An unusual, refreshing and well argumented view on the way technology really affects people. Thanks. It's true that we geeks (or "technology enthousiasts" as you say) tend to live in a different world. But my mother is always there to remind me of what world "normal" people are living in and i'm gradually taking this in...

I think the article makes some excellent points, and certainly provides an interesting perspective on the developing technology of today.

However, the really insightful stuff comes at the end, with the discussion of recent technological developments such as the wind-up radio and the Wii. Disruptive technologies indeed!

An excellent Article, when I started reading it I had no idea it would be so informative (and therefore so long!), Krisse, go and have a lie down :)

I dont think including the OLPC machine is at all controversial. I have been following this project with interest from when it was first announced, and its a perfect example of a technology revolution.

Sure, the project team have had to innovate in some situations (mainly to do with power generation and usage, as well as a screen that can use bright sunlight to its advantage instead of it being a hindrance). But mostly its tried and tested tech that 'just works' and is cheap.

The revolution is about who will get to use these machines, and what they will be able to learn, create and just do with them, activities that without this project they'd never get the opportunity to do.

And that would be because our 'developed' world, bleeding edge, bell and whistles tech is just not practical, not feasible, and lets face it, not relevant to most of the people in the world, exactly Krisse' point.

A round of applause for krisse for a very well written article. some very good points written in there and i think i have an answer for the 1 question left unanswered. The 50$ smartphone. If you've heard of the Mobile phone operator named 'Reliance', this is the company that truly revolutionized the Indian Mobile phone market by literally putting a mobile phone in every hand. (well, most of hands). by providing a cellphone on an initial payment of Rs. 501/- and a 3 year contract. An Dollar is equalvalent to 45 Indian Rupees, so it means a cellphone for $11.11.

No fancy cellphones, just Black n' White Samsung n620 and a similar LG phone.
a simple CDMA network but it did spark a revolution in cellphone industry, making it what it is today.

The real smartphone revolution everybody expects to happen but nobody talks about is not the iPhone itself. It is the wave of cheap iPhone clones that will rise up once the iPhone is released. Just as iPod has caused radical changes in portable media player design, iPhone will raise the UI standard for everybody, including Sony Ericsson and Nokia. I can't say anything about Sony, but it is probably not a secret that the current Nokia S60's design and performance are horrible. It takes up to 10 seconds just to open a folder!

Another superb article, well done Krisse. You are definately an incredible addition to AAS. This article has raised many great points as well as giving me a new and profound view of the way technological progress works.
However I was a bit confused as to who your statements were focused at and what your final message was. I mean I totally agree that the N95 isn't revolutionary as you stated yet I would still like to buy one if I can afford it and I'm glad Nokia is working hard to add "innovations" like gps and 5mp camera's for technophiles like me. After all isn't it cutting edge markets like the Nseries which make eventuall revolutions possible. Obviously they're way too expensive now to cause a real global change, but as you said so was the tin can once upon a time. So I don't think we can accuse manufacturers of making overly expensive smartphones If all they're doing is supplying to our demand. And I don't think we're in the wrong for wanting high profile devices If we can afford them. We all look forward to the time when your "last smartphone" appears but surely this will happen naturally in the unforseen future. I can't actually see this happening quicker any other way.
So maybe I just didn't understand the article but were you calling for any kind of change, or simply for those damn Apple fans to shut up about revolutions?

>>it is probably not a secret that the current Nokia S60's design and performance are horrible. It takes up to 10 seconds just to open a folder!

Er.... eh? If a folder takes 10s to open in a S60 device then something's horribly wrong with your device - please contact me separately or (better) ask in the forums. App folders take less than a second to open the first time I try on my N93 and are instantaneous thereafter.

As I said in my own editorial, the iPhone's interface will hopefully bring about a wave of sanity and simplicity to the Symbian licensees, but come on, S60 isn't *that* broken.

Steve

Let the market decide what is revolutionary. When analogue mobile technology and GSM started they were expensive, and 15 years later they are still not cheap but most people in the Western world have mobile phones. Phones plus line rental is not cheap. Like a drug, some technologies will never get cheaper :)

you know, i get similar complaints from people who use an s60 for the very first time, i always suggest them to read through s60 forums so they could LEARN how to use a series 60 phone. Even in your case, i think you must've installed a lot of memory resident programs (like 2 antiviruses, maybe, lol) which is causing ur phone to be slow.
SMARTphones are only for SMART people i guess. Nokia's been taking steps to make s60 phones more noob friendly (like red button closes the app now instead of minimizing it) may be they should also work on a detailed user manual which covers common s60 tweaks and tools to make the s60 experience a little more noob friendly.

Steve, Hardeep;

About the delay in opening folders; obviously you haven't used an N91. It takes anywhere between 2 to 5 seconds to open a folder.

