[miffed]

We all (I am sure ) remember when Steve Jobs made this seemingly ridiculous statement about the iPhone , this has been the source of much criticism from various circles , and on the face of it , does appear to be a bold statement when you consider the phone undeniably lacked many features of current phones.
Of course , what the nice Mr Jobs actually SAID was the UI was 5 years ahead of anything else - not the feature-set or Hardware ! , this is a little detail that those desperate to cling on to Symbian et al conveniently forget and misquote.

So..... Here were are 2 and a half years after iPhone 1.0 was unveiled - Was Steve right ?
From where I am standing , the closest thing is android , and even that is (although excellent) still nowhere near as intuitive as iPhone 1.0

I have to say , I am starting to think that SJ was bang on with his 5 year thing ! - and I am pretty sure that had the iPhone not lit the path , then we would have been looking at even longer before a decent UI arrived !!!

[@NickyColman]

iPhone OS is without doubt, 5 years ahead of what was about 2 and a half years ago.

Put iPhone OS next to Symbian of the time next to each other and the difference is striking!

I still think it will be a year or so before the competition (Android) will be of an iPhone OS standard, but by then Apple will have OS 4.0 ready for release.

Imagine iPhone OS had not been released - we would still be stuck with Symbian and Windows Mobile as smartphone OS's ! No Android, no HTC TouchFlo & no Samsung TouchWiz (lol) - nada !

It seems Jobs took a different approach to OS design. Instead of cramming in all the features they could, then attempt to tie them together, Apple have created the best UI on a mobile phone as a base, then (as we've seen) added features over time.

iPhone managed to avert a spec-related arms race with its low spec design & fantastic UI. Would Palm have really dared to release a top end smart phone with just a 2.0 megapixel camera and no video recording had iPhone not done in years before?

I think its safe to say, iPhone has been the catalyst for the mobile market like iPod was for music.

[getti]

Whilst the iPhone has changed the market in the way that every touchscreen phone is now compared to it, When it was announced it was not 5yrs ahead of other OS's.

Cut & Paste, MMS, Video... all were missing for a very long time and this was down to the OS.

[Ben]

I think the UI was definitely 5 years ahead, so yes, Steve Jobs was right. Ok, it's not 5 years ahead anymore because everyone else has been throwing everything they can at Mobile OS X in order to embrace the Just Works™ mentality, but if there had been no iPhone then I believe that, 5 years after it had launched, we probably still wouldn't be seeing such an incredible UI from the competition.

Apple has also shown us that hardware specifications are not king in a mobile phone. The hardware arms-race just looks silly now. These 12mp camera phones that are coming out are laughable, and manufacturers finally seem to be coming around to the idea that their interfaces are what will win out. That's why you've got TV ads at the moment that are all about the OS and how amazing it is to use.

So the original iPhone OS lacked some functionality and had pretty basic hardware. The UI was still 5 years ahead.

[miffed]

what the nice Mr Jobs actually SAID was the UI was 5 years ahead of anything else - not the feature-set or Hardware ! , this is a little detail that those desperate to cling on to Symbian et al conveniently forget and misquote.

^^^ See what I mean Dan ? ;)

As for the "lacking features" These things were simply restricted by Apple - Once jailbroken they were only an app away - which sort of rules out the idea that the OS was not capable .
MMS was no problem , Video quality on Cycorder was better than most N series phones I've ever seen , and thats with a 2MP camera !!

[Ben]

and thats with a 2MP camera !!
And you definitely can't fault the video on the 3GS, and the sound quality it records with it, too. I was blown away by this one guys recording of a concert!

[@NickyColman]

Exactly - UI is key. People don't go into O2 and say "Excuse me sir, does this phone have copy & paste?". They go in and see iPhone and go "Wow! Look how I can interact with it! Look how I can browse the web, view my photos, download the coolest apps etc"

I think Apple could have easily left out Cut, Copy, Paste and people would have still bought iPhone 3GS in their million.

They've brought the mobile Market to it's knees and everyone is trying to mimic brand-Apple. Thankfully for them, iPhone is not everything to everyone. So there will still be people who need cheap Pay & Go handsets and mid-range handsets.

