Probably…
I was walking home today from some after-work shopping, laden with bags and using my phone to IM and listen to music. That’s when it hit me. Everything you do with a mobile phone you generally do with one hand. And if you don’t, then you certainly can, if needed. Same with an iPod, I can operate it completely one-handed.
With the iPhone, however… well, we’ve all seen the video and the interface demos. It’s just too big to hold and operate with a single limb.
Try it! grab an iPod or something of a similar size and then try and hold it in such a way that you could comfortably touch the whole face-area with your thumb. I’ve got big hands and I can just about manage it on my iPod if I shuffle the device around uncomfortably in my palm. And of course… the iPhone is bigger than that.
Now, clearly they’re going after the smart-phone market with this thing, which are traditionally used with two hands, so that’s no big deal. But for the rest of us? That 99% of the population that’s content to use a good old-fashioned dumbphone with one arm tied behind our back?
It’s not like a smaller version could even be made, since the human finger is the input device and they can’t get any smaller. I sincerely doubt you’d be able to scale the device much smaller than it is and still have the interface widgets big enough to use comfortably.
iPhone nano? Yes please, but I have no idea how you’d pull it off.
I can go with this. I didn’t really appreciate the joys of a long tall Sally before I invested in my K800i. Sure I’d like a nice screen, but I don’t want the hands of an endocrinological nightmare to have to handle it.
I’m thinking that we should think more ‘phone + umpc, instead of the smart-phone world. Which I know isn’t a hip way to think, but we should all know our limits, even computers.
That said, I’m buying napkins in bulk to wipe the foam from my mouth when Google make the Google ‘phone and show everyone how it *should* be done.
Little is known about the google-phone, but one thing is certain: there will be AJAX, lots of AJAX.
I dunno, I’d never crown Google the UI kings. Technical proficiency, totally, but their shit always lacks the polish that makes it fun to use.
I’ve been half-worrying about the actual practicality of the iPhone for some time, but I came to a realisation: I don’t care. If I have to change my current habits, so be it… the benefits will outweigh the costs.