The recent headline news in the industry was the announcement that Orange and Vodafone had concluded a deal with Apple that will allow them to sell the iPhone in the UK, breaking the exclusive agreement that O2 have been enjoying to date. The full detail of the packages Orange and Vodafone will be offering are yet to be announced, but the mere news that the iPhone would be available on alternative networks in the UK sent the blogosphere and technology newswires nuts! It was everywhere, and the news was reported in a manner that was almost reverential – here it is, the iPhone, not just any old phone, but the iPhone, available on other networks!
It was fascinating to watch, as the news spread across the web, and comment came thick and fast. What would this mean for O2? Would it bring more competition in price plans? What kind of data plans would Orange and Vodaone deliver? What about T-Mobile? As a mobile geek of many years standing, what really caught my interest is how much admiration, almost worship, is given in all matters iPhone. It set me wondering; just what is it about the iPhone that generates such enthusiasm?
I mean, when you look at the iPhone, pound for pound, feature for feature; it isn’t even the most advanced phone on the market. The iPhone 3G S is clearly the most advanced of the iPhone family, but stick it up against something like the HTC Touch Pro II, or Nokia N97, and eventually it will come up short. The iPhone cannot multi task, in the traditional sense of a smartphone, applications are closed and opened as you move between them, rather than being moved to the background as would happen on a Windows Mobile device or Symbian handset. Bluetooth is still restricted to headset support, you cannot move files from an iPhone to another handset. It is only recently that such basic features as picture messaging or video recording have been enabled on the iPhone.
But the point of this article is not to berate the iPhone, but to try to understand why, despite these limitations, it pulls in such attention. An obvious answer would be to look at the marketing campaign that lies behind the phone. With a catchphrase that is starting to become used in more common, everyday language, the simple adverts promise a handset that is simple to use and offers a simple way of personalising the phone with applications that are simple to download and simple to install, applications that abound in their thousands and downloaded in their millions, and all of these applications are available to add and load by the simplest of phone user. And I think that is where the secret lies. What Apple has done is taken what could have been a complicated device and instead delivered one of the simplest ‘smartphones’ on the market. The secret is simply in the simplicity of the iPhone.
The mobile user at large, generally, doesn’t want to have to hunt through multiple layers of menu to find out how to set up their phone to send an email with attachment, take a picture, record a video, install an app, update the software, back the phone up, and so on. What the average user at large wants is a phone that just plugs in to the PC, and will automatically back up, easily synchronise, and has a UI that just works. And the iPhone excels here, with the help of a large screen and straight forward interface, the iPhone is probably the easiest handset to use for a new smartphone user. The multi touch input that allows you to zoom in and out on pictures and web pages by using a natural pinching movement is bordering on genius in its effortless nature, and this is a perfect example of the appeal of the iPhone. Basically, with the iPhone you don’t need to *be* smart to use *this* smartphone.
Add on to that the ease of being able to copy iTunes data such as music, podcasts, buy apps online and transfer them to the iPhone, and it just rounds of the complete user experience, and this is where Apple are strong, and the competition remains weak. This won’t last for much longer, with other manufacturers working on improving their own application and service stores, and networks looking to muscle in on the action too, and Apple are aware of this, and this is a significant point to the recent announcements, as Apple look to increase their market share.
There is still a little too much hysteria surrounding the iPhone, but Apple have opened up the smartphone market to a whole new section of users, and for this, they should be applauded. And because of this, now is a good time for Apple to launch their product on other networks, to maximise their exposure to consumers who for whatever reason wouldn’t or couldn’t move to O2, and to cement their market niche with a few hundred thousand more handset sales and a few million more app purchases.
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