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76 Comments
- OneManArmy, on 11/04/2009, -8/+51This article misses the point by a mile. As long as the others are trying to make "an iPhone killer" or mimic it they will never be successful. Want to make something decent, start fresh, start with something new. Apple did that and look where they are now. The company had never done a phone appliance before and now all the big players are trying to play catch up.
If you want to make it big, innovate. Not follow. - MacParrot, on 11/04/2009, -0/+16You keep saying that homer. That's what everyone said about the iPod too and yet none were able to make a significant difference in the iPod's overall market-share. The iPod wasn't all that as far as the hardware goes or what it's capabilities were and yet in all the years it's been available no one has yet been able to dethrone it. Answer the question why and you could write your own ticket at any number of companies.
HINT: It ISN'T because Apple has a legion of faithful followers as most iPods were not purchased by Mac users. But if that helps you keep your mindset and get through the day... - TheNik, on 11/04/2009, -0/+16Oh I completely agree! The market was almost _too_ saturated with phones that featured a multitouch capacitive display!
- MacParrot, on 11/04/2009, -0/+10Nope, it wasn't just marketing. Apple DOES market well but if that's all it was based on, the Mac would have a much larger market-share and everyone would have one of those god-awful iPod stereo units that Jobs claimed was better than Bose (though how hard is that these days?). Market-share isn't about marketing if all you have is a crap product. You don't have to like the iPhone but if you can be honest you'd know it isn't crap.
The success of the iPod and iPhone isn't about marketing. Try again - GelfTheElf, on 11/04/2009, -0/+9I realized something one day... well read someone else's post on here one day and it made me realize something about Apple vs Everyone else and it's all about the mentality of the consumer.
With computers... people who want a 2 giga this, and a 4 mega that.. are going to get a PC... (comparing specs does not make sense so we can all stop doing it now)... people who want a Mac get a mac.
Same thing with the phones... people ARE NOT thinking, "I want a touch screen phone, let me compare them"
People want an iPhone or they don't.
So making an "iPhone killler" or "like iPhone but better" or "like iPhone but cheaper" are NOT going to sway over people who want iPhones.
They just want an iPhone. - JQP123, on 11/04/2009, -2/+114. Platform Consistency and Compatibility
The iPhone offers a good user interface --- but it also offers something more --- a consistent, well *designed* (i.e. not grown) platform for developers to build upon.
iPhone competitors suffer from some of the same issues as Linux on the desktop. It is more than skin deep. - adamclif, on 11/04/2009, -1/+9I'm sure you mean "engineers". Manufacturers just read instructions, hit buttons, and pull levers.
- MacParrot, on 11/04/2009, -3/+10I have to disagree. There are a lot of good choices now coming out with Android and the Pre and various others that do seem to get it. That hardware specs and shiny colors aren't going to win the day. It will come down to useability and how the average consumer can use the features present on the phone.
More work is now going into the UI and that's what will seperate the good from the bad. Smartphones used to be mostly limited to the business market and typically the people buying them didn't care if the phone was almost unusable if the maker claimed it supported certain features that they found desirable in a phone. Now it's breaking out into the consumer space in a big way and that mode of sales doesn't work on the average person. Having a vast feature set is useless if the person that buys it can't figure out how to use it.
Apple was the first to see this in the cell phone market and hopefully won't be the last as competition brings out the best with all these companies. - ProjectGSX, on 11/04/2009, -3/+9Very accurate article. These are the details other device manufacturers are missing out on.
- SpiderTeets, on 11/04/2009, -3/+9not exactly.
what is wrong with android or webOS?
nothing, in fact they are both better than the iphone os - SpiderTeets, on 11/04/2009, -1/+6lol, you dont build a killer - x device. you have to create something that is going to be leaps and bounds better than anything on the market.
all these manufacterers are using the cheapest parts that barely exceed todays standards and they are building for immediate return. they need to start building a platform device that has great hardware (and software, but that is easier to get via android or webOS).
The general public wants something that is easy on the eyes, works smoothly and is easy to navigate, they dont care who makes it or what software is being run.
+manufacturers dont need to worry so much about the software as they do hardware, they need a device that has standard ports (for accessories/cables etc) and build a device that will perform as a platform for later models, apple can do this easier because they control all aspects of their device however i think android is catching up and with the help of good hardware can overcome apple. - Lightstab, on 11/04/2009, -4/+9I noticed the thing about flow and responsiveness the first time I got an iPod Touch. The transitions between app screens were so smooth, it didn't even feel like software. It was almost like the apps were free floating little chicklets in under glass.
