March 1, 2008

Making a Better Mobile Phone

The New York Times has an article on how mobile phone companies are trying to meet consumer needs.

I think they could start by making phones that get the basics right. You know it's a sad state of affairs when a $5 home phone can outperform your spanky $300 smart phone. Phone designers should make sure that they live with a phone for a few months before releasing it to manufacturing. To this day, I still can't figure out many of the design choices that Microsoft made with Windows Mobile. Hello! My phone is NOT a computer!

Apple is definitely going in the right direction with the iPhone, although their strategy isn't perfect either. If it weren't for my form factor preferences (sorry, but I really do need a hard keyboard), I probably would be iPhoned right now.

I'm really hoping that the upcoming Android platform is successful, since Google, like Apple, is a company that Gets It.