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Geeks are not Apple's target with the iPhone

downloadsquad.com — Roy Singham argued that the iPhone is not the game changing device that most people claim it to be because his Nokia N95 smartphones can do more and better. The discussion was cut short due to scheduling pressure but it got me thinking, why do people lust after iPhone more than other smartphones?

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  • ronin691, on 10/11/2007, -9/+54"...The way I see it is that with most, if not all, reviews that I have read so far are written by technologists, geeks, or generally technically competent people. So naturally they focus on iPhone's feature list, ticking off each boxes as they go from one application to another. And not surprisingly, the feature list for iPhone is on par if not less than other smartphones on the market. Features for features, the Nokia N95 can easily beat the iPhone but is the N95 better mobile device than the iPhone? Feature table does not and cannot explain the intangible user experience that Apple has improved over all other smartphones." - Alex Hung ( author of the article )
    • Kyrgizion, on 10/11/2007, -16/+3Seems like the author knows it all, after all he is Hung! (sorry, couldn't resist).
    • tinygibbles, on 10/11/2007, -4/+158 gigs iphone memory is sub par? *****, if the N95's 2 gigs is par, what planet are we living on here?
      • pr5owner, on 10/11/2007, -6/+4no 8GB is on par, 8GB SDHC micros are out now, they are only $80USD you can have as many of them as you want. with the ***** you only get 8 MAX
        • takamalak, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Wow so not only can I have multiple 8GB cards the size of thumbnails, at 80 bucks a pop, but I have to bring a little carrying pouch to house them all and a cheat-sheet so I know what's on each of them? AWESOME!
        • pr5owner, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1you only need 1 to match the iphone's capacity, 4GB SDHC's are only $30-$40

          again matching the iphone's capacity with ONE CARD
      • elcaminos, on 10/11/2007, -5/+6In golf, sub par is good. Therefore, so is 8 gigs.
      • Aitese, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3The 8gig N95 will be released here in Europe before Christmas...just in time to compete with the iPhone
    • cleverboy, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I started a discussion on a similar bent, on the MacRumors forum. Results were interesting.

      "So... I ask you iPhone enthusiasts and non-iPhone enthusiasts... why hasn't this phone completely blown the iPhone out of the water, turning its media hype into a whirlwind of shame? Why isn't this phone just trampling the iPhone underfoot like a rampaging bull elephant? Is it just missing the "Apple" logo? Helo quite cleverly referred to the iPhone everywhere as the AT&T iPhone (although that's sure not to fool many).
      At the end of the day... what's the deal here?"
      http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=329599
  • superpixel, on 10/11/2007, -17/+43like most Apple products, this is a consumer electronics device. NOT a Geek Electronic device, or a Business Phone (Blackberry). It *is* a status symbol ;)

    ronin691-- glad you're doing your part to keep the diggbots from having to actually, you know RTFA.
    • ronin691, on 10/11/2007, -11/+6But I did RTFA. Copied and pasted the title and descriptive, verbatim, from actual blog post. Is there something misleading about how I entered it into Digg?
      • CountZero75, on 10/11/2007, -2/+8I think that was a joke. Meaning, most diggers here don't actually RTFA before digging up or down...
    • pyry, on 10/11/2007, -11/+11Yeah. Status symbol. I don't care what anyone says, but that's what it is.
    • kelly, on 10/11/2007, -6/+12status symbol is only an added benefit to using Apple products. It's never been the selling point for most users. If you tell yourself this... you following the Apple detractor's party line.
    • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1I don't know where people get the impression that somebody's blog is actually more interesting than a 3-4 line executive summary of it.
  • deadbaby, on 10/11/2007, -17/+52Some geeks appreciate good design and ease-of-use too.
    • Tenlow, on 10/11/2007, -12/+7Is that why they buy nokia phones?
    • KibibyteBrain, on 10/11/2007, -2/+6Well, Maddox really hit the nail on the head in mentioning that the wonderful UI integration and seamlessness of the iPhone may be a bit overrated, as it can not even cut and paste text, much the less objects! Once I heard that, I wrote the iPhone off my wishlist.
      Basically, for everything Apple did right, they totally hosed something else. I don't even think Apple was arrogant enough to think iPhone 1.0 was going to be the end all and be all of mobiles. But 2.0 is looking up, and hopefully can can fix glaring flaws like the keyboard and text streams.
      • infobhan, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2I love how you are basing your decision off of Maddox, rather than using the phone. Cut and paste isn't as big deal on a phone as you might think.
    • streak, on 10/11/2007, -3/+5I'm a geek and sure I own some nice Nokia phones, from eons ago. They weren't smartphones. I also owned a Nokia 6820 and returned it during the eval period, even though it ran ssh and vi, etc. The display was black-and-white and as tiny and difficult to read as the E70 being pushed by Maddox. See the PC World review of the E70 here:
      http://www.pcworld.com/article/id,128368-page,1-c,cellphones/article.html
      Be sure to read the next-to-last paragraph. Basically, the phone has a ton of features, but it's dog slow and cumbersome. Note that the Maddox video of the E70 was not real time, it was blown way up for legibility, and it doesn't show all of the fiddling with buttons necessary to operate the phone.

