Apps a distraction?
Nokia’s head of North America was interviewed by Venture Beat. Here he contrasts the iOS/Android interface with the young Windows Phone 7, advocating the latter:
Weber called Android and the iOS phone platforms “outdated.” While Apple’s iPhone, and its underlying iOS operating system, set the standard for a modern user interface with “pinch and zoom,” Weber conceded, it also forces people to download multiple applications which they then have to navigate between. There’s a lot of touching involved as you press icons or buttons to activate application features. Android essentially “commoditized” this approach, Weber said.
Nokia, by contrast, will offer a more seamless and efficient interface with its “live tiles and hubs” approach. It does this via Microsoft’s Windows Phone operating system, where applications will be integrated into everything you do. For example, if you want to communicate with a business contact, you select the contact from your address book, and then communicate in any way you want — via LinkedIn, Facebook or Twitter — without having to open those individual applications. That’s because everything is built around contacts, not applications. And your profile and most important contacts are represented by tiles on your home screen, which update dynamically as you or your contacts make status updates. On the iPhone and Android, by contrast, the home screen icons remain static.
What he says makes sense, but I worry about one thing in particular: how adaptable is the rich interface to new services? For example, how easily could Google+ interactions be added to your contacts tiles (setting aside who makes that particular product)? Could a new application add those features to the phone’s interface? Microsoft may have understandably prevented this, so as to keep things clean. But absent this ability, I would worry about my phone being a relic by the end of its 24 month life.
