iPhone Opinion Convergence
I find it interesting that two people who write on such different topics have converged on their opinion of the iPhone. Dave Winer:
The other functions of the iPhone, the camera, YouTube, the photo browser, even the iPod functionality, are nice to have, but none of them work very well, and without a functioning web and email interface, they don't add much to the appeal of the iPhone. When all is said and done, it's a beautifully designed, colorful, very stylish, cell phone.
The heavy email user wants a keyboard and a decent sized screen; the heavy phone user wants a much smaller device with a numerical keypad; the music user wants an ultra-small device, the internet/video user wants a large screen. And they all want ultra-long battery life. Even God can’t produce that.
There's something of a parallel to this in office software. Going back, there were individual apps for Word processing, spreadsheets, etc. Then there was a brief flurry of excitement around "all in one" packages. After awhile though, Microsoft Office ended up the winner - with three products that had the ability to interoperate, but were in fact individually focused on a specific task.
So let's relate that to things like the iPhone. Lots of people say things like "I'd like to carry one device, not three". However - look at actual usage. If I'm driving, do I want to disconnect my iPod from the stereo to answer a call? If I'm jogging/biking, do I want something as huge as the iPhone? If I'm trying to compose an email, do I want a pseudo-keyboard?
The phrase "jack of all trades, master of none" comes to mind. Looking at how I actually use gadgets, I'm willing to put up with a second rate camera in my phone (but my daughter, who is actually into photography isn't). I'm not willing to mix my phone and my iPod, because I want different things out of both. At the end of the day, I think Laura Ries is right about converged devices - people like them in the abstract, but they don't like them when they have to deal with specifics.
Technorati Tags: apple, iPhone, branding, convergence
Comments
from an iPhone owner
[Stephen] July 25, 2007 20:31:08.289
Hmmm...well as an iPhone owner, I can tell you first hand that this is pretty much the exact device I've been craving for several years. I easily type twice as fast on this as my old Treo (typing on it right now as a matter of fact), I find that I surf the web and catch up on news more often on this than my laptop, it's by far the best ipod, I use it more often for email than my laptop, battery life is substantially better than my old phone...well, I could go on and on. It may not appeal to everyone, but i can't imagine going back to anything else. And, I certainly wouldn't want to carry around a cell phone and a separate ipod...and a separate PDA. Ok, when I'm jogging, I might like to use my shuffle. And when I'm driving, I might like to have a permanently mounted ipod (though I don't believe it would be necessary to disconnect my iPhone to answer a call). But, that's orthogonal to the question of whether I'd also like to have these capabilities on a device that I'm almost never without. Not to mention have them on a device that is as simple, powerful and elegant as the iPhone.