      I can't tell you how happy I am with the iPhone. I browse the Internet more than 10X more frequently than I did with my previous phones (Treo 650, 750, HTC 8525). HTML e-mail is formatted properly. The data plan is half the price I was paying before on AT&T. EDGE speed is adequate, especially when I know I'll be rewarded for my time with a properly rendered web page. Even 3G phones tend not to render pages very fast, presumably because they have slow processors. Not so the iPhone.
  • OneManArmy, on 10/11/2007, -8/+62The iPod till this day doesn't have a radio, yet it has captured around 70% of mp3 players market share. At the time, these self-claimed geektards were whining all over the internet about how the iPod lacked _basic_ features like an FM radio or a voice recorder. It seems like history is repeating itself all over again. Just like the first iPod, the iPhone is about How not What. Features that are not easy to use are not features. Nokia N* has much more features than the iPhone, big deal. How easy can a mortal (read: not a geek) use them....
    • kingfoot, on 10/11/2007, -5/+21yeah like that video of the 2 year old figuring out how to use it?

      that's how the iPhone is revolutionary.
    • pr5owner, on 10/11/2007, -10/+2its revolutionary because its a device that americans can use, they are so far behind in technology they dont know a cutting board from a motherboard.

      the device is designed for the retarded and ignorant. i choose not to fall into that target market
      • xrispy, on 10/11/2007, -3/+5Too bad in your case you can't just choose not to be retarded or ignorant.

        Where do you think most of the world's telephony technology comes from? I'm not just talking handsets.


        • KibibyteBrain, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2It comes from China or Taiwan maybe. It is designed in America, though. And probably California, which last I checked doesn't consider itself as part of America, and is not considered part of America by most the rest of the country.
        • pr5owner, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1the BEST circuit boards come from taiwan, most things are reasearched, engineered and manufactured there as well as malaysia. the us doesnt make jack *****
    • shenzhen, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2Where did you get figure of ipods have 70% of the mp3 market from? 70% of the USA? 70% of overall sales in the world?
      If this 70% is true then it is probably from only retailers that report figures not actual total sales.
      • TheRealDeal, on 10/11/2007, -2/+370% is conservative.....
        • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1So is Rush Limbaugh, what does that have to do with anything ;-)
    • colincornaby, on 10/11/2007, -4/+3"The iPod till this day doesn't have a radio"

      No, the iPod does have a radio. You just need to buy the iPod remote which has the antenna for the radio (I know, cheap on Apple's part, but the iPod DOES have a radio.)
    • totallyAMAZING, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2Yeah, it's called "appealing to the lowest common denominator" and it's very popular in America as there are many many stupid people. You can cut the features as long as someone who can barely tie their shoes can operate it, it's Apple's bread and butter.
  • MavRevMatt, on 10/11/2007, -26/+7Buried as stupid.
    • Kahlnen, on 10/11/2007, -10/+5I'm sick of this Iphone crap.
      3 months straight is enough!
      This is just one person blogging about what makes the Iphone different, as if we hadn't known already...
    • GotMex, on 10/11/2007, -3/+3How did you foresee what was gonna happen to your stupid comment?
    • 80hd, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Matt. Irony
      Irony. Matt

      Now your familiar
  • ridah, on 10/11/2007, -11/+30I naturally bought one because I am cool.
    • infobhan, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Or are you cool because you bought one...oh the dilemma.
  • brokenspatula, on 10/11/2007, -6/+17Just because the ipod is not setup in 'DISK'' mode, it doesn't mean you can't use it as a disk... You can drag and drop files like any other drive along with playing music.
    • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -2/+14Yeah, I want an iPhone so I can have a $600 oversized 8GB usb memory stick.
      • undetected, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Wow. Your memory sticks let you browse the web with HTML properly rendered while you're on the road with no WiFi access? Where'd you get it? How can I get one too?
        That's amazing! Even Maddox's E70 renders HTML poorly.
    • pr5owner, on 10/11/2007, -5/+1it cant even act as a removeable storage device, its just a ***** overhyped pile of steve's turd.

      the iphone is targeted at ignorant brainwashed retarded americans that have nothing better to do than to give their hard earned money to steve jobs
    • streak, on 10/11/2007, -1/+4I'd just like to let you iWhiners know how much I appreciate your participation here. It reaffirms my belief that I truly belong to a better class of citizenry. Thank you all so much! You're really "special".
      • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Dugg. I love this kind of comment. "I'm better than everyone else, who's with me."
  • Niddik, on 10/11/2007, -7/+34If it were made for geeks, its interface would be a command prompt.

    *Reminisces about DOS*
    • KungFuJesus, on 10/11/2007, -2/+11it'd be a bourne shell, not dos, as OSX is unix based
    • 80hd, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Niddik. You hit the nail on the head better than anybody else's comment.

      I bet Jobs said the same thing himself.
    • tinygibbles, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Just (not) like Windows Mobile
  • omarC, on 10/11/2007, -20/+0SEE ***** JOBS DONT KARE BOUT U!Q
  • Alegoo92, on 10/11/2007, -8/+9Yeah, but still geeks are on it like white on rice.
    • kingfoot, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3actually, rice is naturally... oh nvm
  • DaedalusX, on 10/11/2007, -14/+13" ... nice phone but where is the keyboard?" BAM!!!!! NOW WHAT, ***** ??
    • subliminalurge, on 10/11/2007, -12/+1It's on the screen, where it belongs so it can get the ***** out of the way when you don't need it and free up room for more important *****.

