Using slogans such as “The best devices have no limits” and “Phones should be open to anything”, Nokia clearly points its position on mobile device openness in this new ad campaign. [Photo credits macrumors forum user mcdj]

This comes just when Apple releases iPhone software update 1.1.1 which rendered unusable any user-installed application and relocking the unlocked devices, while also completely disabling the said phones in an effort to keep its platform closed.

This is a sad thing to behold. An Apple-designed phone user interface sleekness was very welcomed in a world were phone interfaces offer nothing to be proud of, where Palm OS is slowly dying on the account of the exceptionally atrocious Windows Mobile, or where Symbian which even while having a rock solid core, is usually garmented with poor user interfaces. The difference is that all those platforms are known for all the applications you can get for them.

Apple had a slew of developers at its knees, begging for an iPhone software development kit. They were offering Apple the biggest gift of all: propelling the platform higher and further. The Web apps are great but they aren’t only what its all about. If Apple so believes in this, I ask why didn’t they make all their own included applications work this way as well?

On the other hand, I can live without added applications. I must assert that I have faith in Apple’s capability of delivering an amazing user-experience through its own applications. But I still can’t imagine owning a $400 phone locked to one single carrier. That sure is a definite no-go.

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[Note: Ce texte à débuté comme simple réaction à l’article Le coté obscure du hype de l'Étudiant alpha, mais a rapidement pris l’ampleur d’un simili-essai sur ma conception de la relation entre le hype envers un produit et les interfaces utilisateur que ce dernier offre. Je fais tout de même référence à l’article d’Étudiant alpha, ceci étant à l’origine ma réplique.]

Je dois applaudir le département marketing d’Apple pour le iPhone. Jamais les méthodes d’Apple n’ont été aussi agressives pour la mise en marché d’un de leur produit. Apple a su construire une hype tellement puissante et forte autour de l’iPhone, comme il ne l’avait jamais fait avec aucun autre produit, si ce n’est peut-être pour l’introduction du Macintosh en 1984.

C’est tout de même brillant d’un point de vue publicitaire. Et ça semble avoir fonctionné.

Il ne faut pas oublier que le hype est uniquement un véhicule, pour faire jaser et faire désirer. Mais si ce produit tant convoité est vraiment merdique (ou comme diraient les analystes financiers « it failed to impress »), ça ne fait que de l’argent jeté par les fenêtres pour la compagnie (et donc les actionnaires) en coûts de marketing, en plus de donner (et ça c’est plus grave) à cet échec un retentissant éclat, d’une amplitude digne du hype original et dont le grand public prends plaisir à se remémorer.

Et ça prends quoi pour qu’un produit ne soit pas merdique? Il doit venir combler un besoin bien-sûr. Cependant ce n’est pas tant ce que le produit peut faire selon moi, mais comment il le fait, au niveau de l’interface homme-machine, de sa facilité d’utilisation. C’est de là que vient souvent l’élément déclencheur. Il peut y avoir une hype sans cet élément, mais l’engouement ne subsistera pas si longtemps. J’ai acheté un iPod en 2002, quand ce nom ne disait rien à personne (c’était uniquement pour Mac/FireWire). J’ai choisit ce lecteur-là car Apple sait faire des interfaces utilisateur. C’est tout.

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Motorola just doesn’t get it. Constant innovation isn’t their thing. They do well, and then stop innovating and fail again until it starts (or not!) back again.

I’ve just been made aware that Motorola will be closing their Montreal-based Research and Development Center as part of a worldwide mobile handset division restructuring. Not only are they closing their R&D here in Montreal, but also one they have in Adelaide, Australia, and a major one at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign’s Research Park.

You know Motorola (or any company) is doing badly when they have to lay off people and close off some of their business, but what you also know is that Motorola is doing VERY badly when they are laying off their R&D workforce, the founding roots of innovation > new products > sales > money.

Everyone was praising them when they released the RAZR, for its innovative sleekness. It sold out like crazy and took Motorola’s handset division out of its slumber. But did they think they could live from the RAZR – and all of its variants part of the LETRZ branding – forever?

History only repeats itself: Motorola did the same thing when they released the then revolutionary StarTAC – the world’s first true clamshell cell phone – in 1996. It was a tremendous success. Motorola then virtually stopped innovating, and plunged (until the arrival of the RAZR 7 years later).

The reason I think Motorola still has the second largest mobile phone market share (after Nokia and before Samsung and Sony Ericsson) mainly comes from the fact that they focused on low-end phones, the kind given for free with a mobile operator contract.

Maybe I’m wrong. I believe you need to be a pretty talented engineer to work at Motorola. If that is the case, it’s a management problem. Lack of creative freedom, ideas drowning in the Motorola ocean.

About 200 people are to be laid off from Motorola Montreal’s closing. In other news, Ericsson announced last week that their Montreal R&D center is looking forward to augment its workforce by exactly 200…

In the meantime, you can check out those other handset manufacturers who are actually profitable (there are less than you might think) such as Scandinavian pioneers Nokia and Sony Ericsson (Ok, part Japanese too). Or OpenMoko.

Many factors contribute to the success of those companies. One of them I think is putting user interface design, ease of use and high usability as a top priority. This will constitute the focal point of part II of this series.

– Pierre Nick