Apple doesn't hold a patent on the touch screen tech.
The same type of touch screen is in several HTC devices and the Storm.
All of them use capacitance based touch screens.
Meaning fingernails or a stylus will not work on the screens.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Microsoft Exec Says "Big Deal" to iPhone Success
- Thread starter redman042
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
The same type of touch screen is in several HTC devices and the Storm.
All of them use capacitance based touch screens.
Meaning fingernails or a stylus will not work on the screens.
A Couple of points to bare in mind:
1) The VAST majority of phones still sold today are 'dumbphones' I would argue that the majority of iPhone users are ex-dumbphone users who, due to its easy UI, are discovering features that phones are possible of for the first time, i.e. email. The majority of real power users, whether they're using WinMo, Series 60, UIQ, whatever, simply cannot get the features they want/need from the iPhone. Although for a lot of these dumbphone users the iPhone UI is superb (hence they think its the best), to a lot of users of other smartphone OS's its simplistic and too limited. Power users are not bothered about drilling down a few menu levels to get at the functionality they need, so long as their device is the cutting edge and offers everything.
You can tell who Apple's intended audience is by looking at their adverts. 'This is how you look at the internet, this is how you look at a map, etc.' They're showing people that these things can be done on a phone because they don't know. And these idiots go around thinking they've got some genius device thats cutting edge. WinMo users have been looking at html and xhtml web pages for years, and every phone on the planet can run Google Maps!
2) Microsoft sold somewhere over 18 million copies of Windows Mobile in about 5 months less than its taken Apple to reach their 13 million.
Actually, the LG Prada phone came out before the iPhone and had a capacitive touch screen
Also, the iPhones Springboard is a joke! It's like it's designed by a 5 year old. Why can't you even have folders to put all your alike apps in? I want to keep all my games in a folder so that I'm not left with umpteen pages of apps I have to scroll through to find the one I'm looking for! Slow and tedious.
The only thing innovative about the UI is the scrolling and the double tap to zoom (pinch is a nice idea but I never use it). To be honest though its not that revolutionary, more evolutionary. Someone else would've come up with it if they hadn't. What it did do was make touchscreens more popular with a mainstream audience and so prompt other manufacturers to start churning them out.
Safari is nice because the scrolling and zooming is nice. As a browser it's not the most advanced as it doesn't support Flash, etc.
Yes, the iPhone really pushed capacitive to consumers, although a lot of consumer areas still need stylus input as well, so it's not a perfect solution by far.
Capacitive screens have been around for decades. I came along late and first programmed for them back in 1991. The iPhone touchscreen design is from a company named Balda, not Apple.
Multi-touch has also been around a very long time. Here's a pretty good overview.
I agree with you... for long pages, there really needs to be another method of navigating.
Ever try to look through a long PDF? Ouch. A lot of the UI only works well with small sections of data.
As you know, the iPhone design didn't start with touch scrolling. That came along later. It very likely had scrollbars to start with.
It's innovative for a phone. It's not innovative in my field. In fact, parts look very much like lots of projects I've done over the years, because some things work best.
Obviously I'm very glad that Apple has pushed touch into the news. It has made my expertise even more valuable.
Actually, those gestures have been around for many years. Most users just haven't seen them before. I was doing the fingertip scrolling back in the early 80s. You can see most of them in the 1992 Starfire project from Sun.
But they do get annoyed when the power OS is buggy and crashes.
I have a Treo 750 running Windows Mobile and I wish I didn't. I appreciate that I have more control than with the iPhone but the device needs hard resetting five to eight times a week.
It freezes, crashes, stops making system sounds, self-reactivates wake up alarms that I turned off three days ago (that one really gets my goat... at 4am on a Sunday), ignores commands to de-activate an email account I no longer wish to receive on the road.... the list goes on.
I have an iPod Touch and now, on the road, I carry both. The touch just works. The Treo just doesn't.
If Windows Mobile wasn't so unstable I'd stick with it but it is unstable. In my personal experience. I expect a lot of other people are the same.
