Google iPhone usage shocks search giant
appleinsider.com
appleinsider.com
Those of us who are fortunate to forgo its "lack" of features, understand that it can add value to part of the routine and boredom of day-to-day life.
It's actually fun to do something productive and/or kill time with it while out-and-about.
From presentation by Jared Spool UX expert:
1st generation - It's about the Technology (Big mainframe computers - had to go to specialized training at HQ to be able to use it, let alone program it. Early dotcom sites where you could theoretically buy something if you could figure it out)
2nd generation - Features (Mobile phones with streaming TV, MP3 - all thrown in, loosely coupled, none integrated, some Internet portals)
3rd generation - Experience (Craigslist, MySpace (it does what their target market wants them to - peer communication), Google is getting there... Facebook is getting there, flying sheep aside).
In Jared's opinion, the Apple iPhone leapfrogged directly to the 3rd generation - it's not a phone, it's not a portable computer - it is a great way to kill time (everywhere I go I see people trying to kill time on their mobile phones, rarely is it an iPhone).
The iPhone is: known to focus on usability; made by Apple; has iTunes, a big screen, a great screen, a wide screen; has a PDA brother -- the iTouch; runs a version of a real operating system; and is made by the manufacturer of the most popular portable digital music players of each of the last 7 years or so. Finally, Apple is not a phone manufacturer but a designer of usable things -- people want to buy something that is made by Apple, and not a phone company. The resulting popularity, promise of an SDK, a commitment to the product line, and an exciting bridge of software and hardware gets developers on board. This gets the iPhone to the point where all of a sudden, it doesn't matter who created it--Microsoft, McDonalds, or Staples--or exactly what it's capable of: everyone else is using it, which means it's now a "standard", and a good enough reason to make that your next phone.
And by saying n95 I was reffering mostly to S60 Version 3 platform, which is used on more phones than N95, which means they have the same browser.
iPhone may be appealing, but overall doesnt mean that is the only way to surf the mobile web. The browsing capabilities in many phones are really worthwhile.
It's obvious this is an iPhone praising story.
"popular" it's a vogue word, doesn't mean anything if you don't say location. In Europe, phones come free or at loyaltee-fee with connection packets, which make it more accesible for people to change their phones easier. So, you stuck with a "popular" iPhone easier.
"real operating system" ?
sorry, but it rings to my ears the 3-in-1 iPhone pre-launch Steve Jobs speech
What real means anyway? Multitasking with IPv6, multimedia capabilities and UTF-16 support that is possible to write applications for? Symbian answers to these.
"standard and good enough..."
Well, you should check your numbers with Symbian penetration.
Nokia is already working on feel-touch UI which will make touching surface feel like a keyboard when necessary.
Actually, iPhone sales totalled 4 million as of last month. So it is the n95/s60v3 that, if your 2 million number is correct, is in half the number of hands.
"18.8 million converged devices (S60) shipped in Q4 compared to 11.1 this time last year * Over 11 million Nseries devices and over 2 million Eseries devices were sold in Q4 * Market share in North America dropped to 5.1% while every other region except China experienced double digit"
I think this is a clear indicator of the key role that phone based (or perhaps more properly phone accessible) applications will have into the future. There are still UI issues to be resolved (cut and paste on the iPhone not the least) to make hand held devices effective for general tasks but once the right balance has been achieved then phones will be the access point of choice for the vast majority.
I also predict that future mobile phones will also try to increase the screen sizes.
I also predict that Apple will repeat their same mistake by tieing their OS to their Hardware, and that googles Android OS will be the next windows of all other Mobile devices.
I also predict that it will take Apple long to realise that they could have eliminated or a least make it harder for Google's android by licensing their mobile software to other phone companies such as Nokia! And that by not doing so they lost a lot of money!
Demand for sucky mobile browsing: vanishingly small Demand for ok mobile browsing: really high
But GOOG, etc were surprised because although those two statements seem obvious, there's no way to measure beforehand.
This study was presented by some Google employees at CHI'06 and some very interesting things to say about the use of mobile search. Best finding, ~20% of mobile searches are done for "Adult" content.
Seems kind of dumb, right?