July 15th, 2007
Usability Study Confirms Why the iPhone Won’t Succeed in Business
By Michael Santo
Executive Editor, RealTechNews
Overall, the survey respondents were happy with the interface, indicating it was more intuitive than other phones, with a shorter learning curve. But they did have issues with the phone. For one, the slow EDGE network. For another, text entry for SMS and e-mail was a problem … a death sentence, really, to any executives or business users that might be thinking of saddling their IT department with supporting the device.
“Participants uniformly found text entry SMS and e-mail to be difficult,” User Centric’s summary stated. “They were frustrated by the forced use the vertical keyboard and the lack of visibility for editing the middle of a word or sentence.” The users were also annoyed to find that horizontal text entry was only available in the Safari browser. Source: Information Week
We Say: To me, it was obvious this would be an issue as soon as I knew there was no “real” keyboard on the iPhone. This study should make those teens that say they would covet an iPhone more than a car think twice … let’s face it, most of them are bound to be heavy texters.
Additionally, since most were dissatisfied with the speed of the EDGE network, I would (as I’ve already done to my friends) recommend, if you really want this device, you wait for V2, with support for HSDPA, because, IMHO, that will be available before your 2-year contract with the V1 iPhone is up. 
John Doe says:
Critics, Critics, Critics….Everyone knows that you can’t touch this thing. It’s the hottest thing out there.
July 15th, 2007 at 11:22 am
Jared from Subway says:
Honestly, I don’t find the keyboard to be a problem at all. I send probably 50 texts per day, and it’s far faster and far more accurate than T9.
July 15th, 2007 at 1:01 pm
Dante says:
Yes, the Keyboard is excellent once one gets used to it: I now prefer it over the keyboard in my preivous Blackberry Pearl.
July 15th, 2007 at 1:02 pm
Dan says:
I rarely used the text feature of my treo 650. The keyboard was too small and difficult to use. I hated receiving text on it. Imagine how surprised I am to actually ENJOY texting on the iPhone! After a week of using it, it was obvious that I had to upgrade to an unlimited text plan. The keyboard on the iPhone is far easier to use than I was led to believe. This leads me to believe that all the negative reviews of this product listing the lack of a physical keyboard are simply looking to exploit the popularity of this device to lure readers to their pages. It’s not difficult to see through the cynicism these authors and their employers display. This isn’t to say the iPhone is perfect. There is always room for improvement. I look forward to seeing those improvements implemented by a company with true vision as opposed to the standard emulation of what’s already out there.
July 15th, 2007 at 3:43 pm
Chris says:
Couple things with this article that I feel are wrong. The text entry is not even hard. I text at the very minimum at least 1,000 messages per month and after about two or three days of use, I got the keyboard down. Yes the Safari widescreen keyboard is nicer than the vertical one, but the will almost certainly be fixed with a software update in the coming month. Editing messages is also extremely easy, hold your finger over the area you want and it magnifies it so you can see it better. Not very difficult for anyone with a decent IQ and normal vision. Finally, I am sorry, but IMHO, you HO is wrong about V2. I think it will probably be right around two years before V2. Apple will fix many problems and complaints over software updates and people will be happy. V2 is not going to happen until there is enough new stuff to add on that can’t be done over a software update. This means 3G needs to be expanded a great deal before it will be put in the phone and there will need to be probably 3 or 4 features that simply can’t be done on the current iPhone that are new and high tech. 3G is not a reasonable use of battery life until the large majority of the country can travel 20+ consecutive miles and still receive signal for it.
I suggest that writers and critics like this one should abandon their old ways of bulky phones with keyboards that are simply meant for email. This phone will work for business, probably better than most smart phones today. The brilliance of the iPhone is that it can be used for business while not being restricted mainly for business use like so many of the smart phones on the market.
July 15th, 2007 at 4:02 pm
All Things :: Initial Thoughts About the iPhone :: July :: 2007 says:
[…] Now we’re starting to see some detracting reports. Some think usability issues will make the iPhone unsuitable for business. That raises one of my own questions - how good is the iPhone, actually, as a phone? It’s one thing to just try calling, but what happens when you’re busy - can you use it easily one-handed, or while driving, or is using the iPhone about as bad as texting while driving? […]
July 17th, 2007 at 10:14 am
chaosgone says:
I was thinking about getting an iPhone, but then a friend of mine showed me his Dash from T-Mobile. So, I’m now thinking about getting the Dash.
July 18th, 2007 at 12:26 pm
MacSavvy says:
What i see wrong with this article is that the person didn’t test out the iPhone for more than 30 minutes. Because after 1 week.. i can type faster on the iPhone keyboard than any other phone out there. And i have no problem editing the middle of sentences… maybe he didn’t bother to learn that you just point and hold with your finger to edit any previous lines or words. Copy/paste is coming soon.. and that will be a software update not hardware.. same for file browsing and transfer.
July 25th, 2007 at 8:12 am
Mr. Iphone User says:
Now, has anyone noticed that you cannot send a TXT message to more than one recepient? Or am I missing something?
August 16th, 2007 at 3:39 pm