After watching Matt Miller’s video of the HTC Touch.. wow what a waste of time producing this phone. Such crap. It’s like running Origami Experience and expecting the rest of Vista to have exactly the same interface.
Once you get passed the TouchFLO, you’ll be wondering where the keyboard is.

I’m extremely intrigued by the iphone as well. But one thing that really irks me about SJ’s hype of it is what Nikooo said above:

2) There is no “real” internet on WinMo devices. There should be one on the
iPhone.

What’s that supposed to mean? I consider the real internet more than just a browser that doesn’t reflow a page for the screensize. For me the real internet would be:
- ability to run more than just a web browser. Remote Desktop, VNC, FTP, etc are all parts of the ‘real’ internet.
- Web browser supporting all the standards used on most web pages today- flash, Ajax, etc. David Pogue said these would not be supported on the iPhone (at least Ajax for sure).
- speed to make accessing the internet an almost desktop like experience. I don’t think EDGE will cut it in that regard, so surely most will be using wifi for their data access as much as they can.

To me, SJ’s quote is overhype and inaccurate- it would be OK to try to say a more desktop like web browsing experience, but to say the first time for ‘real internet seems like the biggest overhype in years.

1) Crapular, I mean Cingular, I mean AT&T. Bad customer service. Enough said. There is a reason why Apple first approached Verizon.
2) EDGE. As an Internet device, running on EDGE is going to result in a poor browsing experience. So it relegates it to being an iPod with a phone.

I’ll hold off any other comparisons at this point since the device is not available yet. Basing opinions on this device and the user interface experience is very premature. I’m sure the only media people using this thing are Apple shills Pogue and Mossberg, and we already know what they will feel about the device.

HTC is a great manufacturer, but in terms of trying to compete with the Appleness of the iPhone, it simply won’t and can’t. And I think we need to wait for Proton to really get am interface that is new and interesting. WM6 certainly seems very nice, but it is still WM5 with improvements.

I am as much an Apple Fanboy as anybody. I even lead a special interest group on music for the Apple Corps of Dallas. My wife doubts that I will be able to withstand the temptation to own anything that Cupertino puts out (anybody interested in a used Newton?), I recently traded in my Cingular 8125 for a Samsung blackjack. Why? I am tired of having a phone that is too bulking to slip into a pocket for one. Another is that I absolutely hated using the touchscreen to dial phone numbers. I’m sure Apple’s touch screen technology will improve the user experience, but I’m going to enjoy my Blackjack for now.

I agree with you about Windows Mobile being the biggest potential flaw of the HTC Touch. I think HTC did the right thing by engineering a custom interface, which should do a lot of offset the shortcomings of WM, but it might not be enough.

I don’t agree that the iPhone will be limited to two-handed operation. It’s much easier to demo it using two hands, but I wouldn’t translate that to a real world limitation. The keypad is in the same position as on a regular phone. It looks like thumb swipes will operate the iPod aspect just fine. The task icons on the main menu are large and accessible. Obviously, some tasks, like text messaging and web surfing, will be easier with two hands, but generally it looks easy enough to operate by thumb. At the very least, it’ll be easier to operate with one hand than my Pocket PC, which I can do with minimal effort. Of course, I typically also operate my camera one-handed, so maybe it’s just me.

May I add three comments?

1) There a software included in the iPhone that basically proposes you words when you type in. You can thus use the phone (possibly) with one hand… and be not so precise with the typing :) This was discussed by David Pogue from the NY times.
2) There is no “real” internet on WinMo devices. There should be one on the iPhone.
3) There is this graphic interface for voicemail messages.

Now the HTC is indeed a very nice mobile phone. But what will differentiate these two devices will be the value of the software (Input, browser, ease of use, connectivity without problems, etc) and Apple are pretty good at that.

Both of these phones look interesting, but there is one solid dealbreaker on the iphone in my case. No corporate mail support. If (like me) you need to have easy mobile access to Outlook, I would find it hard to believe that people would carry an iphone AND a blackberry or other push mail capable device. I know that Apple is marketing the iphone as a consumer device, but in truth it really doesn’t have many consumer features that arent available in Windows Mobile 6. Sure, I bet they are more elegantly delivered, but not so much so that I will carry yet another device on the road with me. That makes the iphone a no go for users like myself IMHO.