Well the long awaited iPhone 3G announcement has come and gone and the July 11th availability date will be here in just a few weeks. The pundits have analyzed its capabilities, shortcomings and torn apart the new AT&T iPhone data plan. We’ve seen the experts critique the newest iPhone on a feature by feature basis and lament the exclusion of feature X or the shortcomings of feature Y. I’m here to tell you that just like the original iPhone these shortcomings don’t matter in the overall scheme of things.
Companies that make smartphones better be shaking in their boots right now as the iPhone 3G is going to continue to change the game and in fact change it faster than the original iPhone did. Geeks can rightly point out that there are many smartphones on the market today that do more things than the iPhone and do some things better than the iPhone but I’m here to tell you that it just doesn’t matter. Apple realizes that the very small phone savvy (read geek) market segment is so small it doesn’t matter. Apple has rightly determined that the target market of the iPhone, and it hasn’t changed with the 3G model, is the mainstream consumer market that doesn’t even know what a smartphone is.
If you’re like me you’ve seen this in action. Aunt Sue comes in with her new iPhone that she picked up after she saw her friend’s and it’s "just so easy to use". This is the same Aunt Sue that hated using her regular cell phone because it was "too hard" so all she ever did with it was make phone calls. She always manually dialed them too because the address book feature was just too hard to learn. As you listen to her talk about her new iPhone and watch her show it off you realize that she already has learned how to use the iPhone address book and much more. She brags that she is amazed that she can get and send photos of her family members with email, even though she’s so intimidated with computers that she’s never used one. Which means she’s never, ever used email before. She does now on her little iPhone because it practically set itself up when she fired up the iPhone. She talks about how she now exchanges text messages with her nieces and nephews regularly because it doesn’t matter if "they answer the phone or not".
I have seen this scenario many times and it doesn’t vary much each time. This is where Apple has excelled with the simple touch interface and making the core smartphone functions of the iPhone work so easily. It doesn’t matter if we geeks find the iPhone’s functions lacking because we are not Apple’s target market. Aunt Sue is. You smartphone makers sure better understand that and think about that long and hard.
I have more than once seen iPhone users who have never been on the Internet because it’s beyond their understanding who are now happily surfing their local newspaper online, or checking out the big news on the web. I have seen these folks tell someone looking for some information that "they’ll just Google it" which is amazing given they didn’t even know what Google was a few months ago. In this regard the iPhone has been life changing for these folks which is not something that other products have done or even come close to before. The sparkle in the eyes of these people as they recount their first encounter with this technology because of the iPhone is priceless. Invariably they admit that the reason it worked for them is because they were not intimidated by the iPhone like they are with technology in general because of how simple it was to use right out of the box.
So you other smartphone makers better smell the Applesauce and get things a lot easier to use. Not for the geeks but for the Aunt Sues out there. There are many, many more Aunt Sues than there are geeks and as the iPhone 3G is launched all over the world there will be millions and millions of Aunt Sues who will be able to get their hands on one. So you’d better get that super easy to use smartphone out pretty soon and get the word out to the Aunt Sues out there or you may end up sucking wind.
why is it when i started reading this article i immediately knew who was writing it? only to skip down to the bottom & have my suspicions confirmed.
This is absolutely true of course. The biggest thing about the iPhone isn’t the iPhone itself, it is the swift sharp kick in the gonads it gave all the other phone manufacturers out there. All the Symbians and Windows Mobiles with their butt ugly, slow and hard to use interfaces that we had to accept because there was no option became old tech in one fell swoop. The 3G isn’t really any different to the original in that respect, and the game changed with the release of the first model.
Of course we’re seeing the manufacturers of those old OS:es now desperately trying to retrofit a smooth working interface onto those platforms and so far failing pretty bad, which is not surprising considering how much time and effort Apple spent on their rather revolutionary approach and the lead they still have. Coming up with something with the usability of the iPhone without simply copying it is no joke.
That’s where technology as a whole has to go, to further ease of use. Frankly, I’m well above average at administration, maintenance and usage of quite a few computing devices and there are times even I have to stop and do some figuring when doing some arcane settings in Windows and some such. That’s ok for servers and such for instance but for a home use machine it’s asinine.
That “made by tech nerds for tech nerds” attitude pervades the computers themselves. I mean, we’re expanding them by opening them up and actually inserting naked circuit boards with connectors on them and installing drivers separately, assuming we can find them. That’s mildly passable for server but for home use? There has to be a way to hide all the useless complexity and get a “games console like” ease of use without sacrificing too much configurability.
Maybe Apple will come up with that too.
James, as usual an insightful article. And brutally on the mark as well.
What do you think about the HTC models that have the FLO interface in comparison? Does it come close? Or is it better than the WM usual fare, but still off the mark?
What do you think about the Android phones we should soon be seeing? Will they match the iPhone, or will they fall short?
Inquiring minds want to know!
:)
Woadan
I believe this is where I show my age… when you say “Aunt Sue”, I can’t help but tack on a “Great” in front of that “Aunt”. Or think of Grandma Mable. Or Grandpa Joe. Why does this matter? It’ll become apparent very, very soon.
