The Apple iPhone is not just a phone - it is a phone, music player, video player, internet device, and camera all in one. Like its Apple iPod Nano and iPod video cousins, the iPhone is slim and sleek at just 11.6mm thick, 2.4-inches wide, and 4.5-inches tall.
Steve Jobs has such confidence in the new iPhone that he has said he wants to sell over 10 million of them by 2008. I think he's setting his sights a little low, and project that Apple will sell over 10 million iPhones in less than 6 months. With the following that Apple has, and the fact that this device has been rumored about and anticipated for almost four years now, it shouldn't be too far out of the realm of possiblity.
iPod Features:
The Apple iPhone is a widescreen iPod that features touch screen controls that allow you to enjoy all your content, including audiobooks, music, TV shows, and movies. It features an amazing 3.5-inch widescreen display, and allows you to sync content from your iTunes library on your PC or Mac, making that content also accessible with just the touch of a finger.
iPhone users will be able to scroll through songs, artists, albums, and playlists with just a flick of a finger. One cool new feature of this function is the display of album artwork - you can now use Cover Flow to browse your music library by album artwork for the first time on an iPod.
Phone Features:
Using the phone function of the Apple iPhone, you can calls by simply pointing your finger at a name or number in your address book, a favorites list, or a call log. All your contacts from a PC, Mac, or Internet device are also automatically synched, you can select and listen to voicemail messages in whatever order you want — just like email. Calls can easily be merged together with just the touch of a button to create a conference call. Conference calling has never been easier!
SMS Text Messaging:
Using the iPhone, you can send text messages withan SMS application with a predictive QWERTY soft keyboard that prevents and corrects mistakes. This makes it easier and more efficient to use than the small plastic keyboards found on many smartphones.
Camera Function:
The Apple iPhone also features an amazing 2-megapixel camera, as well as a photo management application unlike anything available on a phone today. Users can sync photos from a PC or Mac, browse or email them with just a touch of the screen.
Internet Device:
The iPhone features a rich HTML email client as well as the Safari browser, which automatically syncs bookmarks from a PC or Mac. The Safari browser has built-in Google and Yahoo! search. You can also multi-task by reading a web page while simultaneously downloading your email in the background via WiFi or EDGE. Safari also includes built-in Google and Yahoo! search. You can even display Google Maps as they were meant to be seen, and zoom in to view specific points.
E-mail:
The iPhone is great for multi-tasking, so you can read a web page while downloading your email in the background over Wi-Fi or EDGE. Its e-mail client fetches your email in the background from most POP3 or IMAP mail services, and then displays photos and graphics along with the text.
Widgets:
Extend your iPhone with widgets, small applications that give you helpful information like stock reports, weather reports, and more in real time.
Touchscreen:
The iPhone features an amazing 3.5-inch widescreen display, and has one of the most revolutionary user interfaces since the mouse. The interface is unlike anything you've ever experienced on a phone, with a large multi-touch display and innovate new software that allows you to control everything with the touch of a finger.
Intelligent Keyboard:
The iPhone features a full QWERTY keyboard that allows you to send and receive SMS messages, email, etc. It is predicitive, and therefore prevents and corrects mistakes.
Built-in Sensors:
The iPhone incorporates an accelerometer, which detects when a user switches from holding the phone in landscape to portrait mode, and automatically updates the image on screen to fit the mode. The sensors also detect when you put the iPhone near your phone, and automatically shuts off the display screen until you move it away to save on battery power. An ambient light sensor automatically adjusts the screen's brightness to the appropriate level for the current ambient light, which enhances user experience and also saves on battery power.
iPhone Advantages
Brand Elevation. The iPhone home page 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.
Fewer Keystrokes. 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.
Requests Remembered. 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.
Encourage Action. 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!
Multimedia Content. 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.
iPhone Mobile Gotcha’s
Despite its engineering and design capabilities, Apple still needs to address a number of key issues:
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.
Keypad Data Entry. 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.
Limited Widget Integration. 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.
Third-Party Apathy? 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.
iPhone Future
More than a product, the iPhone is an event in the mobile applications industry. In that capacity, the success of the iPhone means success for the market. The industry is holding its collective breath, waiting for feedback from iPhone users who immerse themselves in the Apple-branded experience. When the product reviews come in, expect to see all the major brands looking for ways to replicate Apple’s on-device mobile applications experience. While Apple may be late to the mobile application party, there is no question that they came to the party with a credible offering.
Authored by Scott G. Silk, president and CEO of Action Engine. Action Engine’s award-winning software has been successfully deployed by numerous companies including MSNBC.com, TiVo, Sprint, Verizon Wireless, smarTVideo, SingTel, Optus, and Globe Telecom.