The Unfinished iPhone: iPhone vs. Windows Mobile
Date: Jul 2, 2007
Apple has done it again. They created incredible hype over the iPhone and have managed to redefine the landscape of the cell phone market. However, as one who has been around mobile devices for some time, I wondered if the excitement was really justifiable. So, I figured I would take a chance and go buy one of the "Jesus" phones, as it has been called. The following is a review of the iPhone that incorporates a comparison of its closest competitor, a Windows Mobile phone. We hope that this compare/contrast will help dim down the halo that seems to surround this supposed god-like phone from Apple, because as we found — the iPhone is an overrated, over hyped and basically useless device compared to our Windows Mobile phone.
The Interface
There is no doubt that Apple has created a foolproof interface that will cause new users to ooh, ahh and maybe even drool a little. From the moment our iPhone was activated, we were in awe of how it responded to our every touch. It is obvious that the interface was built to be intuitive and self explanatory in a sexy sort of way. We honestly can’t say enough about this facet of the phone. In addition to the way the phone responds to your finger tips, the designers also added an accelerometer that can detect how the device is positioned. As a result, you can turn the iPhone around in your hand and the screen will automagically change to orient itself into a readable position.
Figure 1: iPhone Main Home Screen
Since there is really only one physical button (other than volume/silent switch/power), all interaction is done via the display — including typing. Prior to the release of the iPhone, there was much speculation over how well this would work and if it would leave your glass window a complete mess. Well, we can tell you that the keyboard is excellent and rarely mistypes. While using a board without tactile feedback is a bit awkward at first, it only takes a few minutes to acclimate yourself to the subtle ways the screen detects the your finger tips.
Figure 2: iPhone Keyboard
However, there is one major issue that arose during our testing — if you have finger nails of any significant length, you will not be able to easily get around. Granted, this problem can be easily fixed with a quick clip or by knuckling your way around. However, scenarios like this are why most mobile interactive screens have a stylus.
So, how does a Windows Mobile device compare? Well, our WM phone not only has an onscreen keyboard, but also a physical one that slides into the phone when not in use — not to mention letter recognition software, a transcriber, and the old school block recognition software — plus custom interfaces you can download and install. Ironically, my WM device will never steer me wrong if I use the slide out keyboard; tactile keyboards are still the best method for user interaction.
In addition, since Apple has come out with their slick and clever ways to provide user interaction, the Windows Mobile community has started to produce similar add-ons that emulate many of the interface components of the iPhone. For example, just visit http://lifehacker.com/software/hack-attack/turn-your-windows-mobile-phone-into-an-iphone-269055.php for a detailed procedure on how to give your Windows Mobile device a little of that iPhone interface flare including the slide locker, the application launch pad, and the iContacts scroller. Ironically, the Windows Mobile version of the launch pad is better designed than the iPhone's because you can add in as many Widgets as you want and assign them your own custom icons — unlike the locked-down iPhone where you have no control of the icon, much less what it does.
Figure 3: Windows Mobile iPhone-like launch pad
Figure 4: iApp on Windows Mobile
Figure 5: iLock on Windows Mobile
Figure 6: iLock on iPhone
However, if you want to break free from the defined "Home Page" mentality, Windows Mobile gives you the option to do whatever you want to your "Today Screen." This could include creating custom wallpapers (I much prefer a picture of my son to a blank background) to filling it with active icons that will launch any one of your third party programs. Oh, might I mention that this screen can be setup to include up to the date, weather conditions, and stock market data! On the iPhone, you have to open an application to view this data…
Figure 7: My Windows Mobile Today Screen
The iPhone does a good job at providing the features that you would expect from a phone. Again, the interface for the phone pad is easy to use and intuitive. There are five main sections of the phone application, including Favorites, Recents, Contacts, Keypad and Voicemail. Of these, the Voicemail application is the only feature worth mentioning.