On the N73, 6681, N80; it is not instantaneous as you say but not as bad as 10 seconds too.

To open the images/videos gallery on an N91 takes between 1 to 3 minutes with only around 60 items in there.

I've been using S60s since the 7650 so I am kind of a power user?

Boom

How are the black n white Samsungs and LGs smartphones?

Reliance started with Rs 25,000/- which included a fixed 3 year contract. When it seemed like it wasn't doing as great as expected they dropped the entry price to Rs 501.

It's the matter of another article how Reliance fudged the rules and bought off high ranking officials to become a full fledged cellular operator from a WLL operator.

Boom

Nothing is wrong with my device. There are no resident programs. There is >12 icons in the folder though, and it takes an *awful* lot of time to render those from .SVG files on such a slow device. S60 does cache icons (it takes less time to open the same folder for the second time), but the cache size appears to be very small.

If you have any concrete ideas on what can be tweaked to make things faster, I would appreciate them. So far, things do not appear to be fixable though.

luarvique, akboom: Hmm.... I'm guessing that the N91 is different because of the large mechanical hard disk, and that it's this slowing things down. I've used numerous S60 3rd Edition devices now and I've never noticed folder display speed to be a problem.

Steve

Great article Krisse! A thoroughly enjoyable and thought provoking read. The only point I thought I might raise is this;

One of the main reasons the CD player, DVD Player and tin can have become so completely ubiquitous is that they are each designed to perform one function and one function only. And that function they perform quite brilliantly (actually, DVD players can perform lots of functions but 99.99% of people ignore this and the remote's are really only designed with playing DVD Films in mind so I think my argument holds).

I'd also argue that it's the reason the iPod has been so succesful. It's primary function (playing music on the go) is performed brilliantly and the whole device is engineered around this one task. Granted, Apple have decided to add functionality in order to drive sales, but the whole device is still designed around that one primary function and most users will ignore the extra stuff because it doesn't get in the way.

PC's, Smartphones and media devices, on the other hand, are designed to carry out, literally, an infinite number of tasks. By providing open systems the only limit is our imaginations. This adds infinite levels of complexity, huge potential for hard/software failure and, unfortunately, the inevitable format wars which seem to cripple so much of modern technology.

Because the only limit to the potential for these devices is our imagination, I don't agree 100% with your idea of a "last smartphone", any more than I think there will be a "last PC" or a "Last automobile".

But I still think this was an outstanding article and I thank you very much for it.

I have an E70. It has no mechanical hard disk, just flash.

That was an OUTSTANDING article! Well researched, well though out, well written and an enjoyable read - rare, in these days, to get all 4.

Relative to the iPhone

1. It IS a revolution - I am no Apple-loving fanatic, I won't purchase an iPhone and am composing this on my trusty WinXP laptop.

The iPhone IS a REVOLUTION for one simple reason: Apple has locked the OS and interface from carrier meddling. THAT, my friends is the revolution. Apple controls the experience, not the carrier. Why do you all think that such broad inconsistencies in S60 performance are reported? We all know how to close all the apps, then still count to 10 or 11 waiting for a folder to open!

In the USA the carriers believed that the EXPERIENCE that a user had with their phone defined the relationship the customer had with the carrier. They were right. And, in corroboration with many comments here and elsewhere pointing out the broad inconsistency in S60 experience, I suspect that the the carriers almost always screw up the experience the manufacturer has tried to generate when they begin to customize the UI for their network (this may be far more an American phenomenon that a European one).

Further, I suspect that, with each new iteration of UI the manufacturers have worked to please the carriers because that moves units albeit while reducing end-user "customizability" and watering down, ultimately, that all-important end-user experience. I cannot believe that S60 got this far if the third edition is an example of it. I have used a Psion since 1992 and a P910 since 2004 and had fully integrated them into my life. My E62 is crap! Very SLOW crap that I cannot modify to meet my fairly straightforward preferences.

The iPhone changes that (at least in pre-launch hyperbole). Apple provides a great experience PERIOD. Plugging in my iPod to charge and sync new podcasts and photos each evening makes the music/news/ pictures part of my life easy enough that I carry 2 devices (iPod + phone) and don't complain too much about the substandard 62k colour screen or mediocre sound. Would I were to use my E62 for music, podcasts and photos the sound would be every bit as good and the pictures would look FAR better, but I would be spending more time than I have dragging and dropping through an interface that won't even show me all of my (very slowly opening) folders.

2. The iPhone is NOT a smart phone: you can't add apps!

It is a converged media device that will provide phone and music functions. It is not directed at the mobile professional whose spectacles have gotten ever thicker from working spreadsheets on an impossibly small screen. It is for music lovers, phone callers and video demons whose spectacles have gotten ever thicker from watching "24" or pR0n on an impossible small screen! That is a much broader audience.

