At some point, people start to copy designs, even OLD Nano designs. I think the point is when do you see other companies innovate some new fresh design? You really don't. Apple always pioneers something new, and everyone else lifts elements of the idea. Even if not exact copies. It would just be nice for once for a company that is NOT Apple to release a product that makes me go, "wow, that's a hot design! so fresh! i want it!" and not say, meh, "it looks like franeksteins monster with borrowed limbs from a, b, c.)
Your second point shows how ignorant you are. Specs mean crap. You can throw a 2GHZ processor into a machine, but that doesn't mean it will perform as well or better than a machine with 1GHZ processor. Android and Windows are very bloated OS-es (even Win7 still suffers from this), and they are more resource hungry. IOS/Mac OS are far more efficient and do more with less.
It's like comparing a 300lb man to a 150lb runner. Both can technically lift the same amount of weight, but one doesn't need to consume as much food and have all the bulk and bloat to do it because their body is a better run machine.
So spec-wise, out perform is a stupid thing to say. For anything. Don't even compare it. The web is full of speed tests and comparisons that show macs and IOS devices performing the same exact tasks in the same apps faster with less under the hood. Might be those apps when programmed for a different platform run better too.... Actually, the generally do. Read reviews for Microsfot office on the mac. "Works better than the windows version."
Lord Judge, i present to you - exhibit a:
exhibit b:
See how easy it is to come across as a complete idiot?
Neither N9 nor Nokia 800 has any roots in the nano. As pointed out in this thread, its heritage within the Nokia line is clear. Now poof!
Second, i never said specs matter. I said its funny that in MR logic specs only seem to matter when Apple is ahead of someone else. When they're not, its always irrelevant. Always.
Third, WP7 is hardly bloated. If it were, it wouldn't be buttery smooth. In fact, i have yet to see real lag on a WP7 device. I have seen it on the 3GS since iOS4 though. Reality is a bitch without the RDF. Even so, i'm glad I'm outside of its range.
P.S. I've been working professionally with Office for mac regularly the last few years, using the last three version - and no, while being good enough for me not to run it in VM (i am a mac user) it's not as good as the Windows offering (i have a W7-box too, sitting in my home office). In particular, Excel 2008 was a joke.
Thank you, come again.
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You do know that WP7 has ten colors you can choose from, right? Including brown? I personally use the "mango" color, but was using red until a week or so ago. You can just change it whenever you want. Past that, most apps will have their own tile design (Netflix and ESPN ScoreCenter have slightly different shades of red, for example), so the top of your home screen is unlikely to be any single monotonous color after a week of use.
And, unlike iOS, the start screen is not the center of the experience. Metro Apps are.
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The entire smartphone category of devices derives from PDAs. The main differentiation is that a smartphone is a PDA with a phone in it. They're not very different. In fact, most smartphone designs are internally built as PDAs with phones built in. Literally. The Pre, the original iPhone, and the Treos all were a base PDA with an internally separate radio module. I haven't taken apart many Windows phones, but I'd expect at least a quarter of the designs to also do this too. Heck, even Siemens had a Newton-based desk phone.
Palm Pilot -> Palm 7 -> Palm Treo -> Cobalt -> Palm Pre.
Windows CE Pocket PC -> Windows CE Smartphone edition -> Windows Mobile 7.
Newton Intelligence -> iOS.
Psion/EPOC32 -> Symbian Series
On the left is the earliest mobile OS of that series, and on the right is the current product of that lineage. I'm not saying that iOS is a new version of Newton, nor that the Pre is a new version of the Pilot.
I'm saying that mobile OS' have been around longer than you implied. And that design ideas from the earliest of that lineage continue to influence descendants.
As strange at it might sound at first, when you look at what goes into making a smartphone, both Microsoft and Apple have had more experience than Nokia when it comes to the "smart" part of "smartphone".
Actually, the entire smartphone segment doesn't derive from the PDA. It derives from several streams of technology converging or perhaps colliding. This convergence, or collide, in turn, is what in essence allowed Apple to successfully disrupt involved industries, much thanks to their legacy in software.