      NOW what, *****?
    • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -0/+8Clearly someone missed last night's most popular article -- I'm talking to you sublimnalurge
    • tinygibbles, on 10/11/2007, -6/+3***** Maddox, ***** robwilkens, and ***** all the other anti iphonetards out there. Keyboards are lame, fullscreen lives!
    • pr5owner, on 10/11/2007, -3/+4my TyTN has a fullsized qwerty KB as well as on screen and also i have 3rd party SKINNABLE keyboards, i can switch between full screen KB, tengo thumb, T9 phone pad, happy tapping with iphone skin... or even go voice command (speech to text)

      NOW WHAT *****?
      • streak, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2How many times have you pressed the damn camera button by accident?
        • pr5owner, on 10/11/2007, -2/+0none, the button is recessed in the case i got it, if i need the camera i use the touch screen button under my app launcher...

          i can also use the HW button but i need to use my pinky to push it
  • MaXPL, on 10/11/2007, -11/+4so uh, how has the Iphone been doing since that initial 500,000 in sales or whatever they claimed? i have yet to see a person with one.
    • ronmexico, on 10/11/2007, -3/+12Well given a population of 300,000,000 people in the US and 500,000 sold, that would be less than .01% of people have one. I'm amazed you haven't seen one.
      • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I'm reminiscing about that heavily dugg article about what happens when apple replaces government by coming up with an iPhone currency. Yeah, I'm picturing the world economies really changing overnight with this.
      • danielwsmithee, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I was surprised to see the person sitting next to me on the plain the day after release had one. They are rare but you can find them. Made for an interesting conversation piece.
        • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Are you referring to a plane? Or did you mean 'plain' in the 'great plains' sense?
        • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Are you referring to a plane? Or did you mean 'plain' in the 'great plains' sense?
    • theloniousdave, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Hmm, strange. I see one on the subway in NYC every morning.
      • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Yes, well over 10,000 people ride the subway daily, you're bound to find at least one there.
    • 80hd, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3If less than 100,000 people live in the same county as you.

      Stop looking
  • scabbers, on 10/11/2007, -4/+18I can see where he's coming from, but he glosses over the niggling iphone bugs and those missing features that even joe blow has got used to on his 'normal' cellphone.
    • javierror, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2"niggling"
      ?
    • tinygibbles, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Great Britain, dumbass
    • etandrib, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2Granted the iPhone has a few bugs to work out. It is a 1.0 product. But I think you are the exact person the article describes who doesn't "get it". Thanks for being an example.

      -written using my iPhone
      • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Ok, non-technological people have a tendency to ask technological people their opinion before plunking down money on technology. If the technological people don't like it, for reasons that it lacks important features, then how many non-technological people are going to go out and plop down $600 on their own because of nothing more than a TV Commercial. Yes, the number is significant, but on the other hand, starting a week after the iPhone came out, AT&T started pushing other phones and I don't remember the last time I've seen an iphone commercial on TV.
  • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -1/+28"Technology targetted at users who don't like technology"
    • RobertS44, on 10/11/2007, -5/+6"Technology targetted at users who like to use technology, but don't obsess their entire lives over it."
      • pr5owner, on 10/11/2007, -5/+3or are too dumb and retarded to use it, IE Americans stuck in the stone age

        the same dumb asses that think the universe revolves around the earth
        • streak, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Quite right. IE is stuck in the stone age.
  • dvsbastard, on 10/11/2007, -2/+15Clearly. The Nintendo Wii isn't aimed at the "gamer" stereotype either... But both these product have a huge amount of appeal to these groups...

    It could be brand loyalty / confidence that drives sales, or maybe it is that these products appeal to a wider audience than most people give them credit for.
    • VitriolAndAngst, on 10/11/2007, -3/+1The WII is good for enjoying games.

      It's about the experience. Most of the geek phones are a PIA -- and I say that being a hybrid geek/ artist.
  • joshshu, on 10/11/2007, -6/+7Let's talk about SICKO now
  • Surreal, on 10/11/2007, -6/+3Buried as lame, simply because isn't the information presented in this article already obvious!?
  • elvenseven, on 10/11/2007, -12/+12So basically they're looking for suckers.
    • 80hd, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1kind of.

      Jobs focus is to introduce technology to those who have the means but don't care for complicated devices..
  • cien750hp, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2"To assume the Apple creates and designs the iPhone with power users like us in mind is pretty arrogance on our part."

    please proofread your blog....
    • azzageddi, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Considering that the writer obviously isn't a native speaker of English, I think he does a fine job. Sure, his writing skills aren't perfect, but he communicates perfectly. Is there any point where you had difficulty understanding him? Can you say the same for all grammar-perfect, native-speaker tech writers?
  • samy26, on 10/11/2007, -3/+0Because it's Apple.
  • theshizzler, on 10/11/2007, -3/+20Apple doesn't make anything for the hardcore geeks. They make things for people who just want them to work without a lot of fuss. The same thing could be said about Bose or even Nintendo.
    • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -8/+2Yes, the rest of the products sell better because the majority of americans like to fuss.
      • Nielske, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1We all know americans have unlimited money at their disposal so surely this cannot be a factor.
        They must like fuss.
        • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Why do I get the impression the fanboys are now trying to spin themselves as upper-class netizens.
      • Nielske, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1doublepost :(
    • Billions, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3Not really true. I think companies like Microsoft, Nokia and Motorola have trained a bunch of arrogant geeks out there (here on digg?) to confuse excellent interface, good industrial design, and ease of use with 'not tech savvy.' I've said it before: I know a lot of hardcore geeks that pick Apple products exactly because they are hardcore geeks.
      • brufleth, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1There's a difference between "hardcore geeks" and "tech savvy." I'm not saying your friends are either but I am pretty sure the vast majority of tech savvy adults would agree that Mac users are f'ing annoying.

