Evaluate on 'edge cases' and ecosystem

Computerworld is publishing the results of its mobile deathmatch between the iPhone and the Pre (Mobile deathmatch: Can the Pre knock out the iPhone) on Monday (6 July) and is asking for feedback on what to evaluate the devices on. FWIW, The Register has a good comparison as well.

I've been using both intensely since the Pre was launched (along with an N97, and less intensely a Storm, a G1, a Bold and an X1), and the Pre does come closest to the iPhone.

There are two key criteria which differentiate all of these devices:

• user experience (UX)


• ecosystem (apps and content)

And when you dig deeper, ease of use is not so much about any individual app, it's about the 'edge cases'. They're all pretty much the same for an individual stand-alone task, except where the hardware lets them down (like the resistive touch screen on the N97 and WinMo devices, and the Storm's horrible hybrid).

The big difference is if the job that you want to get done is an 'edge case':

• forward something from an SMS as an e-mail


• take a video and post it


• get information from a search and use it to navigate


• pick up a e-book for casual reading for a few minutes


• watch the second half of a movie on a smartphone that you started on the big screen TV last night


• search for and get directions to the nearest Starbucks (certified caffeine addict)

This is where the iPhone (particularly now it's got cut-and-paste) excels. Easy to switch apps; lots of them.

They play nice together; take the integration of Where with Google Maps:

1. Swipe to the screen with Where on


2. Tap on Where


3. Tap on Starbucks


4. Tap on the nearest icon


5. Tap on Get Directions

Five taps, because there's a nice little app, and good interworking; 17 seconds.

I just checked, on my big desktop it takes three times longer - ~50 seconds:

1. Mouse to the search field in Safari


2. Type 'starbucks' into the field, hit return


3. Mouse over to and click on 'Store Locator'


4. Mouse over to the 'Postal Code' field and click in it


5. Type my ZIP code '01742' into the field


6. Mouse over to and click on the 'submit' button


7. Mouse over to and click on the nearest store


8. Mouse over to and click on 'Driving Directions'


9. Type in my street address: about thirty characters and four tabs between fields


10. Mouse to and click on the 'submit' button

Seven (7) mouse movements, about forty characters of typing.

Worth noting as well, with the app, Google sees much less; how will this affect its economics over the long-term?

Or the amazing Kindle app, which syncs to the last page read in the book that I'm reading.

For messaging and communication tasks, the BlackBerry (except the Storm) is better at mixing and matching modes than anything else.

The Pre's pretty good as well. Where it falls short is in the complementary 'cloud services' and in the apps. The user interface is very elegant, and has some nice touches (pun intended), but it falls so far short on the apps side. The sync with iTunes does, at least for the moment, work surprisingly well.

There're now a slew of apps on the Phone, like Where and At Bat (Red Sox fan, no zeal like that of the convert) and SugarSync and WordPress on which I depend. The Pre and WebOS has Where, but none of the others.

Without the strong support of either or both a major global network operator (Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile or Telefonica) or licensing to and working with one or more of the top tier 'independent' device vendors (Samsung, Sony Ericsson, LG, HTC or Motorola) Palm won't get the market momentum it needs to build an installed base to enroll developers. Shipping the SDK so late and expanding the developer program so slowly doesn't exactly help, either.

So, evaluate smartphones on ease of use for edge cases, and their supporting ecosystem.