Despite what our mothers told us, sometimes being popular is better.
A good friend of mine and I have an ongoing rivalry about many geek things. We argue incessantly about things like Macs vs. PCs, what games are better, etc. I scored a major victory when I convinced him that a Macbook Pro was the best 15″ gaming laptop for a reasonable price. He actually bought one! Of course, he runs Windows on it exclusively, but still, I consider it a victory.
In any case, our largest rivalry is about our cellphones; mine being the iPhone, his the Nokia N95. Now don’t get me wrong. The N95 is an awesome phone (I hope my friend doesn’t read my blog… I would lose points in the big war for admitting so). It runs the rock-solid and expansible Symbian operating system and has tons of features. It does pretty much everything you would want it to from email to MMS to SMS to… well heck, it even makes phone calls. And it easily does more things that the iPhone doesn’t than vice-versa.
Well, you may be asking, if the N95 is so awesome, why use an iPhone? Well that, my friends, is the premise of my treatise: sometimes popular is better.
Once the first iPhone launched last year, there were soon many websites that had Mobile Safari (iPhone) versions of their sites, specifically for iPhone users. Has anyone seen an N95-specific web page? I haven’t. But there are literally dozens, if not hundreds of sites that are designed specifcally to look good and work well on the iPhone. That counts for something, doesn’t it?
Another case in point: iPod. Sure, there are better media players out there. Some even feel the Zune is better. But is there a Zune connector in my car? Or in BMWs, or Volvos? Nope. But there’s an iPod connector! Sure, the software sucks (as I wrote about here) but at least there is a connector. And walk into any store looking for cables, chargers, and the like. What are the odds that you’ll find a proprietary connector for a SanDisk, or Sony, or a Creative player? Not near as good as finding one for an iPod, I can assure you of that.
As well, there is a lot to be said for an entity controlling the Alpha and the Omega of a product. Let me see if I can explain. Apple controls the hardware for the iPhone and iPod, and they also control the software for not only the devices, but the interface as well. And all of the things that the interface interfaces with. Okay, I’m getting a bit obtuse, so let me lay it out. Apple designed the iPhone. They also wrote iTunes, which is the interface between your computer and the iPhone. The iPhone gets its calendar (on Macs, anyway) through iTunes from iCal, which Apple wrote. Ditto iPhoto and OSX Address Book. As such, they can ensure that all of these interface seamlessly and the maximum functionality is afforded.
Support is also far better with popular things. If my friend was having a problem with his Nokia N95, he may be able to find a few articles about his problem. Or he may have to expand his search to include Nokia phones in general, which may or may not help. Or he may have to expand his search further to include all Symbian phones, which may or may not help him. As for me, well, chances are good that someone has had the same iPhone issues I have and that there are sure to be dozens of websites talking about it. And their solution, if they have one, will definitely work because I have the same hardware and software.
Let’s talk apps. I love the iPhone’s apps. They take good advantage of location awareness and also of the accelerometer. There are sure to be far fewer apps with such functionality for other phones since the software author isn’t sure what Symbian (or Windows Mobile) phone the program will be run on. Does it have GPS or location awareness? Does it have an accelerometer? Maybe it does or maybe it doesn’t. But with the iPhone, EVERYone has these things and so it is far more likely that there will be iPhone apps that take advantage of this.
As well, look at programs like video converters. A fair number of them have an “iPhone” or “iPod” setting, which tailor-makes the settings to optimize for those platforms. I have yet to see a video converter which has a “Nokia N95″
In the end, I don’t feel like the iPhone is the best phone, in and of itself. It can be buggy (especially now with the new apps coming out). Heck, I got a call from my girlfriend last night that I couldn’t answer because the iPhone locked up as I tried to answer it. It just sat there in my hand, vibrating. I reset this phone far more than any phone I’ve ever had before.
But in the end, I wouldn’t have any other phone.
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the reason you dont find things exclusively for N95 is that unlike iphone, most stuff for nokia is mainstream, hence you wont ever find something exclusively for N95 because everything fits N95, unlike the iphone, you need to be sure that it is compatible with it or that you have to spend more money to get apple stuff, hence more free stuff for the rest of us, who are not pouring money for things that should be cheap.
Posted July 16th, 2008 at 1:02 pm Michael Swanberg Says:
That’s my point exactly. The fact the you never find something that’s FOR the N95 means that you’re unlikely to find something that takes full advantage of all that the N95 offers.
The popularity of the iPhone, however, covets more iPhone-exclusive content (programs, etc.), and hence creates a better user experience.
Say, for instance, that Google Maps wouldn’t take advantage of the GPS in an N95 simply because GPS isn’t “mainstream” on all Symbian phones. In that case, the functionality of Google maps would be less than what it could be, even on an N95.
Don’t get me wrong. I am less than thrilled with the capabilities of the iPhone when compared to phones like the N95. But the smaller feature set is utilized far more fully than with the N95, methinks. In essence, say the N95 has 100 features, but only half of them are utilized. Then you take the iPhone’s 80 features (less than the N95), but they’re all utilized. 80>50, so that makes the iPhone a better experience.
-Mike
Posted July 16th, 2008 at 1:43 pm DJ Says:
But Google Maps on the N95 *does* in fact use the built-in GPS. I have both the N95 and ‘original’ iPhone and prefer the N95 overall. The iPhone only really beats in in the browser and that is mostly due to the really big screen on the iPhone and the touch interface.
Posted July 16th, 2008 at 11:25 pm Michael Swanberg Says:
Um, when I say things like, “say, for instance,” that means that it’s a “for instance.” As in, “I know this isn’t the case, but pretend for a second that it is.”
So yes, I KNOW that Google maps takes advantage of the GPS in the N95. It was a bad example, I admit.
So let’s go with another one. The N95 does have an accelerometer in it. This I know. I don’t know if it’s as sensitive as the iPhone’s, but it can at least tell the orientation of the phone to within 90 degrees. In any case, say you were wanting to write a game that takes advantage of the N95’s accelerometer… something MANY iPhone games are doing.
Okay, so you write your game, it’s for the Symbian OS, but it’s only for phones that use the accelerometer. How many Symbian phones do NOT have an accelerometer? Most of them? So how many people are going to buy your game without reading the fine print, or even knowing what an accelerometer is for that matter, and then be upset that it doesn’t work on their phone? How many customer service calls will you get?
And in the end, is it worth it? What would most developers do? The answer: they wouldn’t write the game in the first place because they just know how it will come out: droves of people wanting their money back.
And before you start, yes I KNOW that you are not a game developer for the Symbian OS… this is just a “for instance.”
As for the browser, I am torn. The iPhone’s screen is still smaller than what is intended by most websites. So it’s not exactly a picnic having the “real” web on the iPhone. I much prefer smaller, WAP-based sites. They’re easier to read and deal with on a small screen, and they also load faster. EDGE isn’t exactly a speed demon, after all.
But it is nice to be able to get those full-blown pages when absolutely necessary, even if it does take a minute or more for them to load. I just wish Mobile Safari supported Java and Flash. Maybe someone will write a full-featured browser and offer it on the App Store… (fingers crossed). Heck a Flash Player and a JVM would be mondo-killer iPhone Apps. I’m betting Apple wouldn’t allow it, though. They’re so draconian about keeping control!
-Mike
Posted July 17th, 2008 at 8:43 am
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