The iOS 4 update only arrived yesterday and the sound of moaning from fans of rival smartphones is already louder than a stadium full of vuvuzelas. The fact that some iPhone users have had issues with the iOS 4 update and hints of an iOS 4 app-ocalypse have only added to their cries. But once again Apple has managed one of its favourite magic tricks: making common features seem like major achievements. So how does it do it time and time again?
Imagine a phone with iPhone 4-like specs arriving three years ago with a 5MP camera, video recording, video conferencing, the ability to hook up a Bluetooth keyboard and a stable of apps that can power up your phone’s functionality. Nokia did. In 2007. It was called the N95 and it was, frankly, a bit of a clunker. The technical achievement didn’t count for much when the usability was lacking.
When the first generation iPhone arrived it was pitifully underpowered when you looked at the specs: a 2MP camera, standard GPS, no apps to speak of before Steve Jobs pulled the covers off the iTunes App Store a year later. But the combination of the original iPhone OS and the then pretty sleek hardware that made the package seem so appealing.
The arrival of iPhone OS 3.0 last year introduced cut, copy and paste, picture messaging and a phone search function. They were all familiar options to Windows Mobile, Blackberry, Symbian and Android phone owners but Apple offered up simple ways to make them work. When it comes to iPhone features, Apple is like Verbal Kint in the Usual Suspects, putting on a limp until it’s ready, then breaking into a run.
Putting iOS 4 and iPhone 4 in a battle against, say, the Nokia N8 and Symbian ^3 isn’t an even contest because Apple refuses to play by the mobile phone industry’s rules. It doesn’t sell the iPhone on specs but on experiences. That’s why it’s pitching FaceTime as the perfect way to connect with loved ones and not digging deep into video formats, codecs and other details that make most users want to pass out from boredom.
When a Blackberry owner shouts that they’ve been able to run multiple apps or change their homescreen background for years, Apple just shrugs. Its argument is that multitasking on other operating systems like the Blackberry OS or Android has always chugged through the battery life and being fairly fiddly besides. In theory, the limited multitasking in iOS 4 should avoid those issues.
There’s really two ways to look at the excitement directed towards iOS 4 by Apple fans. You could see it as like the gadget equivalent of Stockholm Syndrome: the iPhone hostages grateful to finally get the features already available to folk out in the free world. Or it’s a case of savvy smartphone owners picking a platform that only adds new elements when it knows they’ll work.
I’m tempted to plump for the latter. I’ve never been the sort of gadget buyer seduced by seriously packed spec sheets. Most of the time, the much-vaunted features highlighted in the press release don’t even get used. Unlike any other phone I’ve carried before, I can genuinely say my iPhone has made my life easier and iOS 4 will just add to that.
Am I wrong? Does Apple get too easy a ride with updates like iOS 4? Should features like multitasking have made their way into the OS long ago? Let us know…
Out now | £free | Apple