        Its a computer company. If you like Macs, great!
  • akinser, on 10/11/2007, -5/+4Really? I mean did you see the people on the news that were buying the thing? They couldn't even form complete sentences.
  • WarFreak131, on 10/11/2007, -7/+5yeah, geeks arent, losers are, losers with too much $ who dont know how to spend it
  • frostieDude, on 10/11/2007, -8/+9It is pretty obvious why people like the iPhone. I'm pposting this comment on a train using my iPhone. I could not do that with my Treo.
    • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -5/+4Yes, they like the iPhone because they get to hear you writing that you're writing, but seriously, most people on the train carry a laptop and a wireless ev-do internet connection nowadays, no? That is, people who have jobs where they need a laptop anyway. If "People" like the iPhone, why is it in the hands in something of like 1 in 10,000 or less people. That means you've got to know a lot of people to know someone else who has one.
      • frostieDude, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3Not everyone likes to carry a laptop back and forth if they don't have to. I write software for a living. But I don't do work on the train with my laptop. The fussing around with it isn't worthwhile.

        Also, three people in my small office have iPhones, so even thought I know very few people, I know two others who have iPhones.

        My point is that with my previous smartphone, the internet capabilities of it were useless. Having email available remotely was great, but the web on a Treo sucked. The iPhone changes all that.
        • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1That's probably because 1 person in your office hyped it up to the other 2 people -- they call that peer pressure. That means an additional 2 in 30,000 people in your area don't have it given the 1 in 10,000 number.
        • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1That's probably because 1 person in your office hyped it up to the other 2 people -- they call that peer pressure. That means an additional 2 in 30,000 people in your area don't have it given the 1 in 10,000 number.
    • pr5owner, on 10/11/2007, -5/+4its because you are too dumb to use windows.

      Apple, because you are too dumb to learn anything else

      the treo 750 has 3.5G, a full qwerty KB, customizable anything, you have a choice of 50 ***** internet browsers, most of them even do flash. your gonna tell me the treo cant post on digg? lol
      • xrispy, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2Palm/treo is a mature platform, it's been around for dog years. iPhone looks pretty solid for a narrowly field-tested v1. Use your imagination pr5owner and think about the possibilities of the new platform. I'm sure if you do you'll agree there is great potential if your honest with yourself. It's not a robustly featured or open platform yet, doesn't mean it won't be. Think Palm has the same potential? Seriously?
    • velcrocore, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Did the iPhone spell "pposting" ?
      And why couldn't you post that with your Treo?
  • Diganta, on 10/11/2007, -3/+8If Apple wanted to target geeks they would have had X11 and SSH or 3rd party apps available on the iPhone, but realistically how many people really need this. I would love for the iPhone to have one but the majority of people don't need X11 nor SSH. The Nokia N95 is like something that should be in a Bond movie. It has three significant features it has a leg up on the iPhone. Camera, GPS and 3G, but falls short in other areas. See Smartphone Product Matrix.

    http://www-personal.umich.edu/~saha/MyTwoCents/iPhone/

    The iPhone creates a whole new customer base, not just the old customers that only needed smartphones. A good analogy would be the Wii. Nintendo created new customers that could gravitate towards its new console with its natural motion controller. iPhone's multi-touch UI and large screen will be drawing new customers that aren't intimated by all the buttons on a Treo or Blackberry. As a Treo owner I've had many people tell me they could never use a phone with so many buttons. The iPhone looks less intimidating to the lay person.
    • likwidfuzion, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2Not having 3G was actually a GOOD thing according to Anandtech: http://www.anandtech.com/gadgets/showdoc.aspx?i=3036
    • Billions, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Good points. However... N95 in a Bond movie? Hahaha... I don't know man, I think the Bond movies became a pretty low standard, often set by the highest-paying company for product placement. Why else would a British secret agent, who's driven British cars for 'God and country' since Dr. No, suddenly switch to BMW? Money in the real world of movie production, of course. Too much stuff for the wrong reasons. So of course the N95 would be a perfect paid endorsement for the older 90's pre-Casino Royale mentality of the Bond films. The latest Bond film was the best in a long time, because it dropped the emphasis on gadgets and focused on what Fleming did when he created 007- Style and smarts. Clever kicking-ass with fists and sidearms, and charming the ladies. If some guy thinks he's in a Bond movie by using a Nokia N95, he's gonna have a long wait for that scene where he steals away The Man With The Golden iPhone's girl.
  • michaelpinto, on 10/11/2007, -3/+7Like the iPod before it, what's important about the iPhone is was it doesn't do. The iPhone is all about ease of use and not having extra features, in that way it's also very much like the first Palm Pilot. All of those other smartphones may have every feature under the sun, but the real test is ease of use. My Treo might do everything that an iPhone can but it has 48 more buttons on it.
    • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -3/+148 buttons, huh? Have you actually counted the number of 'buttons' on the iphone (where i loosely defined button as something on the screen you press on).
  • elcaminos, on 10/11/2007, -3/+16I've had the Iphone for about a week now, and my previous phone was the $600 Nokia N80 which technically "does more" than the iphone. The Iphone blows Nokia away in the interface department, and in ease of use. Nokias are cool, but the are just like any other cell phone that takes time to react when you push buttons, occasionaly crashes, and is generally slow like a computer. The Iphone does whatever you want it to do in an instant, and thats what appeals to me. The other big thing for me is the screen size and resolution, which makes it actually worthwhile to browse the internet or watch videos. This is my first apple product besides the ipod shuffle, and I still wouldn't touch one of their computers.
    • TheRealDeal, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2"...I still wouldn't touch one of their computers."

