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But they were always phones, first. You turn it on / open it, and it's at the phone screen. You could just dial using the dedicated hardware numeric keypad, an
by gregmac 11y ago
But they were always phones, first.
You turn it on / open it, and it's at the phone screen. You could just dial using the dedicated hardware numeric keypad, and it would place a call. To get to the web browser, calendar, and other functions you had to go into a sub-menu, because they were secondary, not-that-important functions of the device.
If it's a phone, this is a fine design. If it's a device who only happens to have a phone feature (and personally, I barely use the "phone" part of my phone anymore), then it's actually a very annoying design. It's about as useful as if someone decided that upon startup or pressing the "home" button, it should go to Angry Birds, and all other apps/features could be accessed via a menu button after that.
It's a subtle, but important, difference in the mindset that goes into designing both the hardware and software.
- jonas21 11y agoI would hardly call a Blackberry or a Sidekick or any of a number of Windows Mobile devices of that era "phones, first." The difference in mindset is that Apple thought about how they were going to sell the product first and built the hardware and software around that.
- vardump 11y agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9000_Communicator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9000_Communicator When you opened Nokia Communicator, it was more like PDA or a computer than a phone. Home screen, calendar, message, etc. widgets, very much like Android phones are nowadays. It was like a phone only when closed. Made sense that way. http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_9000_communicator-16.php http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_9000_communicator-16.php Note web browser and telnet client, that was pretty cool in 1996. gsmarena mistakenly says it was introduced in 1998. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E90_Communicator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E90_Communicator In 2007, Nokia E90 had a display that was almost like "retina", 219 DPI. The web browser was also usable at the time. It had even Flash player.