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The iPhone X is like using a new phone... which might be a problem for Apple...

Agent OrangeZ

Agent OrangeZ

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Mar 17, 2010
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Planet Earth
First off. I got my new X this morning and I am loving it. But... navigating this phone really feels like a brand new experience. Not a problem for a techie person like myself... but Apple might be turning some people off with all of this new UI gesture navigation. You have older people... who might have found it very easy to grasp the concept of the iconic home button. They may have trouble transitioning over to the X. You also have people who have been curious about Android. Now that you are changing the way we use our phones... you might have a few people jumping ship to Android. If they have to learn a new way of doing things, they might just decide to learn how to navigate Android.

Just some thoughts.
 
The old farts that don’t care about tech aren’t going to like it. Still, it’s a far better interface to those who take the time to understand it. They aren’t the target market this year, many other options in the lineup tight now. Give it a few years, and they’ll catch up.
 
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I don't believe any of those examples are people who are going for the X. My mom wouldn't like the X, but she's still on a flip phone so its irrelevant.
 
The X isn’t for everyone. Your point might have been the case if it was the only phone released this year but the iPhone 7 and 8 give people plenty of options.
 
I like the gesture based navigation very much but I’m sure quite a lot of people will find it challenging to change their muscle memory for the past 10 years. That’s exactly why Apple didn’t go all in to the X this year and released a stop gap solution that’s the iPhone 8. But it’s clear what the future will be. Better embrace the future right now.
 
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We came from a previous decade which had physical QWERTY, flip phones, candybar, and sliders. Just six years ago, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Symbian, QNX, Meego, and webOS were available.

What's so hard swiping up over pressing a home button? I doubt there is much of an adjustment period for it. Many older people came from Zack Morris phones to StarTAC to WinMo to BlackBerry to iPhone to Android to whatever.

Technology is always evolving. So it's about adapting to those changes. We went from wired controllers to wireless. Didn't take long to adjust. People learn to adapt to changes for better or for worse.

evolution-of-cellphones.jpg
 
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If anyone has problems with using an iPhone X over any other smart phone, should not be using a smart phone.
 
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I think people saying "the X isn't for everyone" are just trying to rationalize the changes, which are objectively not good design (there are no affordances -- obvious controls). And Apple has clearly positioned the X ad "the future of the smartphone", so clearly they expect phones to move to this design in the future.

Having said that, I was really apprehensive about these gestures instead of the home button, or even a virtual one, and in the day I've had it I've already gotten used to it. Apple is pretty good at teaching how to use these things in their ads, so by the time you have the device you already know how to use it.
 
There will obviously be an "old fashioned" iPhone option for 2 more years at the very least. Probably more like 4
 
KingslayerG5 said:
We came from a previous decade which had physical QWERTY, flip phones, candybar, and sliders. Just six years ago, iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Symbian, QNX, Meego, and webOS were available.

What's so hard swiping up over pressing a home button? I doubt there is much of an adjustment period for it. Many older people came from Zack Morris phones to StarTAC to WinMo to BlackBerry to iPhone to Android to whatever.

Technology is always evolving. So it's about adapting to those changes. We went from wired controllers to wireless. Didn't take long to adjust. People learn to adapt to changes for better or for worse.

evolution-of-cellphones.jpg
Click to expand...
I am a very old F&%t and I think I had all of those--My first computer was
an Apple Lisa
 
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Leading up to Friday I watched all these YouTubers and other talk about how it would take a while to get used to having no home button. I took about 30 seconds. There is nothing hard to learn about the X.
 
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I remember 10 years ago, I watched my friend blind text (aka touch typing) on her candybar Nokia while she sat in class. One of my good friends who is about 44 can still do that.

On Howard Forums back in 2007, many members were waiting more for the N95 over the first iPhone. Many were hardcore Nokia fans and they mastered how to text in T9.

People forget how hard it was to adjust typing on the first iPhone. It felt very weird and many mistakes. You couldn't turn off autocorrection until iPhone OS3. That's why people stayed with BlackBerry for the physical QWERTY.

People just adjust to things. Some are slower than others. Many people went from a 4" iPhone to a 5.5" iPhone and the adjustment period was short for them.

That's why I mentioned in another thread that learning a new platform is like learning a new language. The more versatile you are, the easier you can help more people. Be a chameleon. Have range. Embrace change and adapt to it.
 
KingslayerG5 said:
I remember 10 years ago, I watched my friend blind text (aka touch typing) on her candybar Nokia while she sat in class. One of my good friends who is about 44 can still do that.

On Howard Forums back in 2007, many members were waiting more for the N95 over the first iPhone. Many were hardcore Nokia fans and they mastered how to text in T9.

People forget how hard it was to adjust typing on the first iPhone. It felt very weird and many mistakes. You couldn't turn off autocorrection until iPhone OS3. That's why people stayed with BlackBerry for the physical QWERTY.

People just adjust to things. Some are slower than others. Many people went from a 4" iPhone to a 5.5" iPhone and the adjustment period was short for them.

That's why I mentioned in another thread that learning a new platform is like learning a new language. The more versatile you are, the easier you can help more people. Be a chameleon. Have range. Embrace change and adapt to it.
Click to expand...
You had me at HowardForums
 
My mother in law has had a 6s for over 2 years and has no idea how to use about 75% of the stock features. An iPhone X would make her head spin.
 
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