      You don't know what you are missing.
      • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I actually spent 30 minutes trying to use a Mac in the early 1990s. The first 10 minutes was spent trying to figure out how to turn it on, and yes, I asked for help and no one else could figure it out either. Eventually we realized that they put the power button on the keyboard, except it was an 'on' button and not an 'off' button. Great, so I absolutely needed a mouse to turn my computer off -- this was before windows 95 when you had to shut down and I appreciated that in Windows 3.1 at the time I could just flip a switch and be done with it.
      • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I actually spent 30 minutes trying to use a Mac in the early 1990s. The first 10 minutes was spent trying to figure out how to turn it on, and yes, I asked for help and no one else could figure it out either. Eventually we realized that they put the power button on the keyboard, except it was an 'on' button and not an 'off' button. Great, so I absolutely needed a mouse to turn my computer off -- this was before windows 95 when you had to shut down and I appreciated that in Windows 3.1 at the time I could just flip a switch and be done with it.
  • evilelf2407, on 10/11/2007, -7/+6well no *****, thats why its only got the most basic features and an interface that resembles my young cousins sesame street play toy.
    • xrispy, on 10/11/2007, -3/+0No doubt iPhone-like UI will be copied by competing products. You'll just have to hope they make it look more serious for you.
  • lanzemurdok, on 10/11/2007, -3/+5am i the only one who wonders wtf a power user is
    • likwidfuzion, on 10/11/2007, -3/+0A user with power. Doh!
    • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Anyone who uses electricity, duh.
    • locojones, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Someone with enough brains to figure out how to navigate menus.
  • TheBuuugler, on 10/11/2007, -3/+5Finally someone gets to the heart of the iPhone's success. I know we're all tired of reading iPhone reviews and articles, but this one really sums it up. Over the weekend, two of my friends--in unrelated incidences 5 minutes apart--uttered the phrase "Apple really understands me as a consumer" while enviously thumbing through my iPhone. We're not geeks, we're fraternity guys at SC, and we--like hundreds and thousands of others--appreciate the beauty and ease of use that the iPhone offers.
    • locojones, on 10/11/2007, -0/+3Meatheads in a fraternity. Just what the dumbphone was designed for.
  • kyleandstan, on 10/11/2007, -4/+4No freakin kidding! I'm no MS fanboy, but I have a million more (ok wise guy...at lets say 10,000) times flexibility and software choices with my windows mobile device and I LOVE the slide out keyboard. I have found many freeware programs to configure the device EXACTLY the way I want and with the click of one button, I can fully emulate the iphone including the fancy finger flick stuff. For $600, you can get a lot more computer for your money. IMHO.
  • fredfredburger2, on 10/11/2007, -8/+3My retarded cousin thinks the iPhone is cool. and the only people IRL I know who have one are all gay. Everyone else is using Blackberries or that new Nokia with the full keyboard and GSM networking

