AppleInsider’s Daniel Eran Dilger put together a lengthy five page review comparing iPhone to Palm’s obsolete operating system, drawing comparisons to features, hardware, software design and usability. Guess who came out ahead? I’ll give you a hint; it wasn’t PalmOS.
Funny thing is, I was in the middle of writing an identical feature article for this site, some time ago, and gave up when I realized the entire topic was irrelevant because PalmOS (Garnet) is a dead, long forgotten platform that holds little interest for anyone these days. I would draw more interest by comparing iPhone to Mike Vick’s ego.
Overall it’s a good read, if you can spare 30 minutes of your lunch hour to digest it (the article, not your lunch). iPhone doesn’t come out of this shooting match unscathed I’m afraid. Daniel makes no appologies for iPhones various weaknesses and shortcomings, like its maligned Mail app.
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User Centric, Inc., a usability consultancy research group, has published a study finding that iPhone’s virtual keyboard is nearly twice as slow to enter text compared with devices that have fixed hardware buttons.
The study gave iPhones to 20 participants who were asked to send text messages and emails using the device, while UC searchers monitored their actions. Hilarity ensued. The group found texting on devices with fixed keys to be fast and accurate. On the iPhone – slow and clumsy.
Now, I am in no way a statistician, but there are a number of flaws in this study. For starters, none of the particiants in the study own iPhones…but all owned QWERTY devices, which skews results dramatically. These users were already accustomed to fixed QWERTY keyboards, giving those devices an unfair advantage in the study.
Second, as I have already mentioned numerous times, you become increasing acclimated to iPhone’s virtual keyboard with usage. After one month you’ll find text input on iPhone to be every bit as credible as a fixed keyboard. Even faster. I make just as many input errors on iPhone as I do my Treo – the difference is iPhone’s spelling correction covers my errors, which speeds input dramatically.
As with all studies, take these findings with a grain of salt and a shot of Bourbon.
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I don’t know about you, but I just can’t get enough of pointless product comparisons. It’s like watching a building burn to the ground. They have a certain hypnotic effect that seizes your attention and keeps you fixated on each biased point. So it comes as no surprise when major media companies engage in lame attempts to grab our eyeballs with idiotic iPhone vs. insert something here as a way of generating ad revenue. Hey, someone has to click on those Google ads to keep the lights on.
Enter C|Net. Editor Veronica Bellmont compares iPhone to the heavy weight champ from Finland, the Nokia N95. As usual, the points are all quite valid but lack relevance. People who want a Nokia N95 don’t want an iPhone, and vice versa. So why the hell compare these two phones? Why not compare the iPhone to a toaster oven while you’re at it? After all, iPhone can’t make toast, and who doesn’t enjoy a warm buttered slice of toast? sigh
Anyway, if you’re feeling bored feel free to click the link below and waste several minutes of your life. I did!
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Harry McCracken writes on PC World’s TechBlog that after spending one week with an iPhone he found the device to be incredibly cool, but also impractical for his needs. So traded it in for a Windows Mobile device, the AT&T 8525 (HTC Hermes).
He outlines 13 reasons why he doesn’t want the iPhone.
- The iPhone isn’t 3G
- The iPhone can’t serve as a modem
- The iPhone doesn’t talk to Lotus Notes
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The iPhone doesn’t have a chat client
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There’s no Slingbox client for the iPhone
- The iPhone doesn’t have enough storage to be my primary media player.
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The iPhone requires too many clicks to get stuff done.
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The iPhone is remarkably uncustomizable
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The iPhone doesn’t let you edit office documents
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And it doesn’t have a To-Do List
- And its note-taking app is too bare-bones to be very useful
- The iPhone’s contract requirement rankles me
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The iPhone’s virtual keyboard is surprisingly good; the 8525’s real one is better
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InfoWorld’s Oliver Rist (no relation to Charles Dicken’s character) thinks that Microsoft needs to scramble its developers to fix and improve Windows Mobile before Apple eats their lunch.
Windows Mobile may have all the paper advantages — openness, Microsoft app compatibility, a great price, and loads of third-party support — but if users can’t rely on it out there in the wild, woolly, and unsupported field, none of that means very much.
The article has more of a pro-Microsoft slant, designed to illustrate what Micorosft needs to fix with its mobile platform in order to slam the door in Apple’s face. Still worth a morning read.
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As a mobile enthusiast, I own (or have owned) a cross sample of every major platform on the market today, ranging from Windows Mobile, Symbian, embedded Linux (well, one flavor anyway), and BlackBerry OS. I first cut my teeth on mobile technology with PalmOS way back in 1997 when a small startup named Palm Computing introduced a product called the Palm Pilot, launching an industry of software and hardware development. The Pilot 1000 was my very first PDA, and I immediately fell in love with the software and its hallmark simplicity. That device kindled a love affair with mobile technology that has lasted to this day. Read the rest of this entry »
Dieter Bohn (yeah, his name is so French) of WM Experts does a nice walk through comparison between the HTC Touch and iPhone, stacking up each device’s feature set and functionality. I agree with Dieter’s overall assessment and conclusions, except for his assertion the Touch’s onscreen keyboard comes out ahead of iPhone through third party software.
Windows Mobile offers greater flexibility and productivity, but overall it’s an inferior platform compared to OSX. That said I still prefer WinMob to Blackberry or Symbian.
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This shouldn’t come as a surprise given that Nokia’s Symbian web browser is actually based on Safari’s core framework, known as WebKit. If anything this may benefit iPhone users by extending developer support to a much wider audience, beyond just iPhone’s Safari environment. I say good on them.
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Analyst Michael Walkley of Piper Jaffray says Palm stands to lose most from iPhone’s grand entrance into the smartphone market. Walkley told Barons
“With the BlackBerry Curve ramping and iPhone launching June 29th at AT&T, we view Treo as the most impacted by these launches and anticipate even further declines in sell through trends.”
Palm has enough problems on its hand dealing with an obsolete mobile platform and products that are equally outdated. To make matters wose, the company made a failed bet on a brain-dead Linux portable that it hoped would spark significant sales growth, which isn’t going to happen.
Palm is running out of cash and ideas. Unless the company can pull a breakthrough product out of its hat soon, they won’t be in this market much longer.
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From the department of delusional thinking comes this delightfully oblivious statement from Verizon CEO Ivan Seidenberg speaking at press conference at NXTcomm.
“We just added four new devices in the past month,” he said. “The new BlackBerry is flying off shelves. The way we see it, our customers have price points and service packaging that is different.”
“The way we come at this is to let the iPhone hit the market,” he said. “I don’t think it changes the game plan for how we approach the market. But we need to see the impact. The burden is on (AT&T and Apple) to prove the market will change.”
“The iPhone will add excitement and stimulation to the market,” he said. “If we have done our job, then we will be a beneficiary. I hope it does reasonably well.”
Oh Ivan, you silly little man. Not only doesn’t he see iPhone as a threat, or so he claims, he goes further in asserting that iPhone will aggregate positive growth for his company. Hmm, let me see if I understand his logic correctly – so, if I were an existing Verizon customer, I am (in his mind) so pumped over the iPhone that I will stick with my contract and upgrade to a BlackBerry Curve? Yeah, that makes sense.
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