Smartphone were supposed to take over the world. Analysts were saying that people would have their lives revolutionized by the capabilities of smartphones that are with them everywhere. Mobile communication, web browsing and applications, multimedia and much more. It was a social revolution, right?
Well, in the light of those kinds of predictions, it has been pretty disappointing to look at adoption. Even more disappointing is that ordinary people with smartphones don't seem to use them for much more than voice calls, email, and maybe the address book.
We gadget freaks think about smartphones in terms of all we can do with them. But most people think of them in terms of the headaches they cause and how hard it is to do new things on them.
I can relate. I didn't bother to learn how to use features on my regular cell phone because it wasn't obvious to me, wasn't worth it, and even if I did learn it I wouldn't remember for next time. Those extra features were more of a headache than they were worth. I didn't care enough to overcome the learning hurdle.
On the other hand, with a smartphone, it's like a dream come true with a computer in my hands and so many cool applications. I love the Treo gadget I use so much that I even feel good looking at the keyboard, and reading text on the screen. Reminds me of when the very first PCs were coming out way before the first IBM PC appeared. I was fascinated by one particular model in Popular Electronics, I think, because it wasn't programmed by toggle switches and LEDs on the front panel. It had an actual video monitor and keyboard. I was so fascinated with the idea at the time, that as a geeky kid I would have used a year's allowance just to get it so I could type things and see them show up on the screen like that. It fascinated me whether it was useful or not. And handheld gadgets are like that for me now. Fortunately, they are actually practical and useful at the same time!
But the regular person doesn't get a kick out of holding a handheld device. He or she just sees the potential headaches it will cause if trying to do stuff. And it brings that vulnerable feeling of not knowing what to do if they get stuck or something goes wrong.
Do you remember the first time you picked up a Win Mobile device in a store, never having seen one before in your life. I do. And I couldn't figure out how to use the handwriting input. Come to think of it, I never could make it work well on the WM2003SE device I have, so instead I use fitaly on it all the time. How many regular people on the street are going to care enough to find and buy and learn fitaly. Not many! Same thing for almost anything you do on a handheld. If you don't like gadgets, it's torture. Not only figuring it out and making it work the first time, but then remembering what you are doing and keeping it going.
Think about the first time you have a device crash. The regular person says, "forget this!" Or maybe gives it to a friend to fix for them. Only the half-crazy tech geek like me says they will hard reset it and rebuild it. Maybe a businessman or other person that used the device out of the box with no tweaks or added software. But basically, you've gotta love fiddling and "wasting" time, or you probably will just use your fancy smartphone as a phone and email. And when something goes wrong, you just join the
phone throwing competition! I could give so many examples of things that often go wrong, or are hard to do, or are so limited they are almost not worth the effort. But instead, let me just give a simple and common example from a recent experience.
I was on vacation recently, and my friend (who works in an IT-related role) brought along one of the newer Blackberries which was supplied by her company. She brought it with her and mentioned that she has the web on it, but the web is just not worth using on the device so she doesn't bother. I think that just about sums it up right there. It's a pre-installed application, and it's probably even easy to use. But the speed and unfamiliarity and limitations and screen size and keyboard size all conspire to make it worthless to her.
If something as valuable as the web is worthless when already available on a smartphone for an average person with a decent device, how much hope is there for something that has to be set up and fiddled with and even purchased?
When someone makes a smartphone with an mp3 player, video player, news reader, ebook reader, web browser, email, etc that doesn't require you to set anything up, or figure anything out, or fiddle with formats or compatibility issues, and it works almost as well as a dedicated device, THEN you might have smartphones catch on big time.
Or we might see people using these devices more fully when a long, long time passes as people have gradually become accustomed to the technology and the technology is truly user-friendly. We see mp3 players creeping into regular phones. Why not the other features over long periods of time?
Unfortunately, that's unlikely to happen anytime soon because it's much harder than it looks. It will take a while to work out the kinks, and become natural and easy. Both for the users and the phone makers. So maybe that's why people say, like the writer at the
Register , "Old technology works best."
This article arose from a topic highlighted in a very intriguing post by Surur, the new writer over at PDA24/7. He's been an active participant in the online community before, and it's great to see him with PDA24/7. Our best wishes to him as he continues his work there!