Figure 8: The iPhone dialing screen
With the release of the iPhone, AT&T and Apple came together to rethink the whole voicemail situation and created the Visual Voicemail feature that allows you to see the messages waiting for you, much like an email inbox. To review a specific voicemail, you select it out of the inbox and listen to it. Unlike a traditional system, this allows you to skip over and ignore messages that can wait until later. However, other than the upgraded voicemail application, the iPhone offers nothing remarkable, new or even expected…and that is where we find fault.
Figure 9: The iPhone Visual Voicemail Interface
Figure 10: Windows Mobile Phone Screen
Other Phone Features
Why, on a phone that contains the ability to play music, can I not select a custom ringtone?!!!! In this ringtone happy world, where the sound of your phone represents a freedom of expression, it is simply amazing that Apple did not include this feature. On my Windows Mobile phone, I can select a downloaded a million different ringtones downloaded off the Internet or created on my own. I currently have a section of the song Zocalo as my ring tone because it is unique, nice sounding, and non-invasive. Where is this feature on the iPhone!?
Secondly, where is the voice recognition dialing? I can’t tell you how many times this feature has allowed me to keep my eyes on the road when making a call. I simply hit a button on my Windows Mobile phone, speak "Home," and the phone automatically dials my home phone number. For a company that specializes in intuitive interaction, this is one feature I assumed been included. At least you can assign an image to a contact…which a Windows Mobile device can do as well.
Of all the places you would expect the iPhone to shine, it would be with its ability to play music and video. For what it is worth, Apple’s interface to its "iPod" application is nice — assuming you are a big purchaser of commercial RIAA-sanctioned music. If you personally despise such draconian oversight, then the nice way the screen shifts from text list to graphical album cover (i.e. Cover Flow) when your switch the iPhone to landscape position is pretty useless. Since I only listen to music well outside of the RIAA's reach, all of my Cover Flow icons are nothing but a simple music note in the middle of a square. Um…thanks for nothing Apple. In addition, the only way you can get music onto the device is via iTunes — a DRM loaded and bloated piece of malware (yes, this is an opinion). OK, so maybe I am being a bit harsh, but in my world I want my music free of restrictions and that is not the iPhone way. On a Windows Mobile device, you have the option of using another DRM-laden program (Windows Media Player). Using this program you can keep your music/videos synced via an interface similar to iTunes. However, you can also manually copy files directly to the Windows Mobile device or a media card and play that media file through any number of alternative programs. Oh, and did I mention you can download music directly from the Internet right to the Windows Mobile device? Thanks to this feature, if I happen to be out and about and someone lets me listen to a song, I can immediately locate that song at a DRM-free store and download it. You can’t download anything directly to the iPhone.
Figure 11: iPhone iPod Playlist Screen
Figure 12: iPhone Cover Flow
In addition to the iPhone not being able to handle downloads, it also refuses to play streaming audio from the Internet. One of the most common things I do with my Windows Mobile device is listen to NPR via my EDGE connection through my Bluetooth headset. Let’s see the iPhone do that — NOT! Not only are sites like BBC, NPR, di.fm, Shoutcast, and more prevented from playing audio on the iPhone, but there is no audio link between the Bluetooth capabilities and audio playback. Come on Apple! Get with the program! These features have been available for years on Microsoft devices.
The iPhone can take half decent images with its 2 megapixel camera. I really like the virtual shutter that works in conjunction with the operation of the camera — again, great interface and neat visual concepts. However, there is nothing remarkable about any phone-based camera because they all provide fairly lousy shots. If I want a good quality picture, my 10 megapixel camera is ready and waiting. Still, using the iPhone, you can take a picture, create an album, assign the picture to a contact, and email the image to someone — but that’s it.
Figure 13: The iPhone Camera
Once again my Windows Mobile phone outshines the iPhone’s picture taking abilities. While the camera is only 1.3 megapixel, the software on my Windows Mobile phone includes the ability to take a picture, send it via email or MMS, assign a picture to a contact, create cute dual picture themes (Figure 13), has adjustments for lighting/speed/zoom, does burst images, and…does video. Um, is it me or does the iPhone really fall short on this category? With its ability to view YouTube, you would think that the device would also be able to create videos that could be loaded to YouTube.