As for my E62? With no P990"a" in sight for this side of the pond, the Dark Side (M$ via HTC) beckons ever more convincingly.

... "SMARTphones are only for SMART people i guess"

It's an honor to be in your presence, Hardeep. We are truly not worthy.

That was an enjoyable read. Thanks. I did think it was a bit hard on technology journalists though.

"Which of the following does more to revolutionise the airline industry: the cheap no-frills airline (no food, no drinks, just travel) or the latest first class cabins with fully flat beds and champagne on tap?"

Sure, I'll go with the cheap seat, no frills answer to that question. But let's ask another one:

Which of the following does more to revolutionise the airline industry: the cheap no-frills airline (no food, no drinks, just travel) or the invention of the aeroplane?

Which is more important, the invention and development of a technology, or the mass adoption of that technology? Tough call perhaps, but obviously invention and development (to a point where a technology is ready for mass adoption) are prerequisites for wide-spread use. I for one certainly hope technology journalists keep writing about the new stuff.

With respect to smartphones, I don't think they're there yet and I don't think that price is the only hurdle. They're complex, multifunctional devices with complex, convoluted interfaces that are often far from intuitive and frequently involve using abstruse options from obscure menus. Sure, they're mostly fine once you've learned how to use them, but the learning curve is steep and the learning experience is off-putting. If the iPhone has a role on the path to smartphone revolution then I suspect that this is where it will be. Apart from being very pretty, that UI really does look nice and simple doesn’t it?

Also, I don't think tinned food is fresh :)

>>They're complex, multifunctional devices with complex, convoluted interfaces that are often far from intuitive and frequently involve using abstruse options from obscure menus. Sure, they're mostly fine once you've learned how to use them, but the learning curve is steep and the learning experience is off-putting

I do see where you're coming from with this, honest I do. But I think you and others are exagerating quite a bit. My daughter has taught herself how to use S60 from the age of 5, my wife uses a S60 smartphone and the blessed things are selling at the rate of 35 million a year. So they must be doing something right.

I would LOVE to see all sorts of rough edges knocked off the S60 user experience (current pet hate - jumping from Connection manager to Settings | Connections manually) but it's not as bad as you lot are making out. Really it's not.

Steve

I for one think it is that bad, maybe worse. :tongue:

There seem to be a lot of focus on the user experience for people that are new to S60, but what about us 'power-users'?

Yes, there are sometimes a ridiculous amount of button presses to reach the simplest things in S60, but lets not forget about all the options missing in this so called 'complex and advanced' UI. The standby screen is a joke. The screen size/resolution is really poorly utilized - seeing only three messages in a row in most S60 v.3 phones is beyond ridiculous. How hard would it be to add a simple zoom function within each app. The alarm clock hasn't changed since the 7650 was released almost 5 years ago. Almost every single built-in application is so basic and severely lacking in options compared to other smartphones.

My previous smartphone, the 9300, (running Series 80 - which is now abandoned by Nokia) was really so much more advanced when it comes to UI navigation and the quality and number of options within each built-in app. Forgetting about new tech like 3G, Wi-Fi and an advanced internet browser, using my E61 is like going back 4-5 years in terms of (power)user experience.

Symbian Signed, Security for morons, hitting a link in an e-mail and the WAP browser is launched, 5 or more button presses just to adjust the backlight, an endless amount of joystick scrolling required when bringing up the Options menu, opening up the Messaging app and going to the inbox and then wanting to check Reports requires 7 joystick scrolls, opening up an SMS - starting to write a reply but then receiving another more important SMS or e-mail requires the already started reply to be saved to Drafts before continuing to write a reply to the more important message. In my 9300 I could keep as many SMS/MMS/e-mail replies I wanted open and ready at all times - TRUE multitasking. I could go on and on, but I suppose only two or three other people reading this really knows what I'm ranting on about...

I hated S60 the first time I got to use it (Nokia 7650) and I hate it now (Nokia E61). I am really excited about the rumored E90 Communicator though, but again, I absolutely loath the fact that it uses S60. Even though I expect Nokia to do some modifications to the inside UI and applications, I just know that it will be missing so many things Communicator fans have gotten used to.

The iPhone may not technically be called a "smartphone" because of the presumed inability to install native third party software, but IMO a S60 phone doesn't deserve that label either because of the abysmal user experience (and the Symbian Signed crap).

