One reason why we all love the i-phone UI is because everything else is so boring or impractical to navigate. Due to the oligopolies, there has been this quiet collusion to not rock the boat.
Enter Apple, and now the other will have to innovate. Their UIs have to catch up to the huge feature set their PDA-phones now have.

“Ditch prejudices and analyze objectively – the mark of a true enthusiast in any field.”

Thats, for the most part, all i ask. I doubt anyone sane would think that one company should dominate, patents or not, and that the other companies that have had this field for years would sit and fold their arms.

Even Winmo are finally gradually stepping up to the plate aand doing something about that staid technical UI. HTC Touch and Winmo 6.1, though not great leaps, but a step in the right direction. Hopefully they will colaborate more with the Zune team.

Nokia and Sonyericcson will make more of an impact because they understand this fast moving field and each are already making strides in the UI concept. The technologies alone behind the new Symbian UI is greatly impressive….if you believe the video demos.

Android working with Synaptic? Awesome. I see good things from them too as long as the licensees make good on the hardware. Still early days of course.

Multi-touch is the true innovation here. Its great. I applaud apple for being the first to apply it to a mass produced, pocket size device. They wont be the last.

Its going to be an interesting new year in the mobile/cell tech world.

Maybe they’ll come up with some smart UI that anticipates what you want to do.

As far as touch-interface goes I think it is just an interlude to gesture control via your camera or some other sensoric input. Face it people, human fingers are greasy and I can’t see myself polishing my mobile device all the time.

Now if that’s a problem for Nokia then clearly they need to work harder at convincing me otherwise. You seem to imply that it’s somehow my personal duty to develop faith in Nokia. No, it’s Nokia’s job to CLEARLY demonstrate their future abilities to me. I have reason to believe that Nokia have what it takes to match Apple next year, that’s not my fault, it’s theirs. I see no reason why I should not be allowed to call it as I see it.

The issue here is not the technology. The technology is irrelevant because, as far as the big-dogs are concerned, the playing field is level – everyone has basically the same technical know-how (I presume Apple also has the know-how but just lacks real-world experience to execute high-technology in the iPhone – iPhone 2.0 anyone?). The issue at hand is the subjective side of the equation – ie, the user experience which is derived from the UI. The iPhone gets attention because its “slick” for lack of a better word.

This statement is what worries me:
“Anyone can make a fine UI that works very well with its intended hardware and in turn makes it easy to use, many have already for other devices. ”

I would argue that making a decent, usable, and effective UI is within any manufacturer/developer’s reach. But, effectiveness and competency do not a good UI make. Any UI can get the job done, and it’s fine as long as the user can navigate and execute their tasks within the UI. The mark of a real, stand-out, exceptional UI is the cohesive and intuitive user experience. Windows Mobile, for instance (which I love, by the way), is a perfect example of a UI that is effective and competent (if not always stable, but that’s another issue – a memory handling issue, specifically), but falls flat in the user experience department. WinMo lacks an intuitive feel. Sure, you can do a lot by drilling down through menus and options, but that detracts from a cohesive “feel.”

When you say that:
“Its so easy for a UI to look clean and easy when it doesn’t have to deal with many things going on under the hood. You have less options to set, less things to play around with and optimize to different preferences.” (this reminds me of the classic Mac vs PC debate – which is, for the most-part, unfounded)

It just highlights the fact that many iPhone-detractors have not had enough seat-time with the iPhone to understand or accept its strengths. The Ui is clean and easy, but the iPhone can be customized in many different ways. To that end, a good UI will avoid option-overload in an effort to make the user-experience a more enjoyable one. Who cares what proxy server setting is being used if the connection just works (you can specify proxy servers on the iPhone, by the way – which again highlights my presumption that many iPhone detractors have not had the hands-on experience with the device to make a solid decision).

I don’t want to keep babbling, so I’ll end this response with one sentence.

Coming from the hard-core WinMo camp, I was close-minded to any Nokia products (Symbian). So, when I started using them (so that my perspectives on the mobile space are based on experience and not assumptions) I was quick to point out the wrongs and downfalls of this Nokia or that Nokia device. But, as soon as I ditched my biases and started objectively analyzing the strengths of different devices, Nokia devices (N95 especially) really struck me as truly remarkable devices. The lesson? Ditch prejudices and analyze objectively – the mark of a true enthusiast in any field.

