfect phone.
The mobile phone industry has spent the last few years bringing us smaller lighter phones and I have bought into that. I wanted a smartphone but not the weight; so I settled for the Nokia 6220classic.
My ideal handset would be a smartphone that is ultra thin but with a large touch screen and under 100 grams.