iPhone and iPod Touch -- less can be more
OK. I finally went out and bought an iPod Touch. I'm an Apple fan (I guess) and I've always wanted a pda/iPod converged device (I would have bought an iPhone, but Australia still hasn't received it -- officially, at least). Since I've bought it, I've received a litany of 'this is why the iPhone/iPod touch is crap' from people who don't own either. In response to this, I'm about to voice my opinion on this ill-informed and unwanted rhetoric. So, here are the arguments and my rebuttals:
1. The iPod Touch (iPhone) is rubbish because it doesn't do x, where x is anything from GPS to record video to cut-and-paste to have a SD card slot. Clearly the iPhone doesn't do everything. Now, I'm not an everything type of guy. I don't cary a Swiss Army Knife in my pocket. I drive a car that doesn't have climate control or seat warmers or an mp3 player or an electrochromic rear vision mirror. But even if I were, this argument is specious. Just because something does three times as much doesn't mean it's three times as good. In fact, functionality count is almost completely unrelated to utility. Ever tried using a Swiss Army Pocket Knife to build a fence? Ever bought an all in one drill/saw/angle grinder? Why not? Because sometimes, more is less. The iPhone is a great device not because it does lots of things, but because it does what it does well. It is designed with the human in mind, with use in mind, not with an exhuastive feature list in mind. Its usability is supported by the significant rise in the iPhone as a mobile browser: it has achieved something like 0.13% of all browsing market share within 6 months of its release. Compare that to the approximately 0.06% achieved by Microsoft mobile over the last 10 years. See the figures as of January 2008 if you don't believe me. Why? Try browsing on the iPhone or the iPod touch and you'll find out.
2. The iPod/iPhone touch is rubbish because it's a generation 1.0 device. In other words, it has a whole host of problems and omissions that will never be fixed, and the next version of the device will therefore be better. If the iPod Touch were like most other mp3 players (and if the iPhone were like most other phones), this would be true, because then its feature set would be etched in stone from the day it was sent into production. But it is more like an Apple computer: with each update to the OS, new features and functionality are added. When it first came out, the two devices lacked the ability to support GPS-like location in Google maps. As of update 1.1.3, they now have that capability. When the iPhone first came out, it couldn't send multiple SMS messages. Now it can. At the moment, they don't have a cut-and-paste function. They soon will. Unlike most equivalent products, these two devices are evolving with each update, becoming easier to use, adding new features, but never aiming for Swiss-Army-Knife-levels of functionality.
3. There are no applications to add to the iPod touch or iPhone. Suggesting, of course, that this indicates that the iPod Touch/iPhone is not feature rich enough already. First off, refer to point 1 above, and consider that most of the apps (which, of course, are available, despite peoples' claims) are games and things that are, ultimately, more for amusement value than anything else (of course, my opinion only). Secondly, a vibrant third-party apps community with hundreds of apps exists for the iPhone and iPod Touch, post jail breaking. Thirdly, an SDK is due out this month which will see the rise of officially supported apps. Fourthly, webApps already provides additional functionality through a web interface.
4. The IPhone isn't 3G. Of course, this doesn't apply to the iPod Touch, but nevertheless, the argument is: it isn't 3G, so it's slow. Perhaps it is slower than a broadband connection at home, but try browsing on the 3G N95, and you'll find that it isn't so much about the connection speed as it is about the speed of browser rendering. The lack of 3G is one aspect of the iPhone that won't be changed until version 2 is released, but unless it is vitally important for you to send streaming video or very large images any second of the day, this really isn't an issue. Browsing is fine, and e-mail is more than fast enough. And of course both devices support wifi, and when you're attached to wifi, 3G really is the poor alternative.
5. The virtual keypad doesn't work properly -- it's too slow. The spelling correction on the iPhone/iPod Touch, plus the predictive key enlargement, make typing a breeze. I have had several phones, including a Palm Treo with full keyboards, and they are no faster. Try it first. Like anything, you need to get used to it to really appreciate its effectiveness.
So, given all this, is there anything wrong with the iPhone or iPod touch? Of course. They're comparatively expensive. It might be argued that they (the iPhone in particular) has too little storage (although if you want your entire music collection on the go, get an iPod Classic). And finally, they aren't completely compatible with older accessories. But having used the iPod Touch for some time, I can say that it is probably the most effective converged mp3 player/pda I've ever seen. Try one for more than few days and you'll discover that less really can be more.
