Get Smart

Rob Evans muses about how Buying an iPhone might actually be good for Nokia.

Now that’s great for Nokia in the long run as Norm has taken his first steps into smartphone land with the iPhone, he’s realized that he needs his phone to do a little more than just voice and text. Now what I’m thinking here is what a lot of people will do is take those first steps into smart phone land and realize that they can do so much more with a smart phone than they imagined and that they’ll hit the limits of the Phone but not of their smartphone curiosity and step up (ahem) to a Nokia smartphone.

I agree with Rob in that the iPhone will be a gateway drug for users doing a bit more than just voice and text but I don’t think it follows that someone who buys an iPhone will consider something else later. My reasoning for this is simple.

My other half was offered an upgrade from a nasty basic Nokia flip phone to a tidy Nokia e65 slider. I helped her set up email and she was happy enough to work with it for nearly a year. Shortly after she upgraded to an iPhone and really enjoyed the integration with the internet. No problem. It proves that non-geek users really appreciate email and web at their fingertips.

What changes the game is that she tried to switch to a HTC Touch Diamond (as I documented before) and couldn’t. It’s not the fact that the Bluetooth is … broken. Or that it can’t do MMS. It’s that it’s fast, responsive and has a better UI experience than anything else out there.

Some people will realise they really want a smartphone when they see other people emailing, surfing and tweeting over the air. But it’s only good for Nokia or SonyEricsson if they don’t buy an iPhone first.