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iPhone and Nokia's attempted copy
Aug 30, 2007
I got an iPhone recently. I'll write more about it in my upcoming annual Uncle Mark guide, but suffice to say that it's an outstanding device. Design, usability, feature set, integration, everything - down to the smallest details - Apple succeeded in pulling it together. I don't know that I've been this impressed with a new launch since I first used a Mac in 1985.
Like the original Mac, the iPhone delivers a much-needed shakeup to a customer-hostile industry. Much like alarm clocks and toaster ovens, cell phone design (with a very few exceptions) has been bad, industry-wide, for years. Manufacturers like Motorola and Nokia have put more emphasis on making fashion statements, and less on allowing users to make phone calls.
The iPhone has changed that game. The first day I used an iPhone I told my friend, "If I was an executive at Nokia or Motorola I'd be pretty scared by this." Like the DOS product team in 1984, executives at these manufacturers have to know that their customers now know they have a choice: user-friendly iPhone, or user-hostile (or at best user-indifferent) gadgets.
So: Right on time, today the New York Times reports that Nokia has announced its first attempt to copy the iPhone. From the announcement of the new Nokia N81 (pictured at left):
While Nokia executives chose suits and ties rather than the black mock turtlenecks and blue jeans favored by Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, they acknowledged that Nokia was not above imitating its rival.
"I don’t know what is copying and what is original but if there is something good in the world, we copy it with pride," said Anssi Vanjoki, head of the Nokia multimedia division, which makes the company’s high-end handsets, when asked about similarities between the iPhone, iTunes and the new devices and services announced by Nokia.
Motorola, Samsung, and others can't be far behind with their own touch-screen multimedia devices.
If history is any guide, copying Apple won't quite cut it. There is no shortcut to building a great customer experience; you can't just copy a template. Unless someone can secure a monopoly, like Microsoft built with Windows and Office, or rock-bottom pricing with a friendly carrier, it's unlikely that these devices will go far. If one needs any proof of the argument, ask around how many people own iPods, and how many enjoy Microsoft's Zune digital music player.
See also:
• Don't buy the Microsoft Zune
• Seven lessons of iPhone user experience
Actually, Microsoft has made a business model of copying innovative, user-centered designs. Windows itself has improved with each generation by copying innovations from Xerox Parc and Apple.
This business model may not have resulted in the most usable products and services, but it does constitute a short cut to business success and to designs that do improve over time.
I sortof agree, but I don't see the Nokia N81 as an iPhone knockoff.
First, it's too small to be in the same 'class of use'. The iPhone takes full advantage of the screen size to dramatically enhance the user experience. the Nokia is to the iPhone as a Samsung YP-class player is to the iPod. The screen makes it a different device.
I also can't take the Zune as an example of just imitation failing. I went out found a Toshiba Gigabeat S, precisely because it was NOT an iPod. I love it, and it's not so obviously a knockoff, except it is. The 'X' cross on the Toshiba is a very usable control, it has dedicated play/ff/rew buttons on the side, the screen is nicer than the iPod, it sounds just fine to me, and yes the equalizer is pretty much useless. BUT, it is, I think a worthy alternative to the iPod. All the more sad that the Gigabeat S series is gone, probably because it was the hardware platform for the Zune (yup), and because the Windows Mobile version it runs is dead, killed by Microsoft for some reason. Looks like the next Zune will run the new platfor, and there will be no updates for either the Zune v1, or the Gigabeat S. Toshiba is taking Gigabeat in a different direction.
And, more sadly, the Gigabeat S so disappeared from Toshiba's world that you have to search out any info on it from them.
A poor customer experience, though I love mine enough to ignore that...
I have to disagree, Bruce, Windows was born as a sub-par copy of Apple's OS, and it's still sub-par - I've lost count of how many of my PC user friends who absolutely hate Vista, the latest "improvement" to Windows.
What happens when you simply copy something is that you don't understand why it is the way it is - so when, during the implementation of the copy, you run up against challenges, you presume to solve them by trying to guide the user through the problem you discovered, rather than fix it, which is exactly what Vista does...