For once i agree, Symbian signed is pure crap, created only for people who knew nothing about s60 and have just bought it because it was the new Nokia available, completely ignoring the likes and preferences of an s60 fan, I know anti-virus companies would somewhat agree with my point too but that would purely be for some politically incorrect reasons.
I feel symbian signed ruins the s60v3 experience of a fan who knows how not to get viruses and when to tweak what in system folder to achieve the results they want, may be this is the only reason why i'm still continuing with N70 and not upgrading to a newer Symbian 9 phone.
But... S60 experience is still much better than the so called SMARTPHONES available in the market.
I made a huge mistake of buying Windows Smartphone as a second phone sometime back, it needs a pc with activesync to install even the smallest of apps. Come to think of it, I don't have a pc at home, i've been using s60 phones for 3 years and i never felt the need to buy one, whatever apps and games i download to play, whatever themes i use or music, i download, whatever posts i make in here and many other forums, i do it all through a gprs connection and my trusty N70. Not just that i even maintain one of my good friend's website using Yftp on N70, to surprise you even more, my friend created the website using an ngage. And after that when i see people making comments like s60 is not a real smartphone, it makes me wonder, have they even used an s60 to the best of its abilities?

Hardeep Singh

>>I feel symbian signed ruins the s60v3 experience of a fan who knows how not to get viruses and when to tweak what in system folder to achieve the results they want

While I applaud your obvious expertise(!), you (and I) represent the top 0.01% of the smartphone market. And your comments are galling considering that krisse's article was all about smartphones somehow becoming ubiquitous and used by everybody. 'Tweaking in the system folders' is surely a no-no for the the man in the street.

And please, guys, less of the name calling and talk of Symbian Signed and platform security being c**p, we've done editorials before on the pros and cons, but it'll end up being the saviour of Symbian OS as the smartphone gets more and more common and a target of malware.

Steve

krisse: Nice article!

bassey: Good points, I was about to write something similar. :)

The thing that annoyed me a bit was how revolution was defined to mean one and only one thing. A word doesn't have a meaning if isolated, its meaning is derived from the context. When Steve Jobs uses it about an Apple product, it's obviously marketing talk, and means "go buy this thing". Jobs' revolution might not be your revolution.

I may have exaggerated a bit :) and some OSs/UIs are worse than others in this respect (Palm is the best and WM the worst IMHO) and with any UI some tasks are easier than others.

When I first got an S60 device (an E61) a few months ago I wanted to change the aspects of screen saver. Firstly, I wanted to change the time out period. That's five or six levels down:

Menu>Tools>Settings>Phone>Display>Power saver time-out

(It's those six levels on my device now but may have been 'only' five levels by default and I put 'Settings' in 'Tools' when I tidied up the Menu screen - I'll come to that in a minute).

I also wanted to see if I could change what the screen saver displays. I found it eventually, it's in a completely different place:

Menu>Tools>Profiles>Select profile>Edit>Power saver

(Not that there was an option I wanted to change to until I installed Handy Weather).

(I also wanted the keys to lock when the screen saver activated. I eventually realised you couldn't without a third party app - I now use AutoLock - highly recommended).

Don't get me wrong, I think on balance S60v3 is great. I love the stability (no crashes in the four months I've had the E61). I love that (unlike Palm OS) it supports multitasking and UMTS and that I now have UMTS and Wifi in such a sleek device. I think the suite of bundled apps is really pretty good (I've needed many fewer third party apps than I had on the Treo 650) - the browser is stunning. I also like the active standby screen a lot.

There are definitely some things I'd like to see change though, mostly they're to do with the UI. Here are few of the more do-able ones that affect the main device UI:

1) One of the first things any new S60 user will do when they get a device is push the Menu button. First impressions count and that screen is a real mess: a mass of application, settings and folder icons in no apparent order. One of the first things I did was make some new folders and tidy up the menu page. I now have the original folders plus four more arranged alphabetically. It's much easier to use than what Nokia ships. First change: tidy up the menu screen by putting everything in a folder. Better still, ditch the folders and replace each one with a tab (think Launcher X on Palm OS).

2) I've also arranged all the icons inside the each folder alphabetically. A bit of a pain to do but much easier to find things. Second change: automatic alphabetising of Menu screen folders (or tabs) and their contents (or at least make this an option).

3) On the active standby screen there are seven icons and the two buttons under the screen to launch apps. Plus you can get to your main mail box, the calendar app and the to-do app from this screen. That's twelve apps and it's great. I'd hazard that twelve apps would cover 90 plus percent of app launches for 90 plus percent of users. Third change: pushing the menu button once should take you to the active standby screen; pushing it twice should take you to the Menu screen (or at least make this an option).

4) There's back-up functionality but it's hidden in a menu in the 'Memory' app. On my Mac, on a Palm or WM device back-up is done via a dedicated app with it's own icon to launch it. Fourth change: don't hide things like this away in unexpected places.

5) The 'Settings' screen doesn't respect the grid view option which means only five things are visible rather than 12 (on an E61). Also, see my example about the screen saver above. Fifth change: Re-do the settings interface, grouping things together logically, allowing grid view and trying to reduce the depth to which things are buried. Palm 'Preferences' is a good example of how to get this right.