  • neumero4te, on 10/11/2007, -2/+4I think it's worth reading the previously dugg article "Apple is Outsmarting the iPhone's Competition." Other devices may have the same features, but the way the iPhone is designed and marketed as an extension of the personal computer is what sets it apart.
  • sp1nm0nkey, on 10/11/2007, -2/+11Look. Apple isn't in the business of pleasing people. Finding out what people want is near impossible. Apple just tries to make cool stuff. Microsoft probably took a long time and tried to figure out what people want in their device and they probably got "big screen" and "wifi" but few people are gonna say "battery life" since that isn't an issue with the iPod. So, they compromised and sacrificed size and battery life for a bigger screen and wifi and fell flat on their face. Why doesn't the iPhone have disk mode? Well, the iPhone isn't an iPod! By that I mean, people are far less likely to be in situations when they need to rip their iPod from the dock. With the iPhone, if someone gets a call and they get a call while it's syncing, what's their first reaction? Rip it from the dock and answer it, right? Wellll... that isn't going to work since you leave the filesystem in an inconsistent state. Also, most of the filesystem stuff is done by opening the drive up by disconnecting the OS from the disk and opening it up to a bridge, meaning the phone has to shut down while the phone is in the dock and people need to get their calls. Why doesn't the iPhone have selection? Well, has ANYONE thought out how that should be implemented? Uhh... tap and drag? Wrong, that's taken by moving the cursor. Double tap and drag? That sucks and is completely frustrating. Apple is very good at saying "Well.. that'd be nice but the user might get frustrated by it so we'll scratch it" and so they focus their efforts on the areas that matter. Tactile keys? Well the whole DESIGN of the phone won't allow that. First of all where do you put them? Have them like a slide down thingy like on the n95? Now the phone is too thick! People forget that the phone is basically a big chunk of glass and battery. Shrink the screen or grow the device? Meh, now the browser experience sucks. You already have to operate the browser in two orientations to make text look readable. Consider the GPS. Google maps works well without it, and people would probably be better off with more battery life. Also, where are you going to put the antenna? People are frustrated enough when there's no signal strength, and with something as touchy as GPS ESPECIALLY with such a small antenna, apple probably figured "Feh. This is annoying. Scratch it." Everyone is the target of the iPhone (including geeks), because it's simple and intuitive and it works. Even crashes are intuitive, you get dumped back to the home screen, and people accept that as "Oops, maybe I hit the home button by accident." Apple probably figured they couldn't get hung up on these corner cases over delaying the product (BOOO!) or holding back the buggy apps. All products ship with known bugs, and bugs at all the companies I've worked at are classified by priority, and the highest ones are considered blockers, bugs that keep the product from functioning well during normal use. They probably knocked out all the blockers and plan on fixing others later. People complain that there are bugs in some areas but they're happy with the existing features, would you rather dump the features for the bugs, you can't have both, somethings gotta give. So next, camera resolution. 5 Megapixels? That's either gotta have a big lens or a small aperture and small chip with a ton of noise and is gonna suck. Big lens would ruin the back of the phone. Video? Maybe it'll come eventually. That's a software thing so it could totally come with future updates. Bluetooth to anything besides headsets is difficult. There's the pairing BS that you have to get right and that's a pain. You have to do it once for headsets and that's the end. For syncing it's stupid, since you already have the dock. Having two methods of syncing is stupid. So, what do you pick? When you connect the iPhone to your computer there's a tactile experience that makes sense, and besides who the hell is so lazy that they won't remove their phone from their pocket. It needs to be such that you pull the phone from your pocket, do X thing and it's connected. The end. That's how activation should work, that's how syncing should work, and bluetooth doesn't offer that.
    • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Important part of all that: "Apple isn't in the business of pleasing people"....
    • TheRealDeal, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Thanks sp1nm0nkey, finally someone who knows what they are talking about. Probably best post I've read all year.
    • Billions, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1You should start coaching or something... We all just got our second wind after that halftime locker-room peptalk you gave! Bravo!
    • vannyx, on 10/11/2007, -0/+2I have a PPC 6700, if i am transferring files to the 2gig sd card and someone calls, i can answer it with speaker phone, i can disconnect it stopping the transfer or how i have my setup the transfer will continue because it was over blue tooth. I can also pickup my blue tooth headset and answer. Also once i pair my phone with my computer thats its, its a one time thing just like my headset. Its funny that you would talk about a tactile experience docking your phone when you have a non tactile keyboard, if tactile feedback i so important then why is your primary method of text entry which you use alot more than you dock not tactile ?
      • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I can't wait to see the apple fanboys start complaining because apple replaced their computer keyboards with ones that don't have tactile-response (buttons).
    • streak, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1"Why doesn't the iPhone have disk mode?" Because Apple had to get the iPhone out the door in June 2007. There are a lot of things the iPhone doesn't do right now that are expected to be fulfilled with software updates. Cut/copy/paste, for another example.
      • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Why do iPhone users think they're getting more features than came out of the box? At no additional cost at that. Talk about needing your head examined.
  • defythereds, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3i think it's pretty obvious that geeks are not the target.. if he was trying to revolutionize the phone.. whatever that means.. no kidding. cellphones are in no way a geeky device. hell, amish people have them.
  • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3People who like simplicity and "no fuss" : Why are you using a computer to get the news when there's a device that fetches it for you? It's a LOT easier and the graphics in all honesty don't get much better. It's called a "TV", I believe Steve Jobs invented the first one in the the early-to-mid 1900s. Granted, like the iPhone, there is a learning curve if you're new to it. If you want to talk back to it, you'll be ignored as quickly as I'll be dugg down here, but face it, no one here really cares what anyone else has to say either unless they agree with it before they started reading.
  • Phasmorphage, on 10/11/2007, -8/+2People buy it because it has the "i"
    :P
  • tinygibbles, on 10/11/2007, -2/+8I'm sorry. Nothing Nokia makes compares to iPhone. Nothing anybody makes compares. The trifecta of software hardware and infrstructure that aapl has in place is unmatched in technology and other companies need to catch up. aapl made ALL the engineering decisions abouth iPhone froom beginning to end. No other cellphone dispensiary does that. and please, if you handle iPhone with you fingers and you go back to some kludgy nokia of sammy, you need to have your head examined.
    /2cents
    • pr5owner, on 10/11/2007, -3/+2thats made in china, has ***** reliability, crashes all the time, featureless, oh ok the perfect phone... for ignorant retarded americans
      • xrispy, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1So where is you chiming in from? Somewhere outside the U.S? Guessing you haven't even seen an iPhone.
        • streak, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1@xrispy, just to complete your thought, "never used an iPhone" => ignorant. That makes just about everyone outside the U.S. ignorant on the subject of cell phone technology. And I agree with that.
    • locojones, on 10/11/2007, -2/+2"Nothing anybody makes compares."

      Hmmm, I think Nokia would disagree. Their N98 is superior in every way to the Apple Phone. See http://www.pmptoday.com/2007/07/15/nokia-n99-concept-looks-sleeker-than-iphone/

      I also think the Asian companies will disagree. The Meizu MiniOne is also superior to the Apple Phone in every way possible. See http://www.meizume.com/showthread.php?t=720
      • streak, on 10/11/2007, -1/+2Without being able to demonstrate the differences, we do know the MiniOne does not have multi-touch, and it never will have multi-touch in the USA. So right off the bat, we know the MiniOne isn't superior to the iPhone in every way possible.

        Naturally, Nokia would disagree. That's their job, ferchrissake.
        • locojones, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Wow, so I won't be able to pinch photos on my MiniOne. Give me a minute so I can mourn.

          In the meantime, I'll be enjoying 16gig of expandable memory, a screen with better resolution, a better operating system, a better camera, tv tuner, third party apps, shall I go on?
    • streak, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1The Nokia N98. YOU'RE JOKING! LOL The N98 doesn't exist, and it's not even a Nokia design. It's a "French concept design" created by a 17 year old. (Nothing against 17 year olds, but this is just to say, it's a fantasy for today's world.)
  • mattjumbo, on 10/11/2007, -3/+4Everyone is right! Wow, this conversation is very calm and intelligent for Digg!

    I think we can agree on this. The iPhone is a huge success and is going to get even bigger. The average consumer is even more different than we are. Even the folks in this conversation are not a good sampling. Most people would consider someone who reads Digg feeds and comments on the articles pretty much a hardcore geek. And, for that matter, most of the population doesn't even know what DIGG is.

    I'm not trying to say that "we" are smart, and "they" are stupid by any means. Apple has done what they said they would and the iPhone is a revolution. I worked at an Apple retail store for three years and it was *amazing* the number of people who were astounded when the 5G iPod could play video. Get it? The vast majority of people had *no idea* that you could watch video on a device that size.

    Apple's success is in selecting those features the mass market truly wants (music and video playback, shuffle, casual games, ease of use) and rejecting the ones they don't (FM Radio, voice recording, odd formats) and then making the UI as easy to use as possible.

