The greatest fear among the technophobic is the inability to use a new computer, a new piece of software or a new electronic device. Faced with this challenge, the Apple iPhone flattens the learning curve considerably. Apple's approach has always been to create products from a user's perspective, rather than from an engineer or a computer programmers perspective. That approach clearly pays off for the computer industry's powerhouse, with products like the Macintosh, the iMac, the PowerBook and the iPod under its belt.
The fact that its iPod digital music player is the dominant MP3 player in the market, with more than 90% of auctions at sites like eBay is testament to Apple's design prowess. One might say that the iPhone is the smart phone especially designed for people who hate to use cellphones.
The iPhone's user interface is intuitive, giving users the ability to use most of the iPhone's functions without reference to a user manual.
Apple which was among the pioneers of the graphical user interface in its Mac line of computers has done for the smart phone, what it has already done for the desktop, laptop and its iconic iPod digital music player. While you might sit back and feel that the iPhone's features are so user friendly that anyone could have done it, you might see some of the irony in that statement.
If the iPhone was so simple to use, why hadn't one of the other major telco's already instituted features like an intelligent keypad, computing intelligence smart enough to adjust the LCD display's brightness in response to environmental lighting, or the disabling of the keypad when it is brought close to your face already?
While it's competitors seem to be constantly struggling to add more features to its digital music players and computers, trying to outdo each other, this seems like an exercise in significantly upping the whizz-bang factor of its devices. Instead Apple goes the opposite route and looks for the simplest solution to any design or technical challenge. There is an elegance in simple solutions, and its the user friendly nature of the Apple iPod and soon the Apple iPhone which will likely bring this category of smart phones into the mass market.
Many complain that existing smart phones are perhaps a little too smart for their own good, with menus buried under more menus, and users struggling to make simple changes to their phones. The iPhone looks set to change that trend and if it succeeds in doing so, it would have blazed yet another trail on the technology landscape.
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