Actually, the LG Prada phone came out before the iPhone and had a capacitive touch screen
Also, the iPhones Springboard is a joke! It's like it's designed by a 5 year old. Why can't you even have folders to put all your alike apps in? I want to keep all my games in a folder so that I'm not left with umpteen pages of apps I have to scroll through to find the one I'm looking for! Slow and tedious.
The only thing innovative about the UI is the scrolling and the double tap to zoom (pinch is a nice idea but I never use it). To be honest though its not that revolutionary, more evolutionary. Someone else would've come up with it if they hadn't. What it did do was make touchscreens more popular with a mainstream audience and so prompt other manufacturers to start churning them out.
Safari is nice because the scrolling and zooming is nice. As a browser it's not the most advanced as it doesn't support Flash, etc.
Naturally, in your haste to respond you misunderstood my point (and also cut what I said wildly out of context as well, so thank you). All of this technology (ie touch screens, multi touch, etc) might have existed before the iPhone, but Apple did a better job of it's implementation - hence it's been praised universally for the above mentioned features (especially the responsiveness of the touch screen itself).
You simply misunderstood what I said (which amazes me because all you had to do was read what I typed), otherwise you would have noticed that I never once said the iPhone was the first touch screen to exist, nor did I say the "touch screen" itself was patented. I said many aspects the iPhone's hardware and software (specifically related to the touch screen) have been patented (which if you keep reading you'll realize is true).
I also suggested the iPhone is the best touch screen on the market right now, in terms of incorporating what it does and working as well as it does. If you disagree, point out a more responsive touch screen on the market. You can't? Exactly. All the other phones I've used are either hyper sensitive or lack sensitivity altogether. The iPhone has achieved an amazing balance, and I guess proof is in the pudding, since I can't think of anyone whose complained about the touch screen on the iPhone for any legitimate reason (other than they would prefer physical buttons).
And yes, Apple actually did patent several aspects of the touch interface - look it up.[1]
As to your comment about Mobile Safari, "[a]s a browser its not the most advanced?" Compared to what? There is nothing that even comes close Mobile Safari on a mobile device (we're not talking about the desktop). As far as lack of Flash support, 5 minutes of research (ie Google) would help you to understand why Apple has correctly not included Flash support (and are presumably waiting until a safe, secure, and effective means of its delivery can be achieved).
Anyway thanks again for the misquote.
1. Also, read this, and this.
Oh and by the way:
Apple is about user experience and convenience.
The iPhone is an example of that.
Sure there are other phones out on the market that have features that the iPhone does not have. Japan is one of the most innovative markets for cell phones. However, in many cases the UI is poorly implemented and leaves a lot to be desired.
Over time, more features will be added to the iPhone making it a better solution over time. Most UI's don't change much over time, so I don't expect to see much improvement on the other phones on the market.
Anyhow, the iPhone seems popular based upon it's sales. Will they continue? That's anybody's guess. If the iPod is any indication, they will.
The iPhone is an example of that.
Sure there are other phones out on the market that have features that the iPhone does not have. Japan is one of the most innovative markets for cell phones. However, in many cases the UI is poorly implemented and leaves a lot to be desired.
Over time, more features will be added to the iPhone making it a better solution over time. Most UI's don't change much over time, so I don't expect to see much improvement on the other phones on the market.
Anyhow, the iPhone seems popular based upon it's sales. Will they continue? That's anybody's guess. If the iPod is any indication, they will.
Motorola will be releasing Android cellphones. As far as web browsing the iPhone and Android are pretty much clones. Both are excellent.
The market for this type of device is huge and Android will get a good percentage of it. Windows mobile will be history if they don't come up with a good browser and touch interface.
Just my 2cents...
Actually, the LG Prada phone came out before the iPhone and had a capacitive touch screen
And they had one of the worst UIs. All that phone was was a stylish piece of crap. That touch screen hardly had any function, it was just... there. If you're going to have a touch screen, make it do something that you couldn't do with conventional buttons and a scroll ball.
I agree that having a folder option would be nice to categorize various apps. This is the only thing I'll agree with you on.
We all know that these options to scroll, tap, zoom, etc have been around before, and of course it's not the first. If someone else could have come up with it, then like I said earlier... where the hell is it? I sure haven't seen it. Should have, could have, but they didn't. They came out with phones that had a form or two of touch scrolling, etc but with terrible implementation. What good is it it's even worse to use and has a shoddy UI? Prompt other manufacturers to start churning them out? It's been 2 years, so where are these competition phones? Only one I see that could be remotely close so far is BB Thunder. No WiFi? I'll pass.
Like another poster already mentioned... there's a reason it's not implemented safely yet.
The reason I cut elements out of your original post was because I agreed with all of your other points, I simply wanted to highlight the two specific points you made which I wanted to address. I was not attempting to mis-quote you and thought I could safely assume that readers who reached my post would have already read yours in its entirety.
"The iPhone's touch hardware is quite ahead of everything else - and I believe that a lot of it is patented as well."
This is what you said. Taken in context with the post you were replying to it appears on face value that you were saying the touchscreen as a whole, not 'many aspects of it'. All I did was simply point out an alternative implimentation of the capacitive touchscreen that occured before the iPhone was released.
You seem to have taken great exception to this one line of my post in particular. It was not meant as some scathing attack on you. I think perhaps the use of the smiley has caused it to be taken out of context. If so then this is my fault as I simply don't use smileys at all normally and perhaps made a bad choice of which one to use. I appologise if this offended you as I didn't mean it to say anything about you or your post, it was meant to be me thinking. I think I should refrain from using them altogether.
I agree with you.
Again, I agree with you. I don't doubt they did, I just pointed out that it wasn't the first capacitive touchscreen. The fact they did is probably part of the reason we haven't seen a slew of equally impressive touch devices from other manufacturers.
The UI is common to the iPhone as a whole. If you take the iPhone's nice UI out of the equation then, the browser is not that stunning technologically. It's based on Webkit the same as pretty much all the rest are, and therefore shares their same basic features. The S60 web browser however supports Flash Lite (couldn't comment on IE for WinMo as I don't have one), which means it supports something the iPhone browser doesn't and allows you to play the majority of videos on the web from within the browser. It's interface may not be as nice as that of the iPhone browser, but this is down to the D-pad which I have already agreed with you about.
As far as the lack of Flash support in the iPhone browser goes, there's nothing out there on this from Apple at all. Just Adobe saying they can do it, and a lot of speculation from people outside of Apple that it would be too slow / intensive for the iPhone hence Apple not wanting to release it.
But the whole point is that you have to rely on someone to hack the phone in order to achieve such basic functionality.
How can I email a voice note or anything other than a picture?
How can I send or recieve a vCard?
How can I recieve any attachment and open it in any app other than the Apple viewer?
How can I use a program such as AirSharing and view the files I've copied across in any other app?
How am I going to be able to edit documents when there's no way of getting them onto/off of the phone in a way that they can be used by the document editor?
How can I use a keyboard or other HID device?
How can I copy text from an email/document/web page/text message/contact/calendar entry/note and paste it into an email/document/web page/text message/contact/calendar entry/note?
How can I forward a text message containing an address of a meating to a colleage without writing it on a piece of paper and typing it back in again?
How can I (for example) use the movies app to find out what's on at my local cinema, text my friend to see if they want to go and then book the tickets without having to close the movie app and start all over again?
How can I leave my IM client running in the background? (I know push notifications are coming, but come on are we expected to believe that Apple can't write code for memory management and would rather have you connected to a server 24/7 wasting your battery a hell of a lot more?)
I could go on and on. Before anyone says to me that if I don't like the features of the iPhone go off and buy something else please remember that this phone is being marketed as a smartphone. I would argue that it's not a smartphone at all. I'm reasonably confident that I could (snazzy interface asside) do everything the iPhone does on a Sony Ericsson K800i (and that has a better camera).