It's a clock. It's a camera. It's a video recorder. It's a voice recorder. It's a calendar. It's a calculator. It's is diary. It's a notebook. It's a photo album. It's a map. It's a street directory. It's a gaming console. It's a unit converter. It's a currency converter. It's a dictionary. It's a translator. It's a compass. It's a ruler. It's a music tuner. It's a metronome. It's the train timetable. It's the uni timetable. It's a bank. It's the news. It's a radio. It's eBay. It's Facebook. It's Youtube. It's email. It's the internet. It's a music player. It's a fashion item. It's a phone. The Apple iPhone.
I'm sure this will spark much debate, but I honestly believe the iPhone is the best consumer product. Everyone reading this blog either has one, secretly wanted one at some stage or has a similar smartphone that wouldn't have existed without the emergence of the iPhone. Not only is the iPhone a commercial success, its a piece of innovative design that has undeniably changed the mobile phone market which has lead to the start of a smartphone generation.
Shortly after releasing the first iPod in 2002, Apple CEO Steve Jobs already started thinking about developing a phone after seeing millions of American lugging separate phones and MP3 players, thinking that consumers would naturally prefer just one device. The first generation iPhone went on sale in the United States in June 2007 and in Australia a year later. The iPhone is has done so well in the market because it is the first phone that has refined and fine-tuned its touch screen and soft keyboard interface, one that doesn't require the use of a stylus. The phone has also opened us to endless world of 'apps'. That and its other notable features such as its WiFi interface had had a major impact not only on customers but also the other mobile phone manufacturers.
I could bore you all with statistics, graphs and tables on the iPhone sales figures, but we all well aware of its commercial success. You only need to walk onto a train and notice the dominance of the iPhone when you see that 9 out 10 people are using with the phone. What is more important and more relevant to this blog is the physical design of the phone. With each generation, Apple has managed to make the iPhone slimmer and sleeker. From the ergonomically curved design and chrome detail of the earlier generations to the sleek glass and aluminium finishes of the later, it is clear the Apple has paid a large majority of their attention to the aesthetics of the iPhone and equally as much on their branding. According Apple it is now the world's thinnest and clearest smartphone.
But just because it is the best consumer product (in my opinion), it does not mean it is free from flaws. Many criticism include its antenna/networking issues and its bluetooth incapabilities.
From its launch the iPhone had in effect become a design classic and caused a dramatic step change in mobile design. It's only been four years since it's release, yet we can already see the iPhone's revolutionary impact on our world. C'mon, without it there would be no Angry Birds :). Thank you Apple.
-Phi Do
Resources:
http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_iphone?currentPage=1
http://www.cntr.salford.ac.uk/comms/25yrsofthemobile/survey.php
I'm sorry Phi, but I certainly can't agree with you on this one. You've cited the phone's many uses as its beacon of design, however can we note that maybe it falls haphazardly into swiss-army-knife-syndrome? Whilst it may be all of those things you mentioned, is it actually the best at being all of those things? I would like to note that it is possible to mould an mp3 player and a phone together without having to monopolise the market with apple only technology and software. My crappy nokia E63 plays and stores music like an mp3 player and doesn't require me to buy itunes or any other software. That is one of my biggest concerns regarding the iPhone, its monopoly over the market drives consumers to think that Apple's technology is the only technology out there that does what it does, which is just plain false.
ReplyDeleteI have two further objections which are a little more obscure. Firstly, I loathe the fact that 'iPhone' has become a genericized trademark in that colloquially people would prefer to refer to their 'iPhone' as opposed to their 'phone'. And secondly, has this obsession with 'apps' gone too far? I once encountered my sister, her boyfriend and their friend sitting on a couch watching television, all playing words with friends against each other! If they didn't over-consume stimuli as they do maybe they could sit around a real scrabble board and engage in actual conversation for once.
However the interface is quite nice.
Nicholas Avery
Hey Nick, I knew someone would immediately disagree with me the moment I posted this. "Swiss-army-knife-sydrome' implies that a gadget has a superflous amount of functions but that are not overly good at any of them. But I believe that most (not all) of the apps and functions are well designed and are often beneficial and necessary in our daily lives. For instance maps on the phone will forever be superior to a Melways nowadays. But I do agree to some extent. For example surfing the net on the computer will always be better than surfing on the phone. But then again you can't argue that the portability factor is not appealing.
ReplyDeleteI'm also aware that Apple's technology out there that does what it does. I'm also aware that it's probably not even the best in some areas. But I still believe it's the best consumer product because it has heavily influenced the market and other phones manufactures designs as well as encouraging many of them to up the ante.
Also, regarding have 'apps' gone too far? Maybe. But again, its astonishing to see how these apps have made boring board games such as scrabble cool again. Trust me, with or without these apps and iPhones, your scrabble boards will still be gathering dust.
-Phi Do
I have to agree with what Nicholas said that it is not the best consumer product. Many of the things you state as Apple Iphone 'innovations' were on phones long before the Iphone and the original was actually behind in many features such as its camera, lack of bluetooth, lack of video calling and the shear lack of compatibility with other phones and computers made it one of the worst phones on the market. My phones which were out before the iphone had 'apps' and almost all the features you mentioned plus more, like a good camera and a decent battery life. The phone also isn't as big as we are made to believe with other phones proving more popular in other countries such as Englands love of the blackberry. This phone would be better suited to the greatest marketing campaign ever rather than best product.
ReplyDeleteRoss
PS i also can't stand people saying "my Iphone", its just a phone people!
I agree Ross, the iPhone is a wonderful example of excellent marketing, not a wonderful example of an excellent product.
ReplyDeleteAnd Phi, I clean my scrabble board twice daily, three times on competition days.
Nicholas Avery
Great work everyone. This is a really polarising issue mainly because of all that commercial success and that, like it or not, people do actually say iPhone instead of phone.
ReplyDeleteAs the owner of a free Nokia, I can say that the iPhone has really got some interesting commercial attributes that the Apple stockholders must love. Getting people to pay that much for a phone is nothing short of category-shifting, and then they buy apps!
One point I really likes about the post was that it was the interface which really made this product - there were smart phones before this one, but it did set a new standard.
Robbie