iPhone: Hypeless Classic
The iPhone is a classic: it delivers on its astronomical levels of hype. And when we’re talking about the most hyped phone of all time, this means it’s a seriously great product. So what exactly are the elements of greatness? In honour of the iPhone’s impending third birthday, let’s look in detail at why we love Apple’s black talkbox.
COMPLETE VISION OF A NEW PHONE
Touchscreens weren’t anything new when the iPhone launched. There were plenty of smartphones that allowed you to navigate an ancient version of Windows with a little pencil, furiously poking at tiny text links. Whereas Apple put a large, sensitive touchscreen together with icons that even fat American thumbs can press. Without the baggage of a legacy operating system, Apple was able to identify what people wanted to do with their phone, and create a new system to do it well.
Let’s look at going into silence mode. On the iPhone, it’s a simple rocker that shuts your phone up. You can feel if your phone is silenced without looking at it. It’s second instinct to flip your iPhone into silence mode as you slip into a meeting. With most Nokias at the time, you needed to set you silence mode preferences as part of a “profile”. Then you select this “profile” by clicking the on / off button, and scrolling down the list, hopefully not accidentally turning off the phone.
APPLENESS
The first mac revolutionised computers with the one-button mouse. It’s no coincidence the iPhone features only one real button - “home”. No matter how lost you get, you can always find your way home with a single press - and then quickly find your way to the app you want.
Apple’s iPod experience meant the iPhone was instantly the best music playing phone out there. By the time the iPhone launched, Apple had already gone through six major version of iTunes. They’d mastered selling music, and just needed a few tweaks to create the outrageously successful App Store.
Then there’s how Apple wields usability testing as a weapon, making sure every experience works better than you’d expect it, and then gets even better with subsequent software updates.
IMPROVEMENTS
Imagine you’re a company that makes money from people buying the latest and greatest versions of your product. Imagine that the typical time a customer keeps the product is 18 months. Now imagine you decide to create significant improvements to the product, and release them for free over three years, giving your customers less incentive to buy your new products. Madness? Not to someone who’s running the third version of the iPhone OS on their 2007 handset!
Naturally, there are still compelling reasons to get the latest hardware. The second iteration brought 3G coverage, while the 3GS brought more subtle improvements of processing speed, battery life, and a compass. Why a compass? Well if you’re using google maps, try clicking on the little geo-location icon twice. You’ll then get the map oriented perfectly for you viewpoint, meaning even spatially challenged people can find their way. Ah, the little things…
LITTLE THINGS
Thanks for lying to me iPhone. I know, deep down, that when I change between landscape and portrait modes, the fancy swirling animation is hiding loading time. But this animation looks a whole lot better than staring at a bland screen, like on the Nokia “tube” 5800.
Speaking of giving the accelerometer a workout, have you tried turning your iPhone to landscape mode while using the calculator?
Then there’s the auto correction on the keyboard, the genius being that it not only corrects for poor speling, but also for accendebtally hittimg buttpns closr to the ome you meamt to hit.
Then there’s there’s the way the apps flow together. Got an address saved on your contact? Then click it, and it’ll load up the address in Google Maps.
GRUMBLES
The same Google Maps mashup should work for calendar items too, right? If you’ve diligently entered where your meeting’s location, you should just be able to click the address and see it on a map? No. Why not?
Other than minor quibbles like this, there’s the infuriating lock into iTunes, meaning that popping your iPhone into another persons PC for a quick charge could result in all of your music and Apps getting wiped. Great. Just accept it as the price of admission.
Buying an iPhone also means you’re likely to have the same phone as everyone else. A quarter of all working professionals in London have one. All the “stars” present at the Adult Video Awards in Vegas have one. Your Mum probably has one. Your phone is supposed to be the extension of your individuality, and the iPhone’s symbolism here is worrying.
THE LOVE
So why do so many people have an iPhone? Taking a Hypeless perspective, perhaps this running joke between iPhone owners has the answer.
iPhone owner #1 “Y’know what’s great about the iPhone?”
iPhone owner #2 “Everything!”
Hasta la proxima, see true the hype 