- puma, on 11/04/2009, -1/+6the writer is spot on.. i dont care that a phone has double the horsepower of the iphone.. cause in the end when you press something it STILL ***** LAGS!!!!!!!!! iphone doesnt.
- diggbigwig, on 11/04/2009, -1/+5I don't get the 'dethrone' part. iPhone has about 1/2 the market share that Blackberry has and Blackberry has about 1/2 the market share of Nokia. Doesn't that make Nokia the one to 'dethrone'?
- jbmcb, on 11/04/2009, -0/+4The coolest design I've seen for a phone was a prototype from Japan that was just a medium sized keypad and a two-line LCD display. That's it. The microphone was embedded in the zero of the keypad, and the speaker was behind the display somehow. The whole thing was very small, but the keypad and LCD were larger than most current stick phones, because that's all that was on the phone. No joysticks, no secondary displays, no cameras, just an incredibly easy to use phone.
That's all I want in a phone - small and straightforward. Make the battery live forever, make it get fantastic reception - I don't care much for anything else. For everything else I'll use a netbook. - krisrm, on 11/04/2009, -3/+7No, it doesn't miss the point: the others *are* doing something different... they're focusing on superior hardware, more efficient user interfaces, more open application stores... obviously not all of these apply to every competitor, but they're pushing the envelope and inevitably failing because what people *see* is a slightly stuttery phone with a few inconsistent colours that's "really cool, but it just isn't an iPhone".
- knobbysideup, on 11/04/2009, -0/+3WebOS rocks. So easy to make the phone do things you need it to. For example, automatically switching to 'roam only' when it is connected to a specific wifi ssid. All without the need to jailbreak anything. Palm gives you unfettered access to the linux stuff without having to jump through any hoops.
- amorrise, on 11/04/2009, -0/+3I want someone to make a phone that incorporates both the laser projection keyboard and the pico projector. That way my phone can be my laptop.
In the mean time, don't make a slower phone with a worse operating system and expect to be king of the smart phones. - milkmage, on 11/04/2009, -0/+3where do you get that assumption. all it says is that competition to date has not mastered the 3 areas listed in the article (which are good guidelines for any UI mobile device or not).
it goes on to say "To me, it all boils down to just 3 things. If any phone manufacturer gets these 3 things right, they’ll beat the iPhone at its own game" - ironhide, on 11/05/2009, -0/+3I have to disagree, Homercles. You might have an argument for the iPhone, but no phone manufacturer had (or still has) a comprable App Store.
When the first iPod came out (2002) it's competitors were ugly blocks.
I refer you to the Archos line at the time. - Zelannii, on 11/04/2009, -0/+3Wrong, wrong, wrong.
It's not so simple.
First, you can't "match" it to dethrone it, you have to surpass it, and by no slim margin either.
1) You also are going to need a massive developer community, and open software platform, with a central and simple distribution system natively integrated into the desktop sync software (make it easy!). A large volume (over 1,000) apps priced under $5 with about half of them free should be available concurent with your launch.
2) You'll need to buy in from top app iPhone app developers to start writing on your platform as they only have so much dev time to play around with. To do this means coming up with an amazing SDK that either leverages much of their existing code base (potentially from other platforms, not just the iPhone), or make development so easy that they're willing to trow a few devs off the 10million stong iPhone user base onto a deviuce without one. Noone will buy a device without a thriving community, and no devs are easily going to leave a thriving one either to make a new one. This is a HUGE issue any new phone is going to have to solve. Part of the iPhone's massive base is the fact that the SDK is so friggin good and easy to write code for...
3) LONG term future vision. Noone is going to write cool stuff for a device that is a single new phone, it need to be a whole PLATFORM of devices, with significant potential for longevity and continued improvement.
4) hard core additional features. You;re going to have to blow it off the mark. Massive storage, much better camera with macro lense and video capability, full HD recording, docking support to ourput full HD video to TVs, a great PC sync experience (and equally so for the mac platform and linux), FM broadcast built in, multitasking, GPS, hard core game graphics (better than PSP), and come with a slew of accessory options, and still for only $200 or less with a contract. Another nice feature: Displayport out. Let it hookj right up to a TV or monitor directly, and have a wireless keyboard option, so it basically becomes a complete portable web surfing and multimedia system, and can also polay its games on larger screens, THAT I'd jump on...
5) REAL hype, not just commercials. Get some celebrities using it before release, get a whole bunch of devs with non-disclosure agreements making hundreds of apps pre-release, make it so they never see it coming and are awed by its arrival.
