"For two reasons, I've been a sceptic of the touch screen renaissance:
- The first was apathy because I'd been there, done that with the Psion Series 5 and two Palm PDA's. As you'll know, these were primarily stylus driven interfaces, even though the Psion touch interface had more of a finger-friendly 'chunky' UI approach which is still evident in S60 5th Edition, and I'll return to this later. Of course, the idea of writing on, and controlling, an electronic device with something like a pen felt very futuristic. It was worth using just for the buzz that only a sci-fi loving nerd can know. However, time wore on, and the age of the PDA came to an end. It didn't take long to realise that Palm's stylus driven interface was no faster, either for text input or general use, than a D-pad driven smartphone interface. This all led me to the conclusion that touch screens had turned out to be a novelty, and were by no means any more useful than old fashioned buttons.
- My second reason was that I don't like trends; I believe that if something is at the point of setting a trend, then it's already time to find something new. So, you can imagine my reaction when I saw every mobile phone company on the planet seemingly lose their identity, in what I can only describe as mass hysteria; all because Apple made a new product. In short, I wanted no part of what I saw as 'en masse' folly."