5 ms·
A smartphone retrospective
- megablast 16y agoThe future is clear, no keyboards!
- wingo 16y agoI meant to upvote, but touched the down instead!
- nanairo 16y agoLol... I am sure it is... today. ;) If history is any indication, we'll find that there will be different input systems for different purposes. There's no reason for extremisms in the tech world. (personally I would love it if the iPad came with writing recognition and a stylus, even if the stylus was attached to the sleeve and not the iPad itself).
- lallysingh 16y agoMore than anything else, the article was a wonderful display of the power of well-placed graphics to make the point. Using the vertical axis as time, they're implying a wonderfully straightforward visual pattern of an apple singularity vs a reactionary pulse (horizontal axis) of the industry. Really smacks you in the face.
- wvenable 16y agoIf anything else, this article is a wonderful display of the power of misleading graphics to make a point. For comparison, this was my first smartphone in 2002 (5 years before the iPhone): http://www.mobilemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/image_56834_superimage.jpg http://www.mobilemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/image_56...
- ericd 16y agoStyli suck pretty hard. Can you point to a comparable capacitative screen phone that predated the iPhone? I'm sure there are probably a couple, but most of those probably had some serious shortcomings which Apple's did not.
- wvenable 16y agoCapacitive touch screens didn't even exist in 2002. The other shortcomings older phones have: slower processors, lower resolution screens, etc.
- ZeroGravitas 16y agoStyli seem to work pretty well for Nintendo with their DS. Much easier to see what's going on without a finger in the way. Sold over a 100 million of them and made ridiculous profits too, which seem to be the Apple fans' metrics of choice when it comes to success these days.
- nanairo 16y agoI don't think the stylus is really that bad. In fact it may be better in some situation. But if you really think it's so great, then let me ask you this: why does no smartphone now come with a stylus? I am not saying that finger is better. But Apple believed it was better and worked with it. Personally I think it's an alternative. But why has everybody followed Apple like sheep? Can nobody else think with their own brain?
- Qz 16y agoOops meant to upvote. My dad has been using iPhone-like devices since they started coming out with pocketPC's. Granted they weren't as good as the iPhone (which TBH I'm not a huge fan of anyway).
- anactofgod 16y agoInteresting retrospective presentation. But I have two quibbles with the stated facts. First, some pre-iPhone smartphones had touchscreens, but required a stylus to be effective. Secondly, tablets weren't being ignored pre-iPad. They just weren't being done particularly well, outside of a few industry-specific verticals. BTW, these aren't the first instances Apple changed the design norms for the mobile industry. Anyone remember what laptops looked like before the PowerBook 100? Moving the keyboard forward towards the screen to make room for the trackball provided the rest of the laptop manufacturers the template for laptops that continues to be used to this day. We benefit because we have room to rest our wrists between typing spells.
- muyyatin 16y agoA large number of smartphones still have keyboards because it is a faster way to type. Maybe this will change with advances in speech recognition, but most people I know type much more on their netbooks than with their smartphones.
- dasil003 16y agoSpeech recognition will never make the need for good text entry go away simply because people do not want to speak their private thoughts out loud in public.
- philwelch 16y agoIn addition to that problem, typing is faster than talking; writing and speaking are for many people completely different modes of thinking with their own voice and diction; going back and editing is too awkward and difficult with speech recognition--for instance, adding this very phrase after typing out much more of my post would have probably been more effort than it was worth, as would have been reorganizing this ugly block of text into some sort of list; talking out loud takes more energy and dries out your mouth; dozens of people in an office together can all type without bothering each other very much; people with funny accents, speech impediments, very bad colds, or who have lost their voice can type more easily than their voices can be transcribed even by a skilled human transcriptionist, much less a speech recognition engine; there are fundamental complications with speech recognition, such as capitalization, punctuation, syntax, use of proper names, neologisms, and other terms unfamiliar to the engine, as well as distinguishing commands to the speech recognition engine from speech to be recognized and transcribed, and all of these complications can be easily resolved in any arbitrarily user-defined fashion whilst typing--for instance, my choice to write the bulk of this post as a single sentence consisting of multiple independent clauses strung together with semicolons would be more difficult to implement in any speech-recognition engine; and finally, many people who learned the language from books more than from speech don't even know how to pronounce certain words they have only seen in print and would have their vocabularies reduced tremendously if restricted to speech recognition--as an example, it wasn't until college until I learned the correct pronunciation of the word "albeit", a word which I have seen far more often in print than I have ever heard it said out loud, reflecting my earlier point about how people's spoken diction often differs from their written diction.