6) make it HIGH QUALITY. It should feel solid in the hand, operate smooth, do everything but do it simply, and look good doing it. - dpcdomino, on 11/04/2009, -2/+5I get amused over the iTards and the "people only buy it because it has a half eaten apple on it.
I only starting singing the praises of the iPhone after I bought it and used it for a while. I did not pump it up because it was an Apple product.
Funny thing is, is that there are so many people praising and pumping up the Droid and it has not even been released yet.
Who is the blind homer here?
PS...nothing against the Droid. It should be a good "geek" phone. Just not sure how it would appeal to the general public. - ChunkerMunker, on 11/04/2009, -2/+5Of course this is all under the assumption that Apple will just keep the iPhone as it is and never update it in any way.
I mean.... they won't improve on it by adding new features, better specs, or *gasp* perhaps some day revolutionize the phone market again.
Nawwwww - MonkeyFit, on 11/05/2009, -0/+3To be honest I think the reason the iPhone is so big is because Apple basically made a smart-phone for the masses. Blackberries and most of the other phones were marketed towards business users and most normal users never saw the point in getting one. Apple comes along and markets both the iPhone and iPod Touch, ties them into iTunes to ride the marketing wave of the already incredibly successful iPod, and suddenly everyday users begin realizing how useful a smart-phone can be. Most of these smart-phones coming out are simply evolutions of older smart-phones, made for the everyday user. The only thing I saw Apple innovate with the iPhone was the multitouch interface. And even then it was only innovative to put it on a phone. The idea and tech had been out long before the iPhone released.
- TheNik, on 11/04/2009, -0/+2@knobbysideup:
I love webOS, too, but there are a FEW small hoops to jump through before you can do all of that neat stuff... You have to enable developer mode and at least install Preware and its package manager. Two small hoops. :P - Squidly, on 11/04/2009, -0/+2Good luck trying to "dethrone" the iPhone without first bettering the functionality of the iTunes store.
- mrBitch, on 11/05/2009, -0/+2@ homercles, RE: " .. Apple markets. They market mediocre products with a false, deceptive claims but there are options. Im a bang for buck kind of guy--Apple is the opposite of this philosophy."
You know, this is exactly what I used to believe about Apple, until I actually started using their hardware.
I told people "don't get an iPod, get a sansa PMP, it has way more features for the price".
A few years ago, I bought a MacBook Pro (because the hardware specs were better than anything else on the market at the time).
I thought I would spend 90% of my time in Windows, and the other 10% playing around in the "toy" OS that Apple calls OS X.
It's now over two years later, and the only reason I have not deleted my windows partition is because I still like to play a bit of TF2 every now and then.
I found that every comparable application in OS X far exceeded their counterparts in Windows.
OS X is a better OS, and the software that is available on OS X is far superior to their Windows counterparts.
After a few years of using Apple hardware, I can definitely say that my opinions have reversed :
Apple is the technology company, and Microsoft is the marketing company. - tublo, on 11/04/2009, -1/+3http://rorr.im/digg.com/apple/3_important_factors_ ...
- psychoace, on 11/04/2009, -0/+2So does Android. It's the same OS across the board. It's not like Linux where there are many distributions. It's one os with the same standards. If the app works on one android device it's going to work on every other one as well. So think instead of your app only being on 1 phone it can be on many different phones.
- rmxz, on 11/04/2009, -1/+3I want a phone to be small - like the start-trek lapel communicator things - or, better, something that gets merged into a bluetooth headset.
That way I could more easily justify carrying a netbook.
The PDA-form-factor phones are just too big to be a great phone, and just too small to be a good internet device. - MrSkills, on 11/04/2009, -0/+2That's market share... but what about profit share? Apple only sell high-margin phones.
- MrSkills, on 11/04/2009, -0/+2 You still don't get it, do you? He'll find her! That's what he does! It's *all* he does!
- MrSkills, on 11/04/2009, -1/+3There's nothing "pathetic" about it. Apple put a lot of effort into making technology that feels more 'natural' and less 'technical'. For a lot of people, that makes so much difference to their enjoyment of a product that it's the difference between actually using its features or not bothering.
- milkmage, on 11/04/2009, -0/+2yup. the people working hardest on the iPhone 3GS killer are
APPLE. - MacParrot, on 11/04/2009, -1/+3Ahm looking for Joanne Schieble. Do you know where she is?
- GelfTheElf, on 11/04/2009, -0/+2I agree with this 100%
I've done some iPhone as well as Blackberry development.
Apple's XCode (and tools) make it very easy to make a sexy iPhone app that looks like other iPhone apps.
