I came to a sad realization the other day when discussing the pros and cons of various modern cell phones with some of my friends.
The bottom line I found, especially regarding Smartphones, is that they pretty much all suck for one reason or another.
Yes, every one. I don't care if you DO love your iPhone, Blackberry, G1, Windows Mobile, Symbian or other handset... I think it sucks. Or, at the very least has something inheriently missing/wrong with it that keeps it from being the useful device it *COULD* be.
As someone who closely follows the mobile industry, I am often asked to recommend the "best phone out there". I used to always tell people that there is no such thing as a perfect phone for everyone- with so many choices available as well as varying needs of users, it is clear that there is no such thing as phone that is perfect for all people all the time. The trick is, as I used to say, to find the phone that is best for YOU and what you want.
Not anymore... Now I see it differently: Everyone phone sucks, and the trick is to find the lesser of all evils that still does MOST of what you want.
Don't believe me?
Think I'm overreacting?
Perhaps, but I'm still convinced that anyone who is happy with their Smartphone either
a) have low expectations from their handset
b) don't know what a Smartphone is truly capable of or
c) are kidding themselves.
What's got me so disgruntled? Its simple really- A good phone shouldn't be difficult to make, but sadly I think the manufacturers have gotten too carried away with the latest features and gimmicks, and forgotten the most important rule of a mobile device: Be convenient to use.
Bill Maher put it best when he lemented "Thanks for all the bells and whistles, but I could communicate better with ACTUAL bells and whistles".
The point of a Smartphone is (or at least used to be) to take tasks normally reserved for a desktop computer, and make them more portable and convenient. Sadly, many modern Smartphones often FAIL, and sometimes end up making normal phone functions unecessarily complicated.
Over the next series of posts, I'm going to analyze different handsets and explain why I think each one somehow missed the boat.
Do you love your phone? Got a handset you think is an exception? By all means leave a message about it in the comments and see if you can change my mind...
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