    And if you want more, get more. Go buy the Nokia or the Windows Mobile. Most of the rest of us will get an iPhone. Everyone wins.
    • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Who is the "us" you're referring to in the last paragraph. It start : "If you want more, get more".... implying in the end, "most of the rest of the people who like to get significantly less and spend more" will get the iPhone. And while this is a double reply, to the guy who said he uses the iPhone on the train, the only people who are interested in reading e-mail and browsing the internet on the train _are_ ubergeeks, which this article clearly says aren't the target. "The rest of us" either talk to people they're with on the train, watch the view out the window, TALK on a cell phone (there's a cool technology, it has voice recognition and will type what you say over the wires and on the receiving end the computer that plays back the text is unmistakable from your own voice). The iPhone is a gadget for geeks, and what apple is selling here is the idea that if you buy an iPhone you'll no longer be a geek. If you buy that, I've got a bridge for you, cheap.
  • chrisutley, on 10/11/2007, -1/+3The majority of people are not geeks. The geeks that do love the iPhone seem to be lusting over the sex appeal it offers now, and the potential a mobile OS X device that fits in your pocket may offer later.
  • matt.rubin, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=iphone
  • LANjackal, on 10/11/2007, -5/+2The iPhone, like the iPod, is a fashion accessory first and an electronic device second.
    • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Yes, that's why all the ladies (and from what I've read here, gays) love them. I don't know many straight men who go around wearing fashion accessories.
  • silversilver, on 10/11/2007, -6/+4If apple made i-***** people would still buy it and think their ***** smells better. iphone = very good marketing and people thinking a product will make their life better.
    • mattjumbo, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1Yeah, but that is a cop out. You could say that about practically *anything*. Very few of the products we buy and use are things we "need". Almost everything we buy is related to how we spend our leisure time, what we think is convenient or fun, and how we think people will perceive us for using that product. That has nothing to do with Apple and the iPhone. It is just human nature.
    • TheRealDeal, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3Try using one first, and then commenting.
      • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Ok, first tell me why I want to try one, then if convinced I'll spend $9 in gas and and I'll go to the apple store (with no intention to purchase) and actually try it.
        • streak, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1Because then you won't be an ignoramous?
        • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Thanks Streak, that's the perfect reason to try a phone. I can lose my ignoramous status for only $600! Geez, what a phone, everyone should have it. Please, someone take streaks comment, post it on your blog and submit it to digg. It'll be on the front page : "iPhone Cures Stupidity". I'm picturing 45,000 diggs, more than any story ever. Sales thru the roof for apple.
    • streak, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1I'll bet everyone on the iPhone team at Apple, from Jobs on down, was holding their breath on June 29, 2007, waiting to learn how the marketplace would react to a "smartphone" that lacks cut/copy/paste. On second thought, I'm sure they already had adequate input from testers that the device was nevertheless very seductive. Still, you gotta hand it to Jobs and Apple. It will be even more interesting to see how the naysayers react to the subsequent software updates. I expect they will focus even harder on the technical specifications, but they'll be even harder pressed themselves not to like the implementation of the whole package.
    • streak, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I tried the iPhone at the store and instantly I KNEW it would make my life better. Web pages are accurately rendered. That IS better. The data plan is half the price I was paying. That IS better. HTML e-mail messages are rendered accurately. That IS better. The device is easy to use--no stylus involved or to lose. That IS better.

      Over the past 7 years, I've owned many, many Windows Mobile, PalmOS and Symbian devices. None of them has relieved me of the feeling of being hampered by poor technology to the extent the iPhone has. While away from home, for example, I actually browse the web routinely now, because IT WORKS. I don't have to hope and pray a web site will be legible and usable, only to find out that the vast majority of the time it isn't. Web sites on the iPhone look and behave essentially just like they do on my laptop and desktop computers. No other vendor has done this. Try an iPhone and you'll see for yourself.
      • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1I thought the idea of WAP was that so on slow networks like EDGE less data would be transferred. When did people on an edge network get the impression that the web is better when you see more, more slowly. And no, that I won't try in an iPhone store because frankly, they've got WiFi there I'm sure and the performance will be unrealistically good.
        • streak, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1The speed of EDGE is actually quite adequate. Some 3G handsets are not very fast for browsing because of their slow processor, so the iPhone's fast processor makes up for some of the _relative_ slowness of EDGE. Just because EDGE is ~4X slower in raw speed than 3G doesn't mean it's that much slower in real use. 3G chipsets also consume batteries faster. If a web site does load slowly, though, I at least know with the iPhone that I will be rewarded for my time with a properly rendered, perfectly usable web page. Not so on any other phone.
      • streak, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1WAP was developed about the time of GPRS, the predecessor of EDGE. GPRS is 2-4X slower than EDGE. EDGE is perfectly adequate for delivering most web sites in a reasonable time and in their full glory. No dumbing down required.

        If you demo an iPhone at a local store, you can see for yourself how well EDGE works by turning off Wi-Fi in the Settings on the iPhone.
  • richardtallent, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7I have a smart phone -- XV6700 running Windows Mobile 5.0. I still want an iPhone, and if my contract were up with Verizon, I would be seriously considering it.

    Why? Because, for all its maturity as a platform, Windows Mobile SUCKS. Using a stylus on a small screen is like flossing a cat. The iPhone, OTOH, has a smoother interface, made for fingers, that doesn't just feel like Windows running in a teeny tiny window. As a geek, it just has that "PADD" feel that I've been dreaming of since high school.

    Also, while people whine about the lack of support for custom apps, I haven't really found ANY must-have apps for my Windows Mobile phone. I'd rather have the fundamental applications (phone, text, photos, music, video) done RIGHT and limit everything else to web browser apps than having a uber-programmable platform like Windows Mobile Edition with its reams of poorly-designed freeware and shareware.