The blackberry dev tools are an antiquated mess that make it difficult to create an ugly app. - Dunnion, on 11/04/2009, -0/+2It looks like other phone companies are closing in on the "flow" aspect. Those HTC phones are looking pretty slick with android and Winmo.
Being a big time gadget nerd, I've always been looking for the next cool thing, and once I got the original iphone I've only been looking forward to the next iphone, and I don't see that changing anytime soon. - mike23w, on 11/04/2009, -0/+2Here's my 4.
1. User Interface. Simple to use, but powerful.
2. Make it pretty.
3. Make it fast.
4. Make it affordable - jbmcb, on 11/04/2009, -0/+2It was an old page from six-seven years ago, all the phones were prototypes from Japan, I don't think any of them were made.
- negative1ne, on 11/04/2009, -0/+2any links or idea about what this was called?
sounds very interesting! - cmcagle, on 11/04/2009, -0/+2Can't read the article due to digg effect, but if a manufacturer (or engineer, w/e) wants to make an iPhone killer, they should stop signing exclusivity contracts with service providers. I'd love to have an iPhone; I don't want to deal with AT&T. Obviously, there are a host of other considerations (usability, price, aesthetics, ability to run third-party apps, etc), but if you want to maximize your market share, you can start by not artificially limiting your market.
- deslock, on 11/04/2009, -0/+1iphone has the same issues to deal with differing apps now too.
Games that run on only the 3GS, video and compass only on 3GS, eventually they will get a better screen resolution...
Get used to it. Upgrades are inevitable. I've coded for both iphone and android and both support doing an OS version check. - JQP123, on 11/05/2009, -0/+1"I've coded for both iphone and android and both support doing an OS version check."
Minor differences are unavoidable on any platform. The potential problem here is if developers find that they also need to check for hardware version and manufacturer. - RANDOM667, on 11/05/2009, -0/+1Put an ir port on the thing so it can be used as a universal remote!
- deslock, on 11/04/2009, -0/+1This is the first comment on this subject I heartily agree with.
I've shown off my HTC Sense UI on android to several iphone users, including newly "converted" iphone users. They look sad when I show them the integration of social apps, widgets and other cool stuff but really they aren't interested that much.
I usually feel bad and try to pump them up about the iphone they bought and all is good.
Some people like to tinker and customize (android)... others not so much (iphone). Like you say, some people want and iphone and others don't. - mrBitch, on 11/06/2009, -0/+1@ jakem1, RE: " .. Apple, in the meantime, is left with an iPhone that looks tired and dated and is still playing catch-up when it comes to basic features like multitasking."
You DO know that the iPhone does multi-task don't you? The only limitation so far is that Apple will not allow 3rd party apps to multi-task.
You're really not much into knowing anything about the products you make comments on are you?
This is generally when someone may tend to lean towards you being slightly retarded... - psychoace, on 11/04/2009, -0/+1I kinda agree with you there but the problem I see lies with upgrades. Right now any phone running SenseUI from HTC is running off of Android 1.5. I haven't heard any issues with current apps having compatibility problems but I do know that an unreleased Goolgle Maps ( http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=5 ... ) wont work with Hero right now. So who knows how long HTC will take to upgrade but that is a problem HTC needs to fix badly if it does come down to compatibility problems.
- k3vinmartian, on 11/05/2009, -0/+1Previously I want to say you’re making ***** up.
- Altotus, on 11/04/2009, -0/+1iPhone has momentum. The only way to steal the momentum is to make is notably better and that starts with "at least as good".
I think that if someone made something that was essentially an iPhone knock-off with the following innovations, it would outsell the iPhone:
Make the phone not only transportable across providers but without a mechanism to lock it to a carrier (if it's at least as good as the iPhone, they'd probably go for it); Make it work without the need of a particular application or OS to tether it to a computer; Make it operate in some way like external storage (e.g., you can plug it into anything and put images on it / take them off like a USB hard disk); Make it trivial to install applications from a web-site directly from the phone, and provide a store that's nothing more than a phonebook / database. - MacParrot, on 11/05/2009, -1/+2Mr Bitch,
You won't get an honest opinion from someone like homer. In his mind nothing Apple makes is worth anything. So he repeats his "marketing" mantra over and over again so he doesn't forget it (and he calls me a parrot!).
He is correct in one thing. Apple rarely enters a market that doesn't already exist, they just make their entry into that market more compelling and typically (though not always) easier to use than their competitiors. They make hard tech easy to use for the masses and geeks that are still in love with the command line can't stand it. -
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