Peter Ceresole

Sarah Brown <sarahlizzy@ntlworld.no_uce_please.com> wrote:

> Agreed, and the iPhone should up the game. My own view is that what
> Apple have done, however, is brought out a good intuitive interface
> with a phone, rather than the other way round, so there's a choice -
> decent phone, clunky interface, or decent interface, feature-poor
> phone.

For most phone users, the interface is the only thing that really
counts. The bells and whistles are secondary. I say 'most users', but of
course there are some for whom the bells and whistles really count. They
won't get an iPhone. More important right now is the price. I reckon
Apple wre going to have to learn more about the market, but I'm sure
they will.

And who knows, maybe they're right? In which case they clean up.
Otherwise, they learn.
--
Peter

Sarah Brown

In article <1i8av8k.1dzzkhdav16l9N%peter@cara.demon.co.uk>,
Peter Ceresole <peter@cara.demon.co.uk> wrote:
>Sarah Brown <sarahlizzy@ntlworld.no_uce_please.com> wrote:
>
>> Agreed, and the iPhone should up the game. My own view is that what
>> Apple have done, however, is brought out a good intuitive interface
>> with a phone, rather than the other way round, so there's a choice -
>> decent phone, clunky interface, or decent interface, feature-poor
>> phone.
>
>For most phone users, the interface is the only thing that really
>counts.

The enduring popularity of Nokia phones (just got my first - still
occasionally swearing at the interface) and Windows machines does
rather suggest otherwise...

> The bells and whistles are secondary. I say 'most users', but of
>course there are some for whom the bells and whistles really count.

For a large segment of the market (thinking of teenagers), things like
video recording and picture message support probably count as basic
features rather than bells and whistles.

>Apple wre going to have to learn more about the market, but I'm sure
>they will.

I guess they're hobbled a bit by US-centric thinking, which is a bit
pathological when it comes to mobile phones. I'm less optimistic about
the certainty of them learning the right lessons that you seem to be,
but time will tell. I hope they do learn lessons, or failing that,
everyone else learns lessons about UI stuff from it. I'd *love* to
have a phone that works like my iPod Touch does, but the iPhone fails
on several basic requirements in my case (no modem facility is the
real killer).

Matthew Long

>
> For most phone users, the interface is the only thing that really
> counts. The bells and whistles are secondary. I say 'most users', but of
> course there are some for whom the bells and whistles really count. They
> won't get an iPhone. More important right now is the price. I reckon
> Apple wre going to have to learn more about the market, but I'm sure
> they will.

MMS included in 'Bells & Whistles' ??? These are *basic* features that
nearly all phones (even bottom of the range) have.
Also, how many times do you see people meeting in the street, with something
they'd like to share on their phone. -
"Hang on, switch you're bluetooth on, and I'll send it to you.... Oh,
sorry..... I can't. I have an iPhone......."

I cannot *believe* such BASIC features are not on the iPhone......

Dave Higton

In message <gci025-8de.ln1@narcissus.dyndns.org>
Sarah Brown <sarahlizzy@ntlworld.no_uce_please.com> wrote:

> In article <Lhe3j.120293$bj2.46895@fe08.news.easynews.com>,
> MichaelJP <mjp@nospam.com> wrote:
> >
> > And there was a massive gap in the market for someone to bring out a
> > phone with a good intuitive interface.
>
> Agreed, and the iPhone should up the game. My own view is that what
> Apple have done, however, is brought out a good intuitive interface
> with a phone, rather than the other way round, so there's a choice -
> decent phone, clunky interface, or decent interface, feature-poor
> phone.

So, how good is the iPhone's UI for texting?

Dave

Andy Fraser

Dave Higton <davehigton@dsl.pipex.com> wrote:

[snip]
> So, how good is the iPhone's UI for texting?

I think it's excellent. I've now got used to the virtual keyboard and
the autocomplete feature and can send a text way faster than on any
phone I've owned. Only phones with real qwerty keyboards are faster for
me. The conversations appearing as they do in iChat is good too for the
way I use text messaging.

--
Andy.

Andy Fraser

Matthew Long <no_sp@m.net> wrote:

[snip]
> MMS included in 'Bells & Whistles' ??? These are *basic* features that
> nearly all phones (even bottom of the range) have.
> Also, how many times do you see people meeting in the street, with something
> they'd like to share on their phone. -
> "Hang on, switch you're bluetooth on, and I'll send it to you.... Oh,
> sorry..... I can't. I have an iPhone......."
>
> I cannot *believe* such BASIC features are not on the iPhone......

They may be considered basic features but they aren't features I use so
their exclusion is irrelevant to me.

--
Andy.

Mike Edwards

In article
> > > And there was a massive gap in the market for someone to bring out a
> > > phone with a good intuitive interface.
> >
> > Agreed, and the iPhone should up the game. My own view is that what
> > Apple have done, however, is brought out a good intuitive interface
> > with a phone, rather than the other way round, so there's a choice -
> > decent phone, clunky interface, or decent interface, feature-poor
> > phone.
>
> So, how good is the iPhone's UI for texting?
>
> Dave

I think the predictive texting is far and away the best I have ever used
on a phone. You can be very imprecise and type almost every letter wrong
on some words and it still works out what you were trying to say.

The supposed back to back tests of the keyboard compared to other phones
in the US recently were crap as they just had the users entering random
letters and not proper words. Had it been real sentences then the iPhone
would have won easily.

Peter Ceresole

Andy Fraser <andyfraser31@hotmail.com> wrote:

> Matthew Long <no_sp@m.net> wrote:

> > I cannot *believe* such BASIC features are not on the iPhone......
>
> They may be considered basic features but they aren't features I use so
> their exclusion is irrelevant to me.

I suspect more users are like Andy than are like Matthew. Whereas
*everybody* uses the whizzy UI.
--
Peter

Ben Shimmin

Peter Ceresole <peter@cara.demon.co.uk>:
> Andy Fraser <andyfraser31@hotmail.com> wrote:
>> Matthew Long <no_sp@m.net> wrote:
>> > I cannot *believe* such BASIC features are not on the iPhone......
>>
>> They may be considered basic features but they aren't features I use so
>> their exclusion is irrelevant to me.
>
> I suspect more users are like Andy than are like Matthew. Whereas
> *everybody* uses the whizzy UI.

I agree. The UI is the best and most important thing about the iPhone.

I have used Bluetooth all of once to receive a file from another mobile.
I think this sort of thing is quite common amongst teenagers (it was, in
fact, a teenager who sent me the file by Bluetooth).

b.

--
<bas@bas.me.uk> <URL:http://bas.me.uk/>
`Nam et Hannibalis apud Romanos iam ante Sangunti excidium celeberrimum
nomen erat, et Scipionem Hannibal eo ipso quod adversus se dux potissimum
lectus esset praestantem virum credebat.' -- Titus Livius, _Ab Urbe Condita_

Stimpy

On Thu, 29 Nov 2007 12:58:35 +0000, Ben Shimmin wrote
>
>> I suspect more users are like Andy than are like Matthew. Whereas
>> *everybody* uses the whizzy UI.
>
> I agree. The UI is the best and most important thing about the iPhone.
>
> I have used Bluetooth all of once to receive a file from another mobile.

I couldn't have a phone without Bluetooth - mine is used continually for the
following purposes:

- Connecting to Mac to notify of incoming calls/managing texts (using BPE)
- Connecting to car kit
- Auto-syncing calendar and contacts with Exchange server