Figure 14: Windows Mobile Themed Photo of iPhone
The Email/SMS
Email on the iPhone is fairly standard. It integrates nicely with several online email sites, such as GMail, Yahoo, AOL, and .mac. In addition, you can also configure the program to connect to an IMAP, POP or Exchange server. These are all fairly standard features for any device that expects to offer email services to its user. The Windows Mobile device includes these options, with the exception of including Hotmail. As most online email providers give access to their system via POP/SMTP, it is easy to connect the iPhone or Windows Mobile device to pretty much any system.
Figure 15: iPhone Email Program
Figure 16: Windows Mobile Phone SMS Screen
The Internet
One of the key elements of the iPhone is its ability to connect to the internet via the Safari browser. In our opinion, this is the best feature (other than the interface) of the iPhone because Apple did many things right. When you load up a webpage, the viewable content is really small. You simply double tap the area on the screen that contains the information you want to zoom in on and the screen will shift to show you a closer view of that content. To view more of the page, you can shift the display into landscape mode by turning the iPhone onto its side.
Figure 17: iPhone Mobile Safari
In addition to the normal features you would expect to find in a browser, the Mobile Safari has the ability to open multiple windows. This is one huge advantage Mobile Safari has over Pocket IE, the default browser for Windows Mobile devices. However, Windows Mobile devices are not locked into Pocket IE. In fact, there are more than four browsers available for Windows Mobile users, including Opera and Minimo (a Firefox for PDAs), most of which allow you to disable/enable image downloads to speed up viewing capabilities. The end results is that my WM device can surf many times faster than Mobile Safari…assuming I am just interested in text.
There is one major issue with Mobile Safari that is a bit irksome, and that is no Flash support. As a result, thousands of pages will not load into the browser. PIE does support flash, and you can also download Flash Lite for the Windows Mobile OS. Given that Mobile Safari is the only program on the iPhone that gives it a chance to provide third parties the ability to interact with the device, it is surprising that Flash was left out of the equation.
Figure 18: iPhone Mobile Safari at New York Times
Figure 19: Windows Mobile PIE at New York Times
Of interest, Mobile Safari is also bound to become a highly targeted application for security researchers over the next few months. Within one hour of testing, we had found several bugs that could crash the browser and temporarily freeze up the device. While getting any exploits to run on the device might be tricky without some method of debugging, there are bound to be some attacks that could expose user information or worse.
Third Party Applications
There are none for the iPhone — and this is why my iPhone will be returned. On a regular basis I review PPT presentations, chat via AIM and MSN, SSH into servers, use remote desktop, play games, do security related activities, and much more, all from my Windows Mobile phone. With a large developer base, Windows Mobile users have over 18,000 possible software titles they can install. Games, media apps, productivity tools, and much more are all available to the user, most of which you can download right to the phone and install. So, why would you want to pay more for a phone that does less?
Slow Network Speeds
In case you aren’t aware of this, the iPhone is only able to connect to AT&T's EDGE network, which will give you rather slow data speeds — especially when compared to their much faster 3G network. My 8125 device is also only EDGE; however, would I have waited two months to get my phone, I could have gotten the 8525, which does support the faster 3G network. Even Smartphones have faster browsing speed than the iPhone!
The iPhone is undeniably a thing of beauty. It represents a shift in user interaction, much like the recent "Surface" table Microsoft released. However, once you get past the exterior and superficial aspect of the iPhone, it falls short of what I expect from a $500 gadget — not to mention the $2000 fees a subscriber will rack up during their two year service plan. In fact, the iPhone is really nothing more than a tease — it’s full of potential, but thanks to DRM and a very restrictive environment it is a disappointment. Apple, we suggest you take a look beyond your competitors to the people that are buying their mobile gadgets. You might realize that people do want options. I suppose the name iPhone does make some sense, but unfortunately whoever the "I" was that made the phone forgot to realize there are a lot of other people out there with their own idea of what they want their mobile phone to do. Perhaps Apple should start with the name "urPhone" and design a device around that concept.