Blogs Why the iPhone was never going to flop

http://www.bit-tech.net/blog/2009/07/27/why-the-iphone-was-never-going-to-flop/

 

The image doesn't work and while you're correcting that, you may as well correct at least 3 textual errors.

 

Not sure why that is [the image] - it worked in FireFox, but not in Chrome. Have taken it out for the moment.

 

Let's face it, Microsoft are pretty much obligated to badmouth their competitors products in the hope someone will listen to them. Apple to the same thing to Microsoft, the only difference being that Apple have people who would believe them if they said the sky was lime green with purple polka-dots. While I don't think Microsoft has anyone using their software who wouldn't at least tweak the curtain open to check.

As for the analysts... well, analysts say a lot of stuff. Frequently I think analysts just say as much as they can on the subject ("It'll flop/It'll be great/It'll... yadda yadda yadda...") so that they can then say they were right down the line. The number of occasions "professional" analysts have screwed up with their predictions, I'm amazed anyone takes them seriously any more. It's like believing everything Fudzilla or the Inquirer says... they take a shotgun approach to news, saying a bit of everything... some of it has to be correct, right?

...

As much as I don't really care for Apple as a company, when they get something right, they get it right. I finally picked up an iPod just before they ditched the 160GB iPod Classics because it had significantly more storage capacity and battery life than any of the competing players. My old MP3 player I needed to charge every three or four days... this one I can use to/from work without charging it up more than every three weeks.

 

i used to think iPhone will flop, that's with the original iPhone without third party apps. i thought about it when my Apple friend showed me Steve Job's announcement.

but after a year, when 3G came out. i bought the very original iPhone that i'd thought it's going to flop. now all my friends and i think it's the best mobile-device in the world. not the best phone compared to a dedicated mobile phone. but the best mobile device and best mobile gaming device.

the change came when i showed them what it can do, and how responsive the touch screen are. there's one thing watching the smooth videos on youtube. there's a different world when you are touching the device with excessive responsiveness.
and comparing to HTC Touch HD, Nokia 5800, even the original iPhone is way ahead of those devices.

so, i think iPhone didn't flop is because of the smoothness it offered along with the very large number of apps. OS 1.0 was a sure flop comparing to other smart phones due to limited functionality. OS 3.0 is going very strong, even after Palm Pre's taunt in multitasking. and OS 4.0 will sure bring more improvements.

 

To be fair, the first iPhone was a bit of a damn squid. It was all shiny-ness and little real functionality in this country. As a phone it was adaquate, and as an internet device it was rubbish due to a lack of 3G. It didn't really do anything a phone and an MP3 player couldn't do in the same pocket.

With the 3G version, it suddenly became a viable 21st century tool, and the fact the 3G outsold the 2G version 3-1 in the UK proves that. It's a good phone now, but it took Apple a year since the first version to get there.

 

The real killer with the iPhone is how well Apple ties in users - once you've owned an iPhone it's really, really hard trying to use anything else without the constant feeling that it's an inferior experience. I've got a load of phones (such as a G1, HTC Touch HD and a Nokia N97) available to me in the TrustedReviews office and I still bought an iPhone when it came out in the US and upgraded to a 3G this January.

Although, that said, if I hadn't been able to unlock mine I'd never have got them - O2's tariffs are almost criminally worse than my current one is.

 

"and at the time she was a Swedish blonde. "

what is she now then? a ginger german?

 

Well it's only normal for companies hitting on each other. I don't want to be biased but yeah, I'd choose iPhone anytime. Though we can say they do have some downs and sometimes unruly customer service, there's no way ill choose microsoft.

 

Sarcastic ? Or just another idiot in the world ?

 

Do you mean a damp squib?

I can't deny the iPhone hardware works well but I can't abide by Apple's policies of screwing the user over at every chance.
How else can you explain the prevailance of jailbreaking etc?

I think once Android gets a little more mature and is mated with similarly sexy and potent hardware, nothing will touch it.
It can already do everything the iphone can and more.

 

Nope. She is your Mum

 

Cool, thanks for pointing those out.

 

I'm not convinced by the iPhone. I've had one from work for about three weeks now, and I hardly use it. Of course, it's less usable since I smashed the screen after dropping it once (not very robust are they?), but my biggest problem is my usual problem with apple devices, they're great if you want to do what they'll let you do, but if you'd like to, eg, listen to a .ogg file, or use a program other than (bloody hateful) iTunes, then you're stuck.
Believe it or not, I actually prefer my crappy free-on-a-cheap-contract sony-ericsson as a phone.

Although, given, I'm the only person I know that doesn't go gooey over the thing.

 

best. misquote. ever.

android will never be as shiny smooth as the iphone. You know why? For the very same reason you find negative about the iPhone - it's a tightly controlled platform, therefore it can be very finely tuned as a user experience.

 

Ahem, HTC Tytn II, HTC Touch Pro, HTC....anything really.

 

There are good reasons why these devices flopped and the iPhone is a massive success.

 

Yup:

Tytn II - far too bulky, clunky user interface, terrible web browsing experience (out of the box - Opera Mobile is about acceptable I guess), screen ridiculously is unresponsive compared to a capacitive one.

Touch Pro - Jarring transitions between TouchFLO and Windows Mobile make for a frustrating user experience. While the custom skin works well most of the time, you are dumped back into vanilla Windows Mobile far too often. No audio output (except via an awful-sounding USB-3.5mm adaptor).

HTC Touch HD - Again, while the touchscreen interface works well, it only works where the custom interface is present - as soon as a 'normal' Windows Mobile program launches everything falls apart. Also, while this handset does have the best example of a resistive touchscreen it's still nothing like as nice to use as a capacitive screen.

NONE of these handsets look as nice or are as pleasant to hold or use as the iPhone.

I could go on...

 

Very well said. I'd just like to add that Windows Mobile is an absolute sack of poops and is the main problem with any phone that uses it. A stark contrast indeed to the responsiveness and usability seen in the iPhone OS.

I could go also go on...