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iphone — why the hype? April 1, 2008

Posted by Burhan in : Mobile , trackback

Unless you have been living under a rock; you have probably heard of — if not bought and used — the iphone.  Bloggers have been singing its praises, and people have been stealing them, hacking them, using them, and some have also been complaining. Loudly. I’m one of those complainers, read on to find out why.

There is no doubt that the iphone revolutionized the cellphone industry. It brought to the forefront a different way of thinking about and using mobile phones. For that reason I am praising the iphone — for its innovation. That’s however — where it stops, because as a phone, it really doesn’t compare to others in its price range.

Different people have different ways of using their phones. Some only use the keypad and the send/end keys. Others are complete tech junkies and use every feature available. I’m more in the middle ground, and the items that I have enumerated below are from my experience of using the iphone and from using other phones in the similar $600 price range.

  1. No 3G Support

    This is important in so many ways. 3G support means that the phone is able to access higher speed broadband Internet services without being chained to a WiFi hotspot. Technologies like UMTS and HSDPA allow access as fast as 5 MB/sec on comparable devices. There are many cellphones that provide HSDPA support. For a device that has such a generous screen and probably the best mobile browser, this was a giant misstep on the part of Apple. However, rumors abound of a 3G capable iphone that is to be released near summer 2008.

  2. No tactile feedback

    Tactile (from tactition meaning sense of pressure) feedback is very important in a device that is to be used primarily from touch; and not from external controls — for example, a car’s steering wheel needs minimal tactile feedback since the usage of the device (the wheel, and by extension the car) doesn’t require us to “feel”. However one a phone — the keys and spacing between the keys, including the guide marks on the 5 key are important as a roadmap for our fingers to know where we are on the phone. This makes it easy for the phone to be used single handedly and in situations where the phone is not in line of sight.

    The iphone’s primary user interface is the very smooth glass screen which you cannot “feel” your way around. As another side effect of this lack of feedback, to use the phone effectively you have to divert your attention directly to the device by looking at the screen and making your sure are hitting the right button; most of the time due to the size of the device, you have to hold it in one hand and use it with the other (as demonstrated by Steve Jobs in the keynote where he introduced the device).

  3. Locked into iTunes

    The iphone (like the ipod) is most effectively used by mating it with iTunes. For the ipod, I can understand this as it is mainly a media player; but for a phone that it to be used by people from all technological backgrounds and alliances this is not practical. If I am running Linux, or I just prefer not to use iTunes, I cannot utilize the iphone correctly. Some would say the answer is to “jailbreak” the phone; but this is against the normal use pattern. Besides, most other phones in that price range are not tied into a specific application.

  4. Email Client

    The email client on the iphone is severely lacking when compared to other smart phones in the same price category. Features that are missing/incomplete:

    1. No Unified Inbox
    2. No Direct Push
    3. Cannot filter messages (for example, view all unread messages)
    4. No ‘mark as read’ in a context menu. Must open the message to mark it as read

    There are other issues with the mail client as well; however its sufficient to say that the mail client on the iphone doesn’t compare to other phones in the same price range.

  5. Messaging

    The messaging support on the iphone also lacks some very basic features that are standard on even low end devices. Examples include: multiple recipients for messages (I believe a software updated added this feature), no MMS support, cannot click on a links in messages to open them in Safari.

  6. Camera

    For a phone with such a great screen, the camera is very disappointing. A $600 phone should have a multi-mega pixel camera with video capture. The iphone doesn’t capture video, only stills.

There are other features that are missing or incomplete on the iphone (no Flash support in Safari for example) but to say that the iphone is a revolution or somehow a ’smart’ phone is misguided at best and fanboism at worst.

Yes, the iphone brings some unique features to cellphones that have never been seen before; but as a phone it is incomplete. Incidentally, all the features of the iphone that are revolutionary are the same features that make the ipod touch such a great media player.

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