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Posts: 362 | Thanked: 109 times | Joined on May 2009
#104
Originally Posted by debernardis View Post
“A cigarette is the perfect type of a perfect pleasure. It is exquisite, and it leaves one unsatisfied. What more can one want?” (Oscar Wilde)

"A smartphone!" (me)



Nokia top-notch phone customers have never been left really unsatisfied, because those devices are truly amazing, well built, feature rich and pleasant to at least three out of five senses; but, as you quoted above, a number of guys, including me, think that a higher level of satisfaction will never be pursued. And this, for a legitimate commercial purpose, which is the same of Oscar's cigarette-makers: make their business thrive.

You see, I am still sorely ruminating about the transition from the Nokia 9500 to the E90 Communicator. The 9500 had an excellent operating system (series 80) - you're an expert in this field so I don't need to explain more - but that was ditched in favour of a regression to a more primitive interface which needs more keypresses to get same results, drops copy/paste from browser (! this still calls for vengeance), word/excel compatibility, and lots of refinements which you'll able to remind going back to symbian-related forums of those times.

And this is my pet argument because I've been a Communicator addict; but I bet you have found similar complaints in all those people from AllAboutSymbian (was it AllAboutSeries80 once, didn't it? %^) that you quoted in your answer, for other phones.

Originally Posted by krisse
>> In any case, what exactly would this "perfect" phone be?
IMHO you get a perfect phone when you go on refining and adding features to an already almost perfect phone, without losing the winning points, and that is evolution. Not when you abruptly abandon a well-functioning line and force your customers to a devolution, no matter how you try to hide it.
That is the thing I still hope won't happen with our tablets but is feared by many, here.

quote krisse
>> What about form factors...
>> What if someone wants a phone that...

Come on, Nokia sells *hundreds* of models. They must have an exceptional ability in diversifying their assembling lines. They're already making phones for literaly every taste.
So why don't they do the perfect phone?


Originally Posted by krisse
> And even if a perfect phone was possible, why isn't ANYONE making it right now? Nokia isn't the only phone maker, why isn't Samsung or S-E or LG or Moto or Apple making a perfect phone?
They are reasoning like Nokia maybe. But now comes the exception...

quote krisse
> The biggest flaw in the "perfect phone" conspiracy theory is Apple.
> Apple only makes one phone model at a time, so why are there so many gaps in their phone specs? [...] Why would they release an imperfect phone if a perfect phone was possible?

They have been in mobile phones for a time that's a fraction of that of Nokia, but they're learning.
And they're dangerously (for Nokia) getting close to the perfect phone. Their iterations are in the sense of evolution as I described above. They are not making a whole collection of models, each one lacking something (Oscar Wilde's perfect pleasure); they're building on a single model making it better and better. And the market seems to appreciate
Do you know what Apple is doing here?
This is the key of their success. Not the fact that they have compatibility of OS between devices. That could be accomplished having multiple form devices (like one with slide keyboard, one with a bigger 4" screen, one wuth D-Pad, etc).

The KEY strategy here is the unique device (or one that looks the same on all the 3 iPhone versions, and even in iPod).

Why? Isn't better the Nokia strategy to have hundreds of devices in different form factors?

No, I would say the unique device is the best strategy.

This is in our genes, in our DNA, we are wired to copy, imitate, to want only one god, only one star actor, etc. That's why fashion exist, because humanity learns through copying. Copying others.

So, you see people having iPhone form factor all over the place in USA and Canada. The next thing to do is go with the masses. Of course there are few that stand in the current, but the masses will go with THE ONE.

That's why THE ONE has to be unique, and always the same in form.