Anandtech iOS5 review, someone explain the first paragraph please

[taltamir]

http://www.anandtech.com/show/4956/apple-ios-5-review

The original iPhone was designed to address a significant user experience problem with smartphones of the day.

mmm, sounds pretty neat. I always wondered how they got to such fame and this seems to explain it.

The iPhone itself was just the delivery vehicle, what later became known as Apple’s iOS was what made it all happen.

Aha, so its iOS rather then the hardwarethat was meant to address significant user experience problems with phones of that day.

At its launch in 2007 many lamented the significant loss of typical smartphone features with the very first iPhone. You couldn’t multitask, there was no copy/paste support, you couldn’t tether, you couldn’t send pictures or video via MMS and there were no apps. Apple of 2007 was very much a Mac company that was gaining strength, looking to dabble in the smartphone world.

Uh... doesn't this explicitly contradict the first half of the paragraph? How could iOS be meant to address significant user experience issues yet shipped in v1 with so many crippling ones of its own, all of which other smartphones could do?

So, am I misunderstanding something or the second half of that paragraph contradicts the first half?

 

[Tweak155]

Maybe it should be reworded "The original iPhone was an attempt to..."

 

[Aikouka]

It's a lot easier to understand that last part if you've ever used a phone with Windows Mobile (note, not Windows Phone 7) or some of the older smartphone OSs.

Honestly... the original smartphones were not much different from a PDA married to a modem. My AT&T Tilt (Windows Mobile 6) even has a stylus!

EDIT:

Maybe it should be reworded "The original iPhone was an attempt to..."

Nah, it may have lacked a couple nice features, but what I think it's trying to put forth is that it provided a better UI overall, and more user-centric features (such as multimedia support). As an example, I think my iPhone 3GS would last twice as long as my Tilt when playing music.

 

[taltamir]

It's a lot easier to understand that last part if you've ever used a phone with Windows Mobile (note, not Windows Phone 7) or some of the older smartphone OSs.

Honestly... the original smartphones were not much different from a PDA married to a modem. My AT&T Tilt (Windows Mobile 6) even has a stylus!

ah, so you are saying that as bad as it was, it was better than the competition?

EDIT:
no wait...

At its launch in 2007 many lamented the significant loss of typical smartphone features

It outright states that those were all typical smartphone features. Aka features everyone else had.

EDIT2:
Or are you saying it cut those features that everyone else had... but compensated with other more important features everyone else was missing?

 

[Lotheron]

I'm not sure if I'm missing something, but arguably the biggest feature of iOS, Siri, is absent?

 

[Aikouka]

Yes, the original iPhone and even subsequent releases (cut/copy/paste was added while I had my 3GS) had some limiting factors over the original "data-centric" smartphones, but I would say people still preferred some of the luxuries that the media-centric smartphones provided. For example, browsing the web on the relatively small screens on the older smartphones was not a very enjoyable task. I think my Tilt had a relatively large screen and it was only 2.5".

Essentially, these phones were more business-oriented where the iPhone sort of sparked the layman's interest in smartphone computing.

 

[Tweak155]

EDIT:



Nah, it may have lacked a couple nice features, but what I think it's trying to put forth is that it provided a better UI overall, and more user-centric features (such as multimedia support). As an example, I think my iPhone 3GS would last twice as long as my Tilt when playing music.

I'm not arguing it either way, I just agree that the article contradicts itself, offering a way out of the contradiction.

 

[alent1234]

pre-iphone you had sort of smartphones being sold but it was hard to choose and the browsers were all crappy mobile versions.

iphone 1 - best internet browser on a phone
iphone 3g - app store launch. yes there were apps before the iphone, but the way apple did it made it easy for the consumer to find apps
iphone 3gs - GPU added. much better games, openCL capability and the best encryption on a phone
iphone 4 - new design, better camera software, multi tasking and save state. I love the app save state feature and really missed it with my 6 months on android

i've had a pocketPC back in 2001 and IE on it was crap along with the GUI compared to the iphone and the touch interface. it's not a replacement for the desktop and doing a lot of things, but for mobile it's the killer GUI

this is the way you launch a product. you find a new and growing market with numerous players who have small pieces of the pie. you pick one or two features you think consumers will want and polish the hell out of them. add the rest later.

see microsoft in the 1990's.

 

[taltamir]

this is the way you launch a product. you find a new and growing market with numerous players who have small pieces of the pie. you pick one or two features you think consumers will want and polish the hell out of them. add the rest later.

I agree, I always argue that polish is far more important the featurecount

 

[runawayprisoner]

I think what Anand is trying to say is that the first iPhone addressed one of the major issues with smartphones of that time (extremely laggy interface and user experience), but that it did so with many limitations of its own (missing features).

