Dr. Dobb's | iPhone: One Man's View

iPhone: One Man's View

Apple's iPhone -- the good and the not so good

June 28, 2007
URL:http://drdobbs.com/mobile/iphone-one-mans-view/200001487

DDJ: We're here with Scott Silk, president of Action Engine.

Scott, as head of a company that’s been involved with mobile applications in the on-device portal space for several years, what's your 30,000 foot snapshot of Apple's iPhone?

SS: One look at the mobile data features of the iPhone reveals that Apple took many of its usability cues from the On-Device Portal (ODP) companies that have been optimizing mobile application usability for years. The first thing users see when they turn on an iPhone is an ODP into a handful of widgets, the mobile applications that deliver pre-packaged rich content. Widgets set the iPhone apart, and they will be key to the iPhone user experience.

DDJ: What are some of the iPhone advantages?

SS: The iPhone homepage establishes one central on-device portal for accessing all of Apple’s rich content and standalone widgets. By establishing a consistent look-and-feel across all of the iPhone widgets, Apple elevates its brand. No matter which widget they use, users get the same user experience, navigation, and look and feel. The on-device portal approach enables Apple to "own" the end-to-end user experience on the phone.

By letting users drag-and-drop-and-touch, Apple eliminated as many keystrokes as possible to discover and access rich content. This, I believe, is a smart move, considering a simple music download from a carrier portal can take 18 to 39 clicks to execute. That’s a huge usability hindrance as most people abandon such activities after six clicks.

To further ease data entry, iPhone widgets also connect with the Personal Information Manager (PIM) software on the phone. This enables users to quickly email or text content to a friend. They can grab addresses from their contacts and use them inside widgets to reduce data entry -- a key feature of any on-device portal application.

The iPhone also remembers recent requests. Search for stocks using the stock widget, and the requests will be stored, eliminating the need to reenter the same information later. Similarly, by offering personalization features in the widgets, Apple prevents repeat data entry.

When the iPhone displays content, an "action bar" at the bottom of the screen provides further options for using the content. (e.g., find an address for a restaurant, then map door-to-door directions to the restaurant, then get current traffic conditions.) Okay, maybe it’s not called an "action bar" -- that’s what we call ours -- but it's cool. Nice job Apple!

Finally, iPhone will offer music, streaming video, podcasts, movies, YouTube, and more. Nobody does multimedia better than Apple, and dedicated applications are the best way to deliver these services.

DDJ: Okay, what are some of the iPhone gotchas?

SS: For one thing, the "Cellular Internet Trap." Sure, the Safari mobile browser may be the best mobile browser ever. But unless users are near a WiFi hotspot, Safari doesn’t solve the fundamental problem facing Apple -- and everyone else -- namely, every click is a connection over the cellular Internet. Worse, the iPhone uses AT&T’s slower EDGE network rather than a 3G network. While the slow speeds are not Apple’s fault, they reflect poorly on Apple’s brand -- making the quick-click widgets an even more important part of the iPhone experience.

Then Apple’s gone out of its way to simplify data entry, but users browsing the Web on an iPhone will still wind up tapping in URLs on the touch screen keypad. Related concerns are the screen’s user-friendliness and scratch resistance. Touch screens have, historically, proved to be good in concept but often flawed in execution.

Beyond its PIM integration, widget integration on the iPhone is limited. For example, after looking up a city’s weather in the weather widget, that city should appear for mapping in the map widget. It should, but it doesn’t. Similarly, the widgets could be beefed up with more offline content options, letting consumers narrow down their search criteria offline rather than connecting to the network every step of the way.

Finally, Apple may limit third-party developers to building browser-based applications. Why not offer a Software Development Kit, or SDK, and encourage third parties to contribute to the users' experience? Obviously, Apple has been paying attention to third-party developers to see what was and wasn’t working in mobile. Shutting them out now is clearly a mistake.

DDJ:Will developers be able to build a variety of useful browser-based applications for the iPhone?

SS: Sure, Apple lets you build web-based services, but if usability is priority #1 for them then they should understand that the limitations of the mobile web make on-device applications a much better alternative for consumers. The wait times and dropped connections found when using browser-based mobile applications make the experience of searching for content simply unacceptable for today's busy consumer.

Why stifle creativity by closing off the downloadable application opportunity to developers? This will only prevent iPhone owners from personalizing their home screens with lots of interesting widgets that are developed by third parties. Many of the early adopters of mobile data services have already become loyal followers of their favorite Java, BREW, Symbian, and Windows Mobile powered applications and it is disappointing that Apple's approach is to prevent them from bringing those applications with them over to the iPhone. I'm hopeful that Apple will enable more offline applications by providing real access to the OSX platform in future releases.