- guelo 16y agoHuh? Before Apple all smartphones looked like Blackberrys? I could show you 100 popular non-keyboard-having pre-2007 devices, starting with the PalmPilot a decade before the iPhone. Besides, a lot of people still use and like the Blackberry form factor considering they're still the number one smartphone. So no one will buy a netbook in 3 years? Apple fanbois are just ridiculous.
- rimantas 16y agostarting with the PalmPilot a decade before the iPhone Why not to start with Apple Newton, a few years before Palm Pilot? But neither of these was a smartphone, so your point is?
- anactofgod 16y agoYup. And the GRiDPad pre-dates the MessagePad, but was also not a smartphone. And, as the article's author point out, none anyone else had built previously sans keyboard achieved the mass market appeal that the iTouch, iPhone or iPad has.
- vetinari 16y agoEricsson Pxxx phones were pretty popular in their time. Sure, technically they had keyboard, but after detaching it were the same form factor as iPhone.
- 16y ago
- baddox 16y agoThis article claims that a double standard exists. I disagree. I think that the iPhone isn't so great "because of its lack of a keyboard, its non-removable battery, its lack of expansion slots or ports, and other hardware features..." I also think that the iPad isn't so great because it's "not capable enough because of its lack of a keyboard, its non-removable battery, its lack of expansion slots or ports, and other hardware features..."
- kiba 16y agoI like fatter keyboard with feedback on my netbook, pretty please. Also, get rid of the caps lock and make the keyboard symmetrical. Make the monitor detachable while you're at it.
- sliverstorm 16y agoWould you like some cheese with your whine?
- csmeder 16y agoI made a graph http://chris.smeder.com/essays/3_stevejobs.htm http://chris.smeder.com/essays/3_stevejobs.htm when the iPad came out that describes the public's reaction to Jobs' product decisions and then how they feel a year or so later about his decisions. The point being people have such little faith in some one who has made the tough but right decision so many times. For example: - removing the arrow keys from the original Mac http://www.asktog.com/columns/082iPad&Mac.html http://www.asktog.com/columns/082iPad&Mac.html - removing the floppy drive from computers - making the iMac not upgradable (this made so many people angry). Yet few care that most computers, laptops, bought today are not upgradable. - non removable battery - Expensive, no wifi (lame) - less features than the competition - no flash - iOS instead of Mac OSX
- nanairo 16y agoI agree with your argument, and I upvoted you for that. But that graph? Seriously??? A bit of a Job's fan? ;)
- nchlswu 16y agoNot to take away from Apple's brilliance, this is a gross oversimplification; it's simple as that.
- tjogin 16y agoI don't think the author is claiming the article to be comprehensive. It's claim chowder. And I'm betting he's right too, let's check back in three years and see how it went.
- nanairo 16y agoWell, I'd be surprised anyone read (or would write) a 500 words article on the last 5 years of smartphones and assume it wasn't a gross oversimplification.
- deleted 16y ago[deleted]
- Tichy 16y agoI wish there was a way to ban Apple fanboyism from HN.
- loewenskind 16y agoWhat about anti-Apple zelotry? Google fanboyism (this one is worse than the other two combined)?
- fbnt 16y agoI'd be an anti-apple zealot if I were telling you how bad the iPad is, or how apple suck at doing things. But I don't. Actually, I think Apple makes good devices, but I get a bit irritate when I open up a link expecting to read some insightful analisys of the smartphone industry growth of the last decade, and instead I get some kid yelling out how the iPhone/iPad 'kick-ass', or how it 'revolutionized' the nature of the human kind. It didn't. Apple makes very good devices based on market trends. that's it. You can't call me a zealot for simply disagreeing with you.
- loewenskind 16y agoI didn't call you anything, I pointed out that it's here on this site. Do you deny that?
- Tichy 16y agoPoint to some examples then, if you care?
