Why does the iPhone scare Bill Gates?
The word is out that Microsoft has a Zune phone on the way, and Microsoft won’t be playing near the catchup with the iPhone that it did with the iPod. Still, Bill Gates didn’t sound confident in the superiority of Microsoft’s software in a recent
BusinessWeek interview where the iPhone was one of the topics:
Steve Jobs’s most recent performance was with the iPhone, a big rollout. Would you buy an iPhone at $499 or $599?
Well, of course, I’m the wrong person to ask. I like to dial numbers with one hand, and maybe I’m the only one.
Gates does go on to say some insightful things about the diminishing importance of hardware as software becomes the primary means of differentiating technology, but plays his cards close to the vest. John Welch at Datamation underscores software’s importance in his fascinating look at the iPhone from the perspective of someone very familiar with Windows Mobile and the Treo. Mr. Welch is impressed by the potential for modality with the iPhone, using a flexible UI instead of physical buttons. This comment in particular speaks to one issue voiced by many current smartphone owners:
Secondly, unlike Microsoft, which has a Windows-like UI on a completely different OS for their WM phones (two actually, the “Smartphone” version and the “PocketPC” version), and some rather significant differences between them, the iPhone is running, as Steve said, OS X with the iPhone UI.
With several years head-start over the Zune, Apple was able to absolutely dominate the MP3 player market, making it seem virtually impossible for competitors to get a slice of the pie. The cell phone industry is significantly different, as customers are not only choosing hardware but carrier. If Microsoft chooses to go Apple’s route of exclusivity, though, Gates is right to be concerned. By most rumors, Apple has been working on the iPhone for a long time, making Apple’s head-start more significant than it might seem. Apple has also virtually always done software better than Microsoft. If the iPhone and Zune phone are in the same price range and both carrier-exclusive, which one are people going to pick? The so-called iPod halo effect could be very real here, too, as Apple has established itself as the pocket-bound electronics king. No stories of limited software or poor compatibility can scare off Apple customers in this arena. All told, Gates is right to be scared, as the Zune phone could end up a glorified Xbox accessory.
Filed under: iPhone News
“With several years head-start over the Zune, Apple was able to absolutely dominate the MP3 player market, making it seem virtually impossible for competitors to get a slice of the pie.”
What? Please show your work. How did Apple’s head-start over the Zune have anything to do with its dominance? Remember that the iPod was initially considered to be the one that was late to the game. The problem was that it was entrenching itself in a form that wasn’t very user-friendly. Apple stepped in with the iPod and simply showed people how useful and enjoyable an MP3 player could be. The reason none of the competitors could get a “slice of the pie” was because no one else has managed anything as user friendly.
The same thing is what Apple is hoping will happen with the iPhone. Here, the industry has entrenched itself much more deeply than with the earlier MP3 market, but it’s entrenched itself. And it’s done so in a manner that’s not very user friendly. Lots of features that very few people ever use. Apple spent a lot of time trying to toss out preconceived patterns and just try and decide how things could be done more elegantly. If they’re right, then they’ll knock another one out of the park. Speaking for myself, I can tell you that they’re right on target. The notion that I’ll actually have a phone with such capabilities and that I’ll actually probably USE those features. That’s quite something. I remember my girlfriend buying a phone last year, and my astonishment seeing her spend all day Saturday reading her manual (which was a thick pamphlet about the size of a folded-over 3/5 note card), exploring the features, actually planning to use them. It was the first time I’d ever seen anybody do that. It came as something of an epiphany to me. But that epiphany was as nothing to what I felt when I saw a phone where the features might not require all Saturday, reading microtext, to use.
Sorry. I wasn’t clear in my pronouns. “The problem was that it [the MP3 player industry] was entrenching itself in a form that wasn’t very user-friendly.”
We now return you to your regularly scheduled broadcast….