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December 6, 2006

speculation

iPhone: Say it ain’t so!

Posted Dec. 6, ’06, 11:38 AM PT by Pat Nakajima
Category | Apple » Speculation

The Amazing Swiss Army Knife MP3 Player!iPhone iPhone iPhone, right? All anybody talks about anymore is the iPhone, with people either gathering in mansions, waiting for its arrival to drink the punch, or people like me, who care not for such a device, at least in its rumored iteration. After reading Andy Ihnatko’s fantastic piece on his apathy concerning the second coming of pod, I was inspired to contemplate my own. Why don’t I want an iPhone? Don’t I want to be normal like everybody else?

A phone is more or less a tool that one uses to accomplish a task, namely, communicating with others. The iPod on the other hand, is a device of pure leisure. Obviously, both can be used for either function, but the essential nature of each device remains.

The reasons you don’t find Doom in Microsoft Word, or graphing capabilities in Tetris, are the reasons that the phone and the iPod should not cohabitate the same device. Sometimes, practicality necessitates the compromise between consolidation and specialization (see swiss army knife) but sometimes, it’s simply for novelty value (see swiss army knife with built-in mp3 player).

The iPhone is pure novelty. One might even brandish the word “gimmick.” Adding music capabilities to a device ceased to be innovative after the invention of the clock radio.

I’m sorry to say it, but there’s going to be at least one more post about the iPhone coming from this blogger. So stay tuned and hear what I feel would make an Apple phone great.


7 Comments

Aaron said:

I'm excited by the prospect of an iPhone because I am so irritated by the lack of design that has gone into any of the phones that I've tested. Right now my irritation is directed at menus that have large, splashy, animated, and completely vague menus while keeping the useful information small and unobtrusive in the corner. That and the fact that when I highlight a name in the phone number list it scrolls the number across and does not let me stop it or reverse to catch a number that I might have missed.
It has nothing to do with the merger of the two devices, it has to do with brining real design to something that is seriously lacking.

December 6, 2006 1:24 PM
Larry V. said:

Perhaps Apple could bring its user-oriented design to a field which is seriously lacking in usability. Even without integrating music capabilities (although if Apple ever created a phone, it is highly unlikely that it would lack music), Apple could make strides in this lackluster area of tech.

December 6, 2006 2:29 PM
Scoop said:

I couldn't agree with you more Pat. Screw the iPhone... I want a true video iPod. The iPod is a media device. Appending a phone only shortens the device's lifespan. I go through at least 2 cell phones a year, yet I've had the same iPod for over 3 years. If you're gonna add features, how about WiFi? If you really want audio, throw a SIP client on there and let us do VoIP calls and/or integrate with iChat... maybe even add an built in isight. I hate seeing Apple's efforts put into merging two existing products when they could be doing what they do so well... inventing new ones.

December 6, 2006 2:45 PM
Pat Nakajima Author Profile Page said:

Thoughtless design on the part of cell phone makers is a whole other can of worms. The frequency of usability patterns being roughly established, then recklessly ignored is staggering.

A sensible interface on any sort of iPhone is a given. And I'm 100% behind an iPhone that can outsmart a smart phone. The trouble is, Apple wouldn't design an iPhone with that goal in mind. As with the iPod, features will be eschewed in favor of simplicity. That's my primary problem.

I'm fine with my music player being simple. Again, it's a leisurely device, and I just want it to play music. My phone, on the other hand, performs a gamut of functions, from waking me up, to keeping track of my schedule, to helping me tip waiters appropriately (I use the calculator, as it doesn't have a tip calculator), to checking my email. And that's to say nothing of all of the functionality I get out of Salling Clicker. All of these things are very tweakable, and tweak them I must.

I have a feeling that the minds that decided on the Terminal's existence in OS X would have no part in the design in the iPhone (and I'm disregarding the fact that they work in separate divisions). I think that the general design philosophy for the iPhone would be "don't let them do as much, that way there's less to mess up." While that works for the iPod, it's no good for my phone.

December 6, 2006 3:30 PM
GCarden said:

I think you're wrong. The iPhone that the crazy fans have dreamed up would be dumb. Whatever Apple releases will not.

December 6, 2006 4:15 PM
vip m. said:

I think Steve Jobs understands there are different needs and so will come up with different products. Some people just don't want to be lugging a phone and an iPod, so all they need in an iPhone is phone capability, maybe an ability to take pictures, and full iPod functionality. Some people, on the other hand, require a smarphone, and for this group, Steve should have a version that can handle text input, a PIM (personal information manager), and other PDA complexities. This should be the other version of the iPhone.

December 7, 2006 12:16 AM
Domenico Bettinelli said:

Like the others, I think the naysayers are missing the point. It's not music capabilities in a phone that I want. It's the idea of a phone designed by Jonathan Ives and Steve Jobs that gets me excited about the possibilities.

I can't wait for a phone that not only just works, it works elegantly and instead of having to adapt myself to it's way of doing things, it would be designed to work the way I need it to in an eminently logical fashion.

December 7, 2006 12:04 PM

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