TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: The iPhone User Experience: A First Touch


The iPhone User Experience: A First Touch


Monty Solomon (monty@roscom.com)
Mon, 2 Jul 2007 02:10:56 -0400

Bruce Tognazzini
AskTog, July 2007

On June 29, 2007, the long-awaited iphone was released. Was it worth
the wait? Is it all it's cracked up to be?

Yes.

There is no mistaking that this is a first-release phone, both in the
hardware and software. However, it is an Apple first release,
equivalent in many respects to the fifth or sixth release quality we
have come to expect from other major computer technology players.

The "fit and finish" of the device are extraordinary, both in terms of
industrial design and human-computer interaction.

The Hardware

The press has made much of the slow networking of this initial iPhone,
something that will undoubtably be corrected in upcoming versions.

The initial iPhone makes use of the old AT&T 2G (Edge) network, rather
than the new 3G network. That reduces the web browsing user-experience
to something more akin to a dial-up modem, rather than the DSL-like
experience of the 3G network.

The rest of the hardware seems solid, though the touch system could be
improved with a couple of small additions. More on that later.

The Software

The fundamentals of the system have been well thought-out and deftly
implemented. User-operations are smooth and pleasant, reflecting
Apple's traditional attention to detail, again something unusual in
the computer industry.

http://www.asktog.com/columns/072iPhoneFirstTouch.html

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