Who knows how long even they will be safe?

[getti]

I have decided to stop commenting on the whole iPhone situation.

Apple could sell a brick called the iBrick and people would say it was the best brick ever made and forgive all its shortfalls and no matter how hard i point out to people the flaws in the iPhone there is just no point as everyone always finds a positive spin to make it look/sound better than it actually is.

Everyone looks at a phone differently and from my point of view the camera lets the iPhone down, the non removable battery could be an issue for a lot of people, no removable memory, it can't multi-task, has restricted ringtones.... in fact a lot of the cool extra stuff needs jail-breaking which is not how Apple intended the phone to work anyway.

I do not want an iPhone, i do not like what the iPhone offers and i do not want to have to be locked into a network with a poor 3G network like O2 offer.

Those are just my opinions and as I said, I wont comment on the iPhone until further notice...... because there is just no point in me stating how I see the phone only to have others defend the downfalls because its Apple.

If Nokia/Sony/Motorola/HTC/LG/Samsung made a phone missing features or specs like the iPhone everyone would slag it off and start saying that the iPhone has a better UI its not all about specs.

The UI might be good but its only as good as the features of the phone

[@NickyColman]

The sales and column inches Apple/iPhone control speak for themselves. Its quality, not quantity with iPhone.

[miffed]

I have decided to stop commenting on the whole iPhone situation.

Apple could sell a brick called the iBrick and people would say it was the best brick ever made and forgive all its shortfalls and no matter how hard i point out to people the flaws in the iPhone there is just no point as everyone always finds a positive spin to make it look/sound better than it actually is.



Mate , do you honestly think (hand on heart) this is all it is ?, and that all the impressive figures WRT sales , browser use and app sales are nothing more than a mixture of people being gullible / loyal - and spin ?

The fact is , in terms of UI the iPhone and Android are in a completely different league to everything else - Fair enough , if you think a good phone is something to do with an infinate amount of Megapixels , then the iPhone is never going to be for you (although I'd like to throw into the pot that I have heard more than one professional Photographer suggest that the 3GS camera is the most "usable" they have seen on a phone - and I have yet to see a mobile that produces better video ! ) - Yeah , sure it could do with a flash - but theb the N97 could do with a UI !

[Ben]

I think we can summise that getti is currently not getting an iPhone again at the moment ;)

[getti]

I think we can summise that getti is currently not getting an iPhone again at the moment ;)

Pretty safe bet lol. And with me being invited to Nokia World next month in Germany i get to see 1st hand what Nokia are up to :D

[@NickyColman]

A small N97?. . . no. . . wait. . . . . :D

[getti]

N97 Mini should be 1 phone but there should also be at least 1 more...... and it will be good!

[miffed]

And so it should be ,Anssi Vanjoki acknowelged the need to copy the iPhone ( .... but then the 5800 followed :confused: ... go figure ? )
The N97 didn't come close either so I suspect their next attempt may be a little closer to the "apple" of Anssi's eyes

[kevwright]

That is a massive understatement, the N97 is by far the worst phone I have ever used.

The amazing thing is, a lot of the very same people who complain about the iPhone's slow drip of features, quite happily spout the line of "oh, all Nokia's need a few firmware releases to be any good"

I lost £100 in a week on that horrible piece of crap, I feel bloody lucky I did not lose a LOT more.

Oh, BTW way Nokia, given how cramped the keyboard already is, bloody genius move to make a smaller version :-)

Kev

[Ben]

Hey Kev, wow, you've been a member a long time to have made two posts! Hehe. Sorry to hear the N97 didn't go down well with you :( Did you settle on something else instead?

[kevwright]

:-)

I am stuck on an iPhone 3G mate, and thinking about getting a 3GS, maybe even as early as tomorrow......


Kev

[Ben]

Ah I loved my 3G. It has to be said, though, the 3GS is extremely fast compared. It's a big improvement for anybody who uses their phone a lot. Comparable to getting a new computer, really, given that little has changed but the spec.