    (Of course, I'd rather Apple open up development, I'm just saying that if the current crop of Windows Mobile apps is any indication of the expected quality, I'm not going to make that a requirement of purchase, because frankly I don't think I'll be missing anything...)

    Bringing up the final point: Mobile Internet Explorer is not IE. It sucks. Minimo sucks even more, as does Opera. Right now, Safari wins the race for mobile browsers, and Apple isn't going to release it for WME anytime soon.
    • vannyx, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1i have a PPC6800, i dont use the stylus i use my fingers, the stylus is their only when i want to do a reset, i dont have small hands, i have big hands, are you a giant ? Now ive used the Iphone browsers and i know that pie sucks but to say that Opera mobile sucks isnt fair. The sites that gave me trouble with pie also gave me trouble with the iphone, any media rich site took ages to load. Didnt have that problem with Opera Mobile. Also their is netfront which is another good browser. Honestly you sound like an apple ad, i spend at least 2 hours a day in the subway, no wireless access, how do i use the uber applications on the iphone then ?
      • streak, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1In the subway, you can watch a movie on the gorgeous display or listen to music, your choice for hours on end. On your 6800 I guess you got us beat right now with tetris.
        • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1While doing that in the subway, at least here in new york, you can be stabbed and/or robbed for having something like that out. I remember when the iPod was "popular" that the news had stories constantly about people being robbed on the subway, specifically they were advising iPod users to use normal headphones instead of the white earbuds, and keep your iPod hidden in a pocket or bag at all times. This is valued at at least 3 times the price. Do you see the problem?
      • vannyx, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1sorry i meant to say i have the 6700(wishful thinking for the 6800) but no, i can also watch movies, or play snes games, granted i dont have the huge screen , but i never had a problem with anything being too small to buy a phone to compensate for it. Like i said i tried the safari on the iphone and it just reminds me of thunderbird only slower. Browser aside the phone isnt for me. As easy as it is to use i still have the people who it was designed for asking me how to do this and that. (the funnest thing anyone with an iphone had asked me was how to use the camera), if two buttons is that hard for them then yes i guess the iphone was engineered for the technically challenged among us.
        • streak, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1The speed of Safari can't be properly measured on EDGE. Were you on Wi-Fi or EDGE?

          Do you really believe they couldn't have figured out the camera on their own? My experience with people who aren't technophiles is that, if I'm around, they'll ask me all sorts of dumb questions. If they're on their own, they still manage. Just like they can drive a car, well sort of. ;-)
    • streak, on 10/11/2007, -0/+1Opera Mobile doesn't support horizontal scrolling and is extra cost. Opera Mini (currently in beta) is stuck with full-page and fully magnified views only. Very clunky, and especially so I imagine for web sites that aren't organized in columns. I believe I tried Netfront a couple years ago and felt I was better off with PIE. That's not to say Netfront might be a whole lot better today, but Opera seems to be gaining more notoriety and probably for a reason. Opera Mini still pales in comparison to Safari, except for Flash support. Flash is mostly important to me, though, for viewing video advertisements, which I don't often miss.

      By the way, did HTC finally put a ringer switch on the 6800? I have an 8525 that takes forever to turn the ringer on and off.
  • colincornaby, on 10/11/2007, -2/+3I think Apple is targeting the majority of American consumers right now, the non geeks. Eventually they'll add the voice dialing and the GPS, and maybe even a shell (and if they're smart, 3rd party apps). With the iPod on the market, Apple simply doesn't need geeks to push iPhones. They can go straight for the larger market.
  • Billions, on 10/11/2007, -1/+7I like my iPhone. I'll start with that. It's far more usable than my previous two smartphones, the SE P800 (also $600 when I bought it) and the follow-up, the P910a (another $600). I don't really miss the MMS, although I wish the iPhone had it. Nearly everything I'd like to see out of the iPhone seems to be something that could be solved with software updates, obviously coming.

    But what I really wanted to discuss: After using the iPhone for a few weeks now, I really think Apple has jumped a few steps down the road and has snuck a tablet PC into our hands. It's really a good device, and I honestly think it's possible that it could change people's perception about the usability of a tablet device, which is essentially what the iPhone is - a small, slick, flat screen that you can input data on, and interact with the internet, and hopefully, run more elaborate localized software on. Steve Jobs may prove Gates right about the tablet PC. Except it's smaller, and it's called the iPhone right now.

    Who'd have thought Apple would kill the need for MS to make that Origami thing? We already have it in the iPhone and it's rapidly-approaching future iterations.
  • moisie, on 10/11/2007, -0/+5Nokia et al can't even come close to the iPhone. How long have they been in the phone game? How many models have they produced? And with all that experience they're still basically churning out the same thing, their idea of innovation is to make a phone smaller, or lighter or shoehorn more features into it. There's no thought as to why they're doing it or if it actually makes the phone measurably better. iPhone is at version 1 and minor quibbles aside is generally viewed as being excellent. There will be software updates and later on hardware updates - it can only get better.
    • robwilkens, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1I agree, it can only get better, because it couldn't possibly be worse ;-)
  • warona, on 10/11/2007, -2/+1ORLY?
  • seraph82, on 10/11/2007, -4/+2"Geeks are not Apple's target with the iPhone" Pffft - yeah and gay dudes aren't the target for gay porn.
  • manmetropolis, on 10/11/2007, -1/+1N95 = $749.00 + Tax. Yikes! iPhone $599.00 + eh! pricey, but doable. Everyone has a choice. I made a choice to buy an iPhone. So what!? Get over it.
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