Just like all of Apple's competitors, this misses out of one vital thing that Apple knows: Implementation is just as important as features, if not more so. You can forgive the iPhones lacking features because what it has works so beautifully and is a joy to use. Almost every other phone on the market may have every features thrown in, but they are a pain in the ass to use.
EXACTLY! Every time I show a friend who has another phone or smartphone, they always love touting how theirs "does more, has more features, etc., etc." But as I say "Cool, show me," I get a variety of responses, which are ususally one of the following:
"Yeah, I don't have (insert feature here) right now. But if I wanted it, I could." So, it's such a "cool" feature, but not enough to warrant getting it. Hmmm . . .
OR
They can't seem to find where that "special" feature" lives, because it's buried 12 menus deep.
As someone who lives, breathes and works as a designer (and sometimes yes, as an interface designer for some clients) it killed me every time I would try out a cell phone or ANY phone out there. And believe me, I tried out over 18 different kinds before giving up on them. They all sucked. Their users manual also sucked. Then using them was even worse. Couldn't find a lot of "features" or worse - one phone had me go through 8 menu selections just to change my ringtone volume. Jeeez! I didn't have a cell phone for over 2 years because of how bad they were.
Being able to get to a "feature" or anything else for that matter on any device, computer or electronics should be something intuitive, fluid, simple and even graceful to the end user. This not only makes using said device enjoyable, but also makes using the device next time not something that makes you want to curse the Seven Hills of Mary every time.
It comes down to simplicity, ease of use, art, good design and actually something that makes you WANT to use the damn thing. Even if you don't need to. You want to. These are the fundamental flaws that all of these Iphone Killer companies don't understand and probably never will until they actually hire interface designers. Real interface designers. This, as opposed to people making cute little folder icons ("Don't worry, we'll get the engineers to actually design the interface, you just worry about those cute little icons) who get labeled as interface designers by these companies.
Sometimes it's not always what you have, but how well you use what you got.
Being Bloated is not sexy. Being Smart is.
