It’s been more than a month since I last blogged here. I took some well-deserved time off during December. Since last time, I’ve bought an
Apple iPhone (more hipster stuff) and Google launched its Nexus One phone.
BlackBerry platform (which I had been loyal to for more than 7 years prior to my recent Apple-ification). The fact that things came to a head on January 6 was entirely unplanned.
My delight at how downright enchanting Apple’s products are is still covering everything in a honeymoon sheen, so I question my critical faculties a little, but – to be honest – the ease with which I’ve been able to adopt each of these products
(a MacBook Pro, an iPod Classic and now the iPhone) and seamlessly integrate them into my digital life has been nothing short of remarkable.
I thought I’d take a few moments and reflect on what constitutes a successful smartphone. I’ve tried 3 of the 6 major flavours myself, and I think I garnered some useful insights along the way. I’m equally sure that there are product planners at Apple, RIM, Nokia,
Microsoft and elsewhere whose understanding of these matters is far deeper than mine. I just don’t think they’re blogging about it.
Currently, the 6 main flavours of smartphone on the market are the Apple iPhone, the various Google Android devices (including Google’s own Nexus One), the Palm Pre, RIM’s BlackBerry line, the Microsoft
Windows Mobile devices and whatever Nokia fields in this space (I’ve seen them, but mostly from a distance; notice how difficult it is on their website to determine what, exactly, they’re offering in this category). I’m personally familiar with any number of recent (and older)
BlackBerries, the iPhone and the Windows Mobile platform (I’ve owned a Samsung BlackJack and regularly examine my colleagues’ WinMo phones at the office just to make sure I haven’t missed anything; I never do).
Of these 6 flavours, only two are genuinely successful ventures: the iPhone is successful in every way; the
BlackBerry is successful in most ways. And while there is a lot of buzz in the blogosphere about the Android platform and the Nexus One, limited market penetration and lack of consumer interest (at least to date) make it hard to judge. Most reviews, though – if you
look beyond the developer fanboys dazzled by the promise of open source hacking their phones – are basically “meh.” It’s good, they say, solid even, an interesting contender, works well, pretty screen, good software, great
Gmail integration, etc. And everybody said that about the iPhone.
company. In a post-Microsoft, post-Linux world, that seems like a terribly old-fashioned thing to say but it’s true: