I worked for Nokia (briefly, just before Eloppification) and I remember being told that when the iPhone launched everyone laughed because there was no way that the battery could last more than a day, there was no app store back then, no flash, no high-speed data (2G) and it failed every single one of the internal tests that Nokia had.
Yet, people didn’t care, obviously - and the iPhone is the model for nearly all phones today.
I get bent out of shape about this, the same way I get bent out of shape about the death of small phones and modular laptops; but people vote with their wallets and if the market was large enough for both to exist then there would be better options; yet it seems like there’s not.
People seem to care much more about capacitive touch screens, large displays, hungry CPUs, incredible post-processing of cameras (and great camera sensors) than they do about being drop proof, having stable software or battery life.
Features > Stability ; to most people. (and, how do you put stability on a spec sheet for tech youtubers to care about or savvy consumers trying to buy the best “value” they can; build quality doesn’t fit onto a spec sheet).
People wanted iPhone over Nokia, not due to its specs but due to its usability and presentation.
Let's be honest, both Symbian and Maemo/Meego were abject messes in both of these categories.
Symbian though, I mean, considering the hardware constraints was crazy!
The smartphone variant of Symbian needed 2MiB of Memory and supported Qt... madness.
Mike, are you familiar with the saying, "Perfect is the enemy of Good"?
Well, "good enough" is the enemy of humanity.Tap to wake, slide to homescreen, the control center were introduced by the N9.
One cannot conclude this from what the market does. Single individuals might want wildly different things than what the combined economy serves them.
I'm not excited about the current duopoly, but a decent mid-range phone from either is better now that in was five years ago.
Oh, and my favorite, problems with microUSB charging ports were eternal.
Before I got a smartphone I used a j2me IRC client to keep connected with my friends, and I had to carry 3 batteries to swap throughout the day for it to last, the battery life was horrible if you actually did anything on it.
Maybe that’s the reason the battery lasted a week.
Owned a Nokia in 2003 as well and it was destructed by some water. It had no Nokia Care and my grandma refused to buy me a new one.
> text without looking at the screen
I do it all the time by dictating.
anyway, the new Nothing phone (3a) is amazing batterywise!
Also my first phone, a "bomb proof" Nokia died when it fell out of my pocket into a shallow pond. Most modern phones would survive that no problem!
Note to mention they're waterproof.
The battery lasted a week when a week's worth of usage was a dozen messages and an hour of call time with the rest the phone is locked and dark.