When the iPhone was introduced and demo'ed, its interface was so Godly smooth and responsive compared to other devices at the time that it felt unreal.

We have come a long way since then, but that smooth and responsive interface still remains Apple's sole advantage over its competitors today.

 

[TheStu]

I think what Anand is trying to say is that the first iPhone addressed one of the major issues with smartphones of that time (extremely laggy interface and user experience), but that it did so with many limitations of its own (missing features).

When the iPhone was introduced and demo'ed, its interface was so Godly smooth and responsive compared to other devices at the time that it felt unreal.

We have come a long way since then, but that smooth and responsive interface still remains Apple's sole advantage over its competitors today.

That's right, what he is saying that is that it addressed the USER EXPERIENCE, not the feature list.

And I would argue that it is not Apple's sole advantage today.

 

[runawayprisoner]

That's right, what he is saying that is that it addressed the USER EXPERIENCE, not the feature list.

And I would argue that it is not Apple's sole advantage today.

Well, it still is if we count iOS on iPad...

Arguably, it's not Apple's sole advantage in the smartphone market anymore, but they pretty much nailed it with tablets, and the gap will only widen as screen resolution increases.

It's not so much about Apple being superior than other companies, though, but that I respect the iOS engineering team's dedication to smooth interface performance. And it was with that advantage that the iPhone was propelled forward (of course along with a little push from pricing advantage, among other things).

 

[manly]

I agree, I always argue that polish is far more important the featurecount

then you already understand the article's intro, despite your protests to the contrary.

As for those originally missing features typically found on other 2007 smartphones, the biggest mistake was the lack of apps/App Store infrastructure. Honestly, many end users can make do without the others to some extent.

 

[TuxDave]

Next paragraph....

Despite its shortcomings, the original iPhone/iOS combination did enough things right to build a user base.

So even without those features, the other things made up for it.

 

[MrX8503]

Uh... doesn't this explicitly contradict the first half of the paragraph? How could iOS be meant to address significant user experience issues yet shipped in v1 with so many crippling ones of its own, all of which other smartphones could do?

So, am I misunderstanding something or the second half of that paragraph contradicts the first half?

If you used a windows mobile phone in 2007, then an iPhone, it would probably make more sense. iPhone1 didn't have a lot of the capabilities of current smartphones, but the capabilities it did have, it was leaps and bounds above the competition. If you watch the original keynote, you'll probably get a better feel.

People were amazed by simple things, such as multi touch, smooth scrolling, and full internet browsing. Its quite funny.

 

[taltamir]

then you already understand the article's intro, despite your protests to the contrary.

now that it has been pointed out to me, yes.

 

[Eug]

To chime in.

At the time ALL other smartphones in existence royally sucked. And I mean SUCKED. The iPhone did a few things really, really well, but was missing some really basic functionality.

That, and the fact that I didn't want to jailbreak to use it in Canada, and because it was 2G only, is why I didn't buy the original iPhone. I bought the iPhone 3G as soon as it was released in Canada though.

 

[Tweak155]

To chime in.

At the time ALL other smartphones in existence royally sucked. And I mean SUCKED. The iPhone did a few things really, really well, but was missing some really basic functionality.

That, and the fact that I didn't want to jailbreak to use it in Canada, and because it was 2G only, is why I didn't buy the original iPhone. I bought the iPhone 3G as soon as it was released in Canada though.

I liked Palm (with Palm OS) phones. While they weren't stylish / sophisticated, they worked fast with never having to reboot the phone.

 

[Eug]

I liked Palm (with Palm OS) phones. While they weren't stylish / sophisticated, they worked fast with never having to reboot the phone.

I had a Handspring Visor and a Palm too. The phones based off them were essentially the same thing, but with phone functionality, as someone in this thread already mentioned. They generally had poor multimedia functionality, but the ones that had decent multimedia functionality often had lousy business app functionality. (Sony Ericsson, I'm looking at you.) Plus they were inconsistent. No specific "platform" so if you switched phones your multimedia stuff sometimes stopped working, even if it was a same generation phone from the same manufacturer.

However, with basically all of them, almost anything to do with web access utterly painful, despite the fact that at the time unlimited data plans already existed in some areas. For example, I briefly had a $50/mo unlimited data plan long before the iPhone, but with the phones of the time I never used more than a few thousand kilobytes a month. The only way I could actually use any substantial data was to tether my laptop to the phone.

On the iPhone 3G, I could actually surf the net on the phone, play my videos and my songs, and have clean integration with my calendar, mail, and address book applications.

 

[Ns1]

I had a 2006/2007ish WinMo phone and man, upgrading to the 3gs felt like the second coming of christ.