Can't ignore the iPhone...
It's worse than Paris Hilton getting out of jail -- no matter what news you're watching, you're not too far from a story about it. The iPhone is coming and it's coming fast. The initial reviews from journalists with pre-release versions are mixed but positive. They all agree that it's gorgeous and slick, that it raises the bar for smart phone design, and that it has some very slick features. But they also point out its many questionable design decisions and curiously missing features. Missing features which really do fly in the face of the evolution of most other mobile phones manufacturers and carriers.
Take the virtual keyboard. David Pogue of the NYTimes writes: "Text entry is not the iPhone’s strong suit. The BlackBerry won’t be going away anytime soon." Indeed, Walt Mossberg said in his video review that "I was among many, many people who thought this was a real deal breaker feature. I have to say that 3 days into testing the thing, I wanted to throw it out the window because the keyboard was so difficult to use and I was making so many errors on it." He then says that 5 days in, "I suddenly found that I could type as well and as fast as I could type into my Treo’s physical keyboard for years."
Uhhhh... and that's an improvement? We've got executives wandering around the building here at Nuance who rarely do email at their computer, they're so used to using Nuance Mobile Dictation with their phone to respond to emails. (Interestingly enough, the virtual keyboard uses a form of predictive text input that's very similar to Tegic's XT9 predictive text product used on a lot of phones featuring an actual keyboard. For those out there still wondering why Nuance and Tegic have been working together for 2 years on better phone interfaces.)
Of course you'd expect me, a card-carrying Nuance marketer, to harp on the lack of voice-activated dialing, voice commands, and so forth. Still, it is a little surprising, given the advent of internet-on-your-phone technologies, and the emphasis on easy web browsing and email management... that Apple would not devote any thought to speech recognition as an input modality. Let alone cut and paste!
The other "oh, really?" moment for me was reading about the lack of MMS (picture messages) and instant messaging functionality... it's SMS or bust. I say that because one of the more interesting directions for customer care is the idea of multimodal care. You know, as in: you're ordering tickets online, and either the automated system or a live agent sends you a map of the stadium so you can choose a seat. Or you're looking at itineraries, and rather than read off 5 departure options, you're sent a message with a list of options. Basically using the visual capabilities of your mobile phone to enhance the service you're receiving. Admittedly, this is easier to do with SMS than MMS at the moment, but the more visual capabilities of an MMS can sure make a difference when you're trying to make a difference in the level of your care.
I expect that we'll explore many of these topics at Conversations this year, both in the Mobile tracks and in some of the Strategic Insights sessions. Bring your iPhones!
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