iPhone Vindicated - The Hype Is Justified

Too legit to quit, Apple has indeed produced a stellar product worthy of all the hype it's been receiving. This, at least, according to usability report released this past week by inUse, " Scandinavia's leading usability and interaction design company" and a specialist in "business-driven IT-development".

Based on five separate case studies of five users with completely divergent patterns of usage, the Apple iPhone was compared against three other leading smartphones, those being:

• Nokia N95 - running the Symbian S60 OS

• Sony Ericsson W910i - running Linux

• HTC TyTN - running Windows Mobile 6

And the results were impressive, answering the question, "Does the iPhone live up to the hype?" with a staggering and near-unequivocal "Yes!"

First, each participant was given five minutes per device to play around and familiarize themselves with each of them with no set rules or instructions. Then the participants were each asked to perform the following tasks on each device and report their respective ease-of-use:

1. Dial a phone number manually

2. Make a call using the Contacts List/Address Book

3. Adjust the volume mid-call

4. Add a fresh contact to the Contact List/Address Book

5. Create a new event in the Calendar

6. Set the alarm

7. Compose a text message and send it

8. Place the device in Silent mode

9. Take a photo with the built-in camera and send it someone in the Contact List/Address Book

Following the experiment, each participant was then asked which of the smartphones they would want if they could choose one right at that moment. Only one of the five failed to select the iPhone, choosing the Sony Ericsson instead. Four out five - that ain't bad.

When discussing their experiences of all the smartphones, the HTC was the least favored, the Nokia receiving at least an honorable mention.

The inUse report deduces that one of the iPhone's most unique innovations is the removal of "one level of abstraction", namely having to press keys on a keyboard and then watch the display screen to see what happens. With the iPhone's object-oriented interface, the user needs only to press an icon itself to activate its feature.

From scrolling up and down the screen to calling a contact, the iPhone eliminates the extra step of first pressing a key to focus on a particular menu item before then pressing a second key (or the same one again) to select and activate that item, whatever it may be. This elimination of one step out of every two-step function is no small matter, especially when you consider how many functions a given user performs on their smartphone in a single day.

The inUse report then goes on to give Apple accolades for what it sees as three primary benefits of the innovative device, those being:

1. Transparency - the way every feature is right there in front of your eyes for you to see, making the learning curve a near flat-line

2. Accessibility - the way functions can generally be perform with a single click (or touch)

3. Seduction - the way the graphic user interface appeals to the eye

Doing for telephoning what the iPod has done for music-listening and iTunes has done for music purchasing, the iPhone is Apple's latest attempt at revolutionizing the way we live our lives, and according to this report, at least, it's fulfilling expectations quite nicely.

Corey Bruhn is the owner of iPhone Mobile Mob, http://www.iphonemobilemob.com who specializes in reporting news, updates and unique features of the Apple iPhone. Download our FREE iPhone Ebook to find out more about your iPhone.

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