I have been playing a lot with the iPhone and I actively read anything that talks about it. Well, actually I try to read as much as possible on the mobile phone industry. At the end of day it is part of my job.
I think we can say that the iPhone has been a breakthrough in mobile phone technology. From the hardware point of view we can say that it not really anything new but on the software, user interface and usability it is definitely great.
One of the most interesting thing in working in the handset team of a mobile operator is that you can have a sneak peek at mobile phone manufacturer roadmap much in advance compared to the rest of the people.
Obviously I will not disclose any confidential information but there are few things that are self evident.
A lot of mobile phone manufacturer are trying to follow that Apple has done with the iPhone.
- Touch screen.
- Make extensive use of the accelerometer.
- New user interface concepts.
- New user interaction design.
- And a lot of new things.
This is not a bad thing actually. The iPhone shacked the market and we are starting to see the effect on other handsets vendors.
The problem is that form what I have seen since now nobody has managed to get close to what the iPhone is.
Honestly it is quite hard to reach the very same point in such a small time but it is clear that every body is trying to ride the iPhone wave.
I hope that not too many resources will be moved to work on these kind of projects since this will mean a general slowdown on “classic” mobile phone development that still makes a lot of sense for many manufacturers.
We will see in the very next few months what will happen.
For the time being I will stay with the iPhone.
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