iPhone - truely Revolutionary?
Am I the only one who isn’t so “wowed” by Apple’s Multi-Touch? I saw it, gestures and all, a long while ago when Jeff Han showed the public some of his team’s research Here and also presented a demo of it at the Technology Entertainment Design 2006 seminar . This demo showed off an “intuitive, ‘interface-free’, touch-driven computer screen which can be manipulated intuitively with the fingertips, and responds to varying levels of pressure”. (The demo can be found on their site Here) So did Apple work with him 2 years ago? Or is Jeff working for them? Or did they buy rights off him? Either way, the technology itself is only revolutionary because… its the first time its actually been applied to an actual product. A field implementation of it, so to speak.
Furthermore, there will come a time where we have to stop, and start asking ourselves, what is it we actually want. Remember the confused handheld - NGage. Somewhere along the way the NGage forgot whether it was a phone or a gaming handheld, and the result was a unsavable mongrel baby which didn’t function well as a phone, and did equally bad as a gaming device. Talk about recessive genes.
My main concern here is that iPod users won’t want to buy the iPhone to play music. Your average phone user just wants a phone that calls. Eliminate that from your “market” and you are left with the people who “wants it all”. People who want to eliminate that extra bulge from their belt. People like tech-savvy business executives who move around alot.
So now we have “a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device” - the iPhone. (take the hype away, and what you have is a smart phone that has iPod Video on it.) Where exactly is the “Revolution”? The Multi-Touch?
The Multi-Touch is Apple’s answer Styluses (Stylii?) and miniscule QWERTY Keyboards accessible only to hobbitses, men with long sharp fingernails, or the Spaghetti God with his noodly appendages. Putting whatever I talked about above aside, just HOW revolutionary is it? Its still an over-glorified UI device, with or without the necessity for a Stylus.
- Unlocking the phone
- Selecting tracks in iTunes
- Scrolling, and working with the Cover Flow
- Typing an SMS
- Navigation
What do those have in common? They all require ONLY a single gesture. A single slide, swipe, or movement. Innovative? Yes. Revolutionary? Hardly. The only action that uses Multi-Touch gestures? Zooming.
Not only that, but (for now, hopefully) there will be no 3rd party application support. Everything on the iPhone will come from Apple, and Apple only. Not even Flash support in Safari! That means no Nintendo-esque creativity from the community will come out with an innovative use for the Multi-Touch (or even, a Revolutionary use). If anything, though, I could see Apple coming out with a their own GameBoy - the iBoy (yes folks, if you see it in 2008, I said it here first)
Everything else about the iPhone, already been done.
- Videos
- Pictures
- Mp3
- Browsing the Web
Its nothing new. So hardly revolutionary. But the biggest part that really appeals to me is how everything works together seamlessly. Not only is it a fluid experience for the user, it is absolutely intuitive. Apple has created something that has set the bar pretty high. But its not without its flaws.
- The low battery life will certainly throw some people off. Who? Those who want an iPod.
- So will the slightly high price. People who want an iPod will get an iPod, but something tells me they’re targeting a different market entirely.
- Poor camera. This can be easily fixed, no doubt. (Carl Zeiss lens, delicious)
- The Voicemail system requires Networks to provide a totally dedicated “iPhone” service. This means, in 2007, the only network that supports the iPhone is Cingular. They cannot launch this in another country unless they remove this feature, or they partner with a network who is willing to invest in a completely separate infrastructure.
So all over the Keynote Address, Jobs threw out alot of hype, and alot of “revolutionary” ideas. Scoble calls it the Reality Distortion Field and I’m inclined to agree, since none of them are actually truely revolutionary. The tri-sensors are interesting, but they’re not essential. Innovative and Cool I’ll give them that. But in the end the iPhone is simply an evolution of existing ideas, put together into an intuitive package, providing a simple, easy-to-use interface for the user. And THAT’S what’s truely revolutionary.
Tags: Rants
January 14th, 2007 at 12:16 pm
I agree. It’s pretty badass. It kind of reminds me of the LCARS interface that was used on Star Trek: TNG, DS9 and Voyager. A functioning multi-touch interface is a huge leap forward. I’m honestly surprised that it’s not getting more buzz.
January 14th, 2007 at 12:20 pm
Hmm, maybe I should have read that more carefully, yes? Ok, you’re not wowed by it. I am. Different strokes, right?
January 14th, 2007 at 3:36 pm
I am wowed by the idea… but the fact that I’ve seen it before elsewhere has blunted my enthusiasm when I saw it on the iPhone. And also, the fact that they didn’t do much to take advantage of the interface (besides the zooming). It becomes a mere Gimmick, which the Nintendo Wii risked becoming if they didn’t find awesome, applicable functions for the Wii Remote.
Of course, 6 months is a long time. We’ll hopefully hear more. And, for me, I have to wait 2 years. So Americans are our beta-testers, so to speak.
January 17th, 2007 at 9:01 am
I am impressed. It is much more advanced than most phones out there. Most phones are crap compared to it. I am impressed because they have made practical use of technology, whether new or not. Its like there are lots of people who do flash experiments, but when someone actually uses those experimental concepts in a game, then they deserve a round of applause.
I honestly can say I dont want an iPhone for the iPod functionality though. I have an iPod, and I certainly dont want to drain my phones battery listening to music and then not be able to take an important call. I would like them to have an iPhone without the mp3 functionality as an alternative. * gigs is crap anyway. The extra cost to have that space and functionality is what would keep me from buying it.
As a phone though, I would love it. I would throw mine out in a minute to have an iPhone. Voicemail, text messaging, contacts, calls…all that would be so much easier. It may not be what everyone wants but I think they deserve a pat on the back for actually applying this technology. Its something Motorola and Nokia should have already done.
January 17th, 2007 at 2:12 pm
Hey jacob! Thanks for the comment. =)