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Funny this article comes just before the iPhone revolution which puts everything in your pocket and has swallowed the gps, radio, camera, iPod, phone and pda in

Funny this article comes just before the iPhone revolution which puts everything in your pocket and has swallowed the gps, radio, camera, iPod, phone and pda in one single device.

jwblackwell 8y ago
The iPhone is really a platform
- gmueckl 8y ago
  But it is a device that does everything. In the end it doesn't matter much which software module delivers the functionality. It is still a device in your pocket that does it. And even a stock iPhine today is more capable than feature phones of those days. People manage to navigate that complexity rather well, all things considered.
  - TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
    The complexity is modular, tactile, solution-oriented, and opt-in. The iPhone would be unusable if it came installed with every possible app. Making apps opt-in gives users the power to decide which features they do/don't want. And apps are sold as limited tools for specific tasks, not as a rat's nest of do-everything features - like many desktop apps. Apple could have split apps into different hardware categories, so instead of apps that used the camera you had Camera Apps as a separate category to Microphone apps. But that would have been exactly the wrong approach. The Apple approach makes user benefits obvious and keeps the technology subservient to them, which is as it should be. Although having said that, it's hard to imagine today's Apple making that choice and getting it right in the same ways.
    - fulafel 8y ago
      The "Apple approach", once they enabled 3rd party apps, was pretty similar in this respect as the incumbent smartphones and PDAs. The app store as a one stop center, and forbidding sideloadingf, was arguably ahead.
rdiddly 8y ago
So I guess the relevant question there is, has the smartphone managed to overcome "feature fatigue" for all the formerly-separate devices it combines? I would say "Yes, partially," because a software interface is more flexible than a hardware one, and you can at least partly rely on a common language in your UI to guide people along. And if the user wants the clock but not the radio, they can just uninstall the radio and forget about it, instead of having to look past it every time to find the clock.
fmajid 8y ago
People forget just how much of a usability revolution the iPhone was compared to the not-so-smartphones that preceded it.
- z3t4 8y ago
  I think the iPhone gets too much credit then it deserves. I owned a smartphone with Gps, wifi, full touch screen, apps, Windows, etc years before iPhone. It was a growing market.
empath75 8y ago
It also had fewer features than other phones when it was released and people complained endlessly about it.

Funny this article comes just before the iPhone revolution which puts everything in your pocket and has swallowed the gps, radio, camera, iPod, phone and pda in one single device.

jwblackwell 8y ago

The iPhone is really a platform

gmueckl 8y ago
But it is a device that does everything. In the end it doesn't matter much which software module delivers the functionality. It is still a device in your pocket that does it. And even a stock iPhine today is more capable than feature phones of those days. People manage to navigate that complexity rather well, all things considered.
- TheOtherHobbes 8y ago
  The complexity is modular, tactile, solution-oriented, and opt-in. The iPhone would be unusable if it came installed with every possible app. Making apps opt-in gives users the power to decide which features they do/don't want. And apps are sold as limited tools for specific tasks, not as a rat's nest of do-everything features - like many desktop apps. Apple could have split apps into different hardware categories, so instead of apps that used the camera you had Camera Apps as a separate category to Microphone apps. But that would have been exactly the wrong approach. The Apple approach makes user benefits obvious and keeps the technology subservient to them, which is as it should be. Although having said that, it's hard to imagine today's Apple making that choice and getting it right in the same ways.
  - fulafel 8y ago
    The "Apple approach", once they enabled 3rd party apps, was pretty similar in this respect as the incumbent smartphones and PDAs. The app store as a one stop center, and forbidding sideloadingf, was arguably ahead.

rdiddly 8y ago

So I guess the relevant question there is, has the smartphone managed to overcome "feature fatigue" for all the formerly-separate devices it combines? I would say "Yes, partially," because a software interface is more flexible than a hardware one, and you can at least partly rely on a common language in your UI to guide people along. And if the user wants the clock but not the radio, they can just uninstall the radio and forget about it, instead of having to look past it every time to find the clock.

fmajid 8y ago

People forget just how much of a usability revolution the iPhone was compared to the not-so-smartphones that preceded it.

z3t4 8y ago
I think the iPhone gets too much credit then it deserves. I owned a smartphone with Gps, wifi, full touch screen, apps, Windows, etc years before iPhone. It was a growing market.

empath75 8y ago

It also had fewer features than other phones when it was released and people complained endlessly about it.