While I don’t think advertising copy and paste is the way to do it – the biggest thing that people miss about Apple products in all these “discussions” is the user experience.

I’ve used a Pre for all of about 5 minutes so I’m no expert, but the thing that struck me the most about it was that it was confusing. It wasn’t user friendly right out of the box in much the same way that WinMo and BB take some getting used to. The iPhone however I understood the second I started using it. It makes sense the first time you turn it on, and the user experience is second to none. Apple hints at this a lot in their Mac ads, but I don’t think they’ve found their stride yet in the iPhone ads.

I spend a lot of time being a “fan boy” as some people would call it, but for all the discussions I’ve seen there’s rarely anyone who argues for their platform who really has experience with all the platforms that are being discussed. I’m in the Apple camp on both mobile and desktop – because in the years I’ve used other platforms (I get paid to support Windows, Solaris, Red Hat, owned more WinMo devices than I can remember, and have a Nokia E71) I have yet to come across anything like Apple products for a great user experience.

Brandon, I agree with you about the user experience. And this is the beef I have always had with Apple. Their UI and user experience in the interface is fantastic, but there is limited functionality underneath. With the iPhone platform, for example, too much is locked down or simply inaccessible. You should not need to jailbreak the phone just to change the default keyboard or add a calendar display to your lock screen.

Ideally, if you could take the Windows Mobile functionality and combine it with the iPhone user interface, then you might be on to something.

But I get tired of the mentality where if Steve Jobs does not think it is important then you must not think it is important either. I am a big fan of my device should work the way I work, I should not have to change my practices to fit what the device can do. And that is exactly what Apple requires of you.

I’m going to stick to talking only iPhone. If you believe OS X has limited functionality under the hood, you really need to take another look at it because its far from limited.

I agree it would definitely be nice for power users to have access to some of that stuff, I also think that’s what gets WinMo in trouble and turns it into a shite OS pretty rapidly. You give people (and developers) too much access into the underbelly of a mobile OS and it doesn’t take very long before the whole thing turns to crap, the user experience starts to suck and you end up doing a full restore just to clean up the mess that was made.

Go ahead … tell me I’m wrong that changing keyboards, tweaking the registry, adding on 3rd party launchers and mobile shells, etc to make your device work the way you think it should doesn’t turn it into shite after a while. I have lost count how many hard resets I’ve done while owning a WinMo device.

For the vast majority of people, the limitations you’re complaining about are not a problem because they haven’t used other platforms and don’t see these things as limitations. I’m not saying that I don’t miss some of those things, because I definitely do, but again a high percentage of the users don’t.

Apple built a consumer level device – not a power user targeted device. They didn’t target the Nokia blogger/power user – they targeted Bill, and Frank and Janice. They didn’t target people who complain about how every device should be single hand use friendly and fully navigable with keyboard shortcuts. They targeted people who want something fun and simple to understand yet powerful enough to do almost everything they can do from a computer.

@ Brandon,

You bring up some excellent points. I agree that a great deal of people don’t have experience with this device or that, this OS or that. Fortunately, or unfortunately at times, I’ve experienced each of them (except Android and a few obscure ones). I routinely provide support for users of Palm OS, Windows Mobile Professional, Windows Mobile Smartphone, iPhone / iPod Touch, Blackberry, Symbian S60 and now the Pre (to a very limited extent, hopefully more in the future). I’ve got most of the devices, and run the Blackberry and Symbian stuff on simulators. Through a Nokia n800 in the mix and there’s a pretty good assortment.

You’re definitely right that the iPhone experience is appealing to a great deal of users. Unfortunately, I’m not one of them. It simply takes me too many touches and swipes of a finger to do routine activities. I like the iPod Touch that I have in many respects, I don’t in some others. Throw in some serious limitations imposed by the OS and the joke that is the App Store, and I’ll probably stay away from considering an iPhone.

I agree that Mac OS X is a superior OS. It’s not light years ahead of the others, as I use Vista more (it’s just fine) and run Ubuntu Linux on an old box (for someone wanting real freedom, go here), but it is still the best. Beauty, simplicity and power!

In the end, to return to point, my purpose for writing the post was to comment on how Apple tries to take something very simple, in this case copy and paste (something that should have been incorporated from the beginning) and tells you how wonderful it is. I just find it odd to try to sell a phone because it has copy and paste.

In the end, I want to encourage users to make intelligent choices. I deal with users every day that are fooled by advertising, buying “phone X” because it was promised to do A, B and C. In the end, they feel duped because they were led to believe that only A, B and C mattered, forgetting about D – Z.

Brandon, I actually think the biggest problem with Windows Mobile comes on the OEM stage. One thing Apple did extremely well was marry its hardware and software/OS. This is THE iPhone. Now, in Gen 3, there are some changes, but for the most part, all of the iphones look pretty much the same.

MS just released stuff into teh wild with no control. As a result, you have endless configurations of buttons, touch screens, non-touch screens, and who knows what else. This lack of control over the hardware makes it impossible to have a one-size fits all OS. Toss in all the bloatware and trials that OEM’s give you.

I think windows Mobile would be a significantly improved platform if MS exerted more 9or any) control over the hardware on which its OS could run.

Doug

@Doug

The only thing is, everytime MS tries to exert more control over anything, the anti-trust lawyers start banging on their doors. :~)

@Doug – You can say that again. I love all the form factors that you can get with Windows Mobile, but at the same time its a big issue when trying to maintain any kind of single platform view for people.

@Brian – Back to your main point, I agree its odd to see a company push a phone on the basis of Copy and Paste. Its definitely not a ground breaking “OMG look at this” type of feature. The thing Apple (should be) proud of and I think is trying to show is not only how god the implementation of copy and paste is, but how powerful such a simple implementation is. Its not just text…

@John D. Sheridan, there is a difference between control and antitrust. If they say you can only use xxx parts, then that is antitrust. If they say you must have the button configuration that conforms to these standards, that is control. Microsoft let the OEMs run wild in the early days and it only got worse from there. There is no standardization of controls or interface. As such, Windows Mobile has almost no brand identity. They really need to get on top of that.

@Brian – IMO you are absolutely right. It is very strange to see copy-paste advertised as an innovative new feature. However, I think that we are the minority, and most people would rush to the stores and purchase the iPHONE. Not due to its innovative features, but due to its revolutionary GUI and its “cool” factor…

It’s the app Store for me.

I bought a PC over a MAC in 1993 because of the availability of software for the PC platform. That same reasoning held true for me with the PDA platform and eventually my smart phone. Now, after over 10 years with the Pocket PC platform – yes, I had one of those original Compaq iPaqs – I am ready to switch over to the iPhone. It’s simply because everyone is developing software for the iPhone and few, if any, are developing for windows mobile.

Yes, a lot of the apps and features that I see my iPhone friends ogle over, I had 5 years ago with WinMo . The difference is that now my local bank, my local gym, my local theatre all are developing apps for specific use with their services. And, they are not doing that for WinMo.

Every blog I look at is talking about iPhone apps. The hardware may be the flesh and bones, but it’s the software that is the blood and gives life to the platform.

IMO, the strength of the iPhone is the App store and that’s what they should be marketing.

Steve