Why All The Commotion?: Apple iPhone

In terms of features the iPhone is nothing new. It has a camera, A-GPS, 3G, Wi-Fi, Stereo (A2DP) Bluetooth, MMS, Web Browser, Clock, Voice Recorder, Calculator, Phonebook, Calendar, and last but not least, a Phone.

I will be one of the first to admit that in terms of raw hardware and out of the box features the iPhone is lacking. That camera could be 5 or 8 Megapixel, it could have a memory expansion slot, it could have a QWERTY keyboard, etc, etc. But it doesn’t….

So why all the commotion?

At least once a day one of us will see an advert or article about the iPhone (this article included), or hear someone talking about how awesome it is. And on the other side of that you will also see an anti-iphone advert or article, and someone arguing how it is worse than their Blackberry, or Nokia Smart phone, or similar. The reasons for both of these are quite clear: Business, and personal opinion. But the problem comes in that with the iPhone, the traditional way of comparing phones and gadgets has gone out of the window.

The beauty of the iPhone is not in the hardware (unless you count the design) but instead, it is in the software that runs the device. No phone software out at the moment (at least here in the UK) has been successful in getting people to use more and more of the features on their phones than ever before. The reason for this: Simplicity.

The problem with buttons

The iPhone’s operating system is very easy to use, and brings something slightly revolutionary to the phone market: the lack of a menu button!!!

Sound’s silly doesn’t it, but it is not. Every other phone I have ever owned (even other touch screen phones) had still had a menu button putting an extra button press between you and your features. The iPhone removes this completely. Whereas on some phone I may need to go to Menu > Programs > Web Browser, on the iPhone it is merely the tap of of a finger on the Safari icon (which I can place on the dock to make it available on any home screen). Too lazy to search through the screens, use Spotlight to search for it… The number of clicks has been reduced from 3 or more, to 1. Saving over a 3rd of the time in launching an application.

The App Store

One of the major loves people have of the iPhone is the applications, and there are loads. In fact, there are over 50,000 Apps in the App store, many of which are free.

Their charm is in the fact that you can do pretty much anything if you find the right App, hence Apple’s “There’s an App for that” campaign. Mix this with the ease of installation and purchasing that comes from Apple’s experience with iTunes and it becomes a dead cert. But there are still major problems:

The approval system. Apple has a very enigmatic approval system, in fact I doubt they even know how it works. Whilst one app may be approved, one very similar app may be rejected. Apps that people think should be approved, sometimes aren’t, etc.

In Conclusion

Mix these two ingredients with an iPod, Dictaphone, GPS, Calculator, YouTube device, Calendar, Notebook, Email, Calendar, etc; and keep the simplicity in all these parts and you have a phone that many people are able to, and enjoy to, use.Yes it is not the best hardware in the world, and it is not the best value for money on the hardware front. But that is not the point.

The beauty of this device is in it’s ease of use, it’s looks, and the systems that support it. And until other phone manufacturers are able to get this mix right they will still see an increasing number of sales going to the iPhone range.