The usual camps are making their voices heard. Mac-heads are drooling over the iPhone whilst Windows-nerds are nonchalantly asking “what’s new?”

We’ve heard all this before and I don’t intend to add to the Mac-Windows debate. I have both and I like both for different reasons. I would also recommend them differently to different people and for different applications.

The issue is the usual fuzzy thinking - that life is all about features and ticking boxes. We can hardly be blamed for such a world view - it’s been the staple of techno “marketing” for eons. There must be a law, like Moore’s Law, that says how features double every new marketing initiative, or something. Ergo, the Windows nerds are declaring nothing new on the basis of features: phone, calendar, pictures, camera, feature x, feature y… “we” already have that, since 2003.
It’s like listening to kids. “Sure, I already thought of that!”

Windows has been about adding features ever since it came out. The Mac, however, has always been about design, or how the features get used, not how many there are. As hard as design gurus try, the bulk of technical people constantly fail to understand its importance. This continues despite the apparent trend these days to talk about “creativity” as the new currency (not knowledge).

The iPhone will have all the same-ish features as most other high-end devices, but I’m damn sure it will be a lot more user friendly, better integrated and just more fun to use. There is something satisfying about much of the “Apple experience”. As my friend says - “it just works!” I know exactly what he means. Look at the remote control for operating Front Row - almost Zen-like in its simplicity (Jobs Buddhist influence perhaps?) - but it just works!
Want to add a bookmark in a WAP browser? Well, it’s not obvious on so many devices. Ditto lots of other things, like 3-way calling (which I’m guessing MOST users don’t even know is possible). This is featurism from the other side of the marketing fence, courtesy of engineering managers most likely obsessed with project plans and how many footnotes they can add to them, or other “measureable” stuff.

“Can we add a bookmark?”

“Yes.”

“OK, tick that feature off.”

“But sir, can we use it?”

“Well, I can.”

We can congratulate Microsoft for making some of our lives mobile long before Apple, but we should be wary of the trap of “it works for me”. I got sick and tired of those fools who used to claim that POP3 on a mobile was “mobile email” and why do we need a Blackberry. I have yet to meet anyone who didn’t enjoy the stunning convenience of the Blackberry email experience, it just works!

I’m deeply curious about the iPhone experience in even the most mundane functions that already “work for us” on umpteen other devices. I’m pretty sure we shall appreciate how wrong we are.

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