Apple
Just A Thought on Business Culture and Design
Mobile handset companies are trying to position themselves with “iPhone killers” but it’s hard for me to take them seriously. Why?
Because they are a cycle or two behind. While they are catching up with features and throwing in an extra bit or two (see 3G and GPS), companies like Nokia and Apple are already testing their next revisions for the next release that elegantly solves major issues and more.
So a whole bunch of news is trickling down the pipes with new phones coming out of every mobile handset carrier. The ones getting most attention are the ones with touch screen, 3G, television, music, fashion something, blah blah blah. However, a lot of these kinds of ambitious handsets came out post-iPhone (speaking more to the marketing than actual technology/implementation). What I’m trying to say is that without companies like Apple and Nokia taking a leap in design, consumers wouldn’t have these kinds of wonderful interaction models for another several product cycles. But ever since big names like Apple entered the market, the whole house goes crazy with finger flicking interfaces and tiled buttons. Yes, these are great products, and they are designed and developed by smart people, but the business side didn’t get it until someone else did it first. What does that say about the whole vertical (in America)? Do you believe you will get the same kind of awe inspiring experience daily from such a thing? I question that.
Japan is way ahead of us because of their bold steps to try something different or created a handset that was for a very specific niche. What’s nice is that they get to try out very interesting and immersive user experience models that could inspire new ways to do mobile for the regular joe. These companies are the same ones thinking about the future and are positioning themselves for success with multiple product/service deployments for the next several years. Game changing models. Not the, “well people want 3G so lets give it to them, or and a 10 megapixel camera too! too expensive? okay make that 5.” WTF would you do with 5 fucking mega pixels on a lens smaller than your IQ? Wonder why you couldn’t get that night shot of that Justin Timberlake picture with your phone? because you fell for the marketing. 3G? why do you think the Black Jack comes with two batteries?
My point is not to say my needs are your needs, because their not and you have every right to want certain things. However, you should think about the details: the interaction you have with your phone on a day to day basis. Is it fun to use all the time? Is it easy to get to where you want to do? Do you feel delighted to have such a product? How do you talk about it with your friends? What kinds of words do you use to describe it? Are you even excited about it when you talk about it?
Those “Wow” features are only Wow-tastic if it really does enable something greater, like saving me time and frustration by finally letting me listen to voicemails in any order I want and stop and play as I want. Or show me text in a way that acts like a conversation (IM) thread as opposed to an ugly list of text where I need to click in and out of screens to read the messages from the same person within the same conversation! Form and Features (should) follow Function.
What does your phone really enable you? Notice the commercials Apple used to show off the iPhone. They didn’t talk about features, they told stories about how those features affected your life beyond the phone. That’s a forward thinking product. That’s a design thinking company. That’s the kind of company I can trust in making sure I enjoy what I buy, even if it cost me $600.
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I’m waiting to find a company that doesn’t compromise features over design or vice versa. I hate how companies either have their strengths in features (HTC) or design (Apple). The closest I’ve ever come to having both is with the Sidekicks, which have great design and a lot of great features. The Ocean is the only thing that has done that after the Sidekick, but they all are still flawed.
Apple executes everyone else’s ideas well, but they don’t come up with any of their own. Not to say that they’re the only ones guilty of that, Microsoft copies everyone else too, they just suck at it. In addition, Apple still has made questionable choices: gimping the Touch, how the fuck do you not have IM?, and let people update their phones and tinker with them.
Also, if we were a small ass island and more technologically inclined, I’m sure we’d be way past Japan. 3G networks, as much as you might think they’re not important, are the norm in Japan giving them a lot more capabilities. Look at how much the internet has changed with the progression of broadband. YouTube would not be exist, video would not exist at all, podcasts? not that either, nor would torrents, and maybe even myspace would suffer a lot.
I’m waiting for a company to be like a hardware version of Google or Facebook and completely changing the game. Apple has come very close to that, but where’s the innovation?
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