- loewenskind 16y agoIs this a serious question? You don't see any anti-Apple sentiment on this site? Nor raving Google fanboyism? I could accept that if you said you didn't see apple fanboyism either (personally, I see all 3), but if you say that you see one and not the other than I think that means you're in one of those groups.
- kenjackson 16y agoThis article is wrong on multiple counts: 1) The iPhone didn't take off because it had no keyboard. It took off because it it had a decent web-browser. 2) Smartphones were a niche device in 2007. And generally were considered products that were severely lacking. The WinMo UI was considered a dog before the iPhone ever appeared. 3) Laptops aren't a niche product and generally aren't considered dogs. In general no one is looking for a laptop replacement, even amoung those that bought iPads.
- ecuzzillo 16y ago1) Do you really think the web browser was the only reason the iPhone took off? There were no other ways it failed to suck that all previous phones had sucked? 2) Actually, the pattern fits better if you compare smartphones before 2007 to tablets before the iPad. In both cases, the category contained shitty products that relatively few people used. In both cases, Apple got a bunch of different things right that made the entire category suddenly seem like it wasn't a bad idea anymore. 3) The comparison in TFA was to netbooks, not laptops. Netbooks were not fantastically widely used, and they did have problems.
- pornel 16y agoWeb browser was usable because phone had large touchscreen, because there was no keyboard taking the real estate. Opera Mobile (not Mini) was technically more than decent before Safari, but browsing experience was poor on smaller screens and keypads.
- dagw 16y agoThere had been phones before the iPhone with large touch screens and no keyboards, and they all had shitty web browsing. Apple got it right because they where the first company to consider web browsing a first class integrated feature, as important as phone calls and text messaging, and not some minor add on to be fobbed off to some third party developer.
- pornel 16y agoMost (if not all) of those large-touchscreen phones had Windows Mobile on it, which was absolutely dreadful. There was no flick-to-scroll. You had to use stylus to grab 3px-wide scrollbar. I think the problem wasn't that manufacturers didn't take browsing seriously (Opera is keen to work closely with manufacturers), but that they didn't take touchscreens seriously.
- Legion 16y agoWhere's the Newton?
- pavlov 16y agoI clicked on the link expecting a smartphone retrospective, but instead got "iPad will rule"... At least it was short. -- It needs to be pointed out that the Treo/Blackberry form factor was not the only one - or even the dominant one, globally - before 2007. The all-touchscreen phone was pioneered by Ericsson starting in 2000... Ericsson R380: http://www.geek.com/hwswrev/pda/ericr380/index.htm http://www.geek.com/hwswrev/pda/ericr380/index.htm Sony Ericsson P900: http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_p900-544.php http://www.gsmarena.com/sony_ericsson_p900-544.php Nokia has been making "micro-laptop" style smartphones since 1996: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_Communicator http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_Communicator The standard phone keypad is still the world's best-selling smartphone form factor since 2002: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_7650 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_7650 A company called MyOrigo introduced a buttonless touchscreen smartphone with accelerometer controls in 2003: http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Id=547 http://www.mobileburn.com/review.jsp?Id=547 IMHO, these devices ought to have a place in any smartphone retrospective.
- Tichy 16y agoAlso, before touch there were stylus devices (ie Palm Pilots).
- bruceboughton 16y agoCan a phone be called touchscreen (in the way we now understand it) if it requires a stylus?
- ZeroGravitas 16y agoI've been waiting a couple of years for a netbook with an ARM processor and a non-Windows OS. I don't think it's a coincidence that those features apply to the iPad and people think it's a big jump forward. Just as with the iPod and iPhone the story is just as much about what others were actively fighting against (mp3 support, freedom from carrier interference) as what Apple positively stands for. That doesn't take anything away from Apple becuase they bucked those trends, it just makes me sad that we had to wait for someone with their clout to enter the Market and shake things up. What about the many markets they don't bother with?
- jrockway 16y agoWhat's the serious shortcoming on the netbook? That it has a keyboard, that I can run any software I want to, and that I can get unlimited 3G from any provider I want? Yeah, that sucks. I'm trashing my netbook right now!
- rimantas 16y agoyup. Try reading your netbook in portrait orientation. That keyboard comes really handy then.