OK, that was more than one sentence, my bad

disclaimer: I think it’s important to note that I do NOT think the iPhone is perfect in the hardware department (it’s far outclassed by other devices), the issue here is the UI. Furthermore, I am not out to bash anyone’s position or opinion. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and that’s a good thing. I’ll shut up now.

See it from all sides, open your mind and maybe things will be better.

For twenty years, with Macs I have been empowered to do things my fellow engineers, managers and attorneys did not do. They always chorus “My PC ‘can’ also do that” or “You can also do that with Windows on a PC”.

But they didn’t…and mostly, they still don’t. It is just too much to learn, too complicated, and they never get around to “doing” it on their PCs.

So, the non-Apple companies will not quickly catch up, because they really don’t get it. It’s not features and it’s not “cheapest”. It IS Useability, learnibility (without manuals), simplicity, user-friendliness, pleasure of use, quick learning curve, compatability with your “family” of devices, and customer service.

They won’t catch up well at all…ever. And when they do…Apple will have moved on two generations ahead. It is due to Apple’s dedication (matching their fans enthusiasm) for make things simpler, easier and improving the user experience. Other corporate philosophies are obsolete.

I really wish you would visit more technology conferences like the recent Symbian Smartphone Show in London, where apart from S6O’s new touch UI that many have ridiculed as an iphone clone (which puzzles me since this company is actually trying to improve things and yet the multitudes are stifling their efforts with derogatory comments to the fact), there are so many fantastic technologies under the hood that would make the next year in mobile tech a very interesting and innovative one.

Its so easy for a UI to look clean and easy when it doesn’t have to deal with many things going on under the hood. You have less options to set, less things to play around with and optimize to different preferences.
When you start adding multiple abilities to a small device, the UI has to account for the many things the hardware can accomplish, so it inevitably starts to become abit jumbled and untidy.

Now that said, its no excuse, and its just plain laziness on the designers part. The single most important thing that the iphone has done is to show that all those ideas, concepts they had on the drawing board are ready for the limelight, and the end users can handle them. Its not that the iphone is better, its that apple had the balls to bring something quite new that folks weren’t used to….though of course, the brand power helped to convince the many generations brought up around that name.

Anyone can make a fine UI that works very well with its intended hardware and in turn makes it easy to use, many have already for other devices. I’m not so closed minded and one sided to believe that one company has the best stock of designers and crew, when i have seen others in my many years produce stunning examples.

The technology is there now and frankly i see at least the major manufacturers like Nokia and Sony catching up within the year. They have the drive, they have the skill, and they have shareholders that require them to claw back their notoriety.

So please, don’t block your minds, your eyes to what is there. Technology need to advance and features are incredibly important. This is a field that doesn’t need to be dumbed down, but rather moved further and opened up. Just because you don’t have use for a certain feature does not mean there aren’t multitudes of others that have used and will still use it.
The UI is the future, and it will catch up before you know it. I have great faith in the abilities of the individuals at work behind the scenes, and now they have seen the way to do it, the hidden concepts that were once deemed to far out and expensive to develop, will now finally come forth.

So bring on the iphone 2.0, it will be in fine company.

I haven’t even mentioned emerging markets and multiple device strategies of these other well weathered companies that statistics seem to look over to equate true success.

So please don’t be so shortsighted about the industry as whole.

p.s… this is just an unedited, rough, reactionary snippet of my thoughts on this issue and there is alot more i could say. I’m not on one side, but more against the hyperbole of the iphone and worrying sense that many of the blogs and tech writers i once deemed knowledgeable and impartial, just gushing on this one device and missing the point entirely. Plus they are also just using the name to get more page hits and advertising. I mean no personal offense.

You said you wanted comments.

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About multitouch – I really dont think it is that much of an overwhelming feature. You dont actually use it that much when using an iphone/touch. Yes it looks great but in it current state doesnt offer much more than can be done with one hand. ie when navigating a webpage or looking at photos I find the double tap more convienient.

Other phone UIs suffered from having to support touchless devices as well, something Apple did not have to do.

But now lots of third parties giving Windows Mobile better touch navigation, Nokia is seeing the light, etc.

The iPhone has done everyone a great service by pointing out that simple, but entertaining, is a good UI on a phone.

People these days are less impressed with features and more impressed with friendliness, and that’s exactly how it should be. I can’t think of anybody who can compete with Apple for the foreseeable future. We may as well get used to living in a world where Apple have a large share of the phone market. I for one, feel much more comfortably with Apple keeping Nokia on their toes, it should lead to much faster innovation in the industry . . . as your article pointed out.