I remember the days when you could get a $20/month cell phone plan. Sure, you’d barely get any minutes, but it was ideal for people who don’t make all that many phone calls. Then they got rid of that. Not too long ago, Cingular/AT&T cut out their $30 plan. Their cheapest monthly postpaid plan is now $40. Inflation, increased costs of doing business, financing infrastructure – whatever. If (Great) Aunt Sue use the phone any less, conventional wisdom is that she goes pre-paid. But wait! The iPhone 3G doesn’t do pre-paid, whether by minute or month! She’s forced into a TWO-year contract right off the bat. And the mandatory 3G data costs $30 a month. And that great text-messaging plan that lets her talk to her nieces and nephews even when they don’t pick up? It’s now another $5/mo at the minimum. So now, (Great) Aunt Sue has a monthly bill of $75. Before taxes and fees. When those are added in, it comes out to roughly $85, closing in on $90. Frightfully close to $100. And so we come to the question I’ve been inching towards since the start of this spiel.
How many more (Great) Aunt Sues do you know who are willing to fork over $85 each month for the wonderful, easy-to-use iPhone? How many will be willing to to overlook the not-inconsiderable bill to read their local newspapers online instead of in meatspace, to dial in phone numbers or look up numbers in their memo books? How many will swallow the hefty charges – especially during this recession, when they remember the recession of the seventies and eighties – to start Googling?
I bought the original iPhone my college senior year when it dropped to $400, unlocked it, and used it on T-Mobile (out of contract, which was 1 year) with their little-known $30 and $40/mo business plans as necessary – 300/600 minutes plus 100/500 text messages – and the $6 T-Zones data plan. After fees, $42-54. That wasn’t bad. Sold the phone in advance of WWDC and am puttering around with an HTC Wizard. AT&T’s iPhone plan was, if not great, at least somewhat palatable. But now? $85? No. Even with a decent salary, even though I’m a gadget freak, I can’t justify that cost for TWO contract enforced years, or be forced the pay an ETF if I break it.
So, I’m holding out for T-Mobile and their Android phone, hoping that they’ll remain sane with their pricing, keeping their $30 monthly plans, keeping the cost of their data plans down to differentiate from everybody else. And if they don’t? Then I guess I’ll have to be like those (Great) Aunt Sues who’ll say, “Thank you dearie, but I think I’ll manage with my regular phone.”
it’s easy to make a phone simple to use when you strip out nearly all of the “advanced” features, much like OSX itself. Apple hasnt revolutionized modern day OS’s, they simply hide most of it from the user & dont allow them to tweak it.
the Windows approach is a much more powerful complex strategy, but ultimately gives you much more control over your devices.
there is always a tradeoff to everything you do, i just think Apple receives far too much credit for essentially hiding the complexity. but this is also the reason their market penetration in the business world is so poor, the enterprise community demands the flexibility that Linux & Windows provide.
i understand James reasoning for this article, especially because of his age. but kids these days are being raised on tech, when they get older they wont be scared of using it.
although i think the iphone is very good, it still does not do the things i need.
in order of importance here they are:
exchange server- ok now
gps program wiht spoken instructions – no
sling media – no
bluetooth tethering to laptop- no
copy and past-no
entering phone nubers while on a call- no
It doesn’t really matter if a complex phone allows you to do complex things if it doesn’t do them well. I have struggled with a Windows Mobile phone for the last year and a half…it is a great device in theory, but it does so little WELL that it’s a pain in my side to use it every day. What good is a phone that is so fancy it doesn’t even make calls well?
I personally plan on switching to an iPhone when the new one comes out. I am sick of having a phone that can do everything but control the kitchen sink that has to be reset every few hours and can’t even make a quality phone connection.
What Apple has done, they’ve done it right. I’ve been raised on tech, and I’m not scared of using anything. I use all OS’es (Windows, OS X, Linux) on a regular basis. What I want is a solution that WORKS and works well. I think the iPhone is going to suit me just fine. There’s a smartphone user lost…and I’m no Aunt Sue.
There’s one thing that always strikes me about everything you read on the internet about the iPhone – it’s all written from an American perspective. Maybe the iPhone is a lot better than the competition in the US market which would explain why it’s done reasonably well over there. The rest of the world is a different matter though.
The latest iPhone may have done a bit to catch up with other phones in terms of hardware and the new pricing models are much more realistic (who the hell pays for a phone these days anyway) but Apple have a lot of catching up to do here in Europe. The first iPhone didn’t sell very well at all here in the UK. A couple of hundred thousand sales is probably similar to the number of generic Nokias that are sold each day.
I don’t generally here people complaining that mobile phones are difficult to use the way Americans do. The rest of the world also tends to use SMS a lot more than Americans do and a keypad is much easier to use for texting than a touch screen.
Anyway, we’ll soon find see if the second version does any better than the first but I wouldn’t be surprised if this remains a peculiarly American phenomenon.
Oh, one thing I forgot to mention. What’s the good of a 3G phone that can’t be tethered either wirelessly or with a cable? I wouldn’t even bother with a 3G phone if I couldn’t use it as a modem.
I still can’t get past the iPhone’s intrinsic shortcomings when it comes to eMail. My cellphone has different ring tones depending on the person. I need that same ability for eMail notification in order to be able to use the iPhone. More specifically, I need a ringtone for a specific type of work eMail, and I don’t want ringtones for any other kind.