iPhone imitators are Cargo Cultists

Via O’Reilly Radar: “In this week’s Ignite Show Jeff Veen, well-known for his design work on Google Analytics, Wikirank and Typekit, lays out a strong argument for why iPhone imitators are the cargo cults of the digital era. The people building touchscreen knock-offs don’t understand what makes the iPhone great. So instead of creating an … Continue reading “iPhone imitators are Cargo Cultists”

Via O’Reilly Radar:

“In this week’s Ignite Show Jeff Veen, well-known for his design work on Google Analytics, Wikirank and Typekit, lays out a strong argument for why iPhone imitators are the cargo cults of the digital era. The people building touchscreen knock-offs don’t understand what makes the iPhone great. So instead of creating an end-to-end service they attempt to imitate it’s flashiest features – kind of like Pacific Islanders who built “planes” out of bamboo.”

It seems obvious when someone says it but this is how we all feel when someone tells me about how the new XXXX phone from XXXXX will be an iPhone Killer. They also don’t get it that you have to be BETTER not ‘almost as good as’ in more than one notable feature in order to assume that title.

This is what upsets me so much about Nokia’s recent handsets and the Ovi store. It was obvious what was good, they had a year to do something better with a plethora of content and developers behind them. And they still didn’t manage anything like the iPhone and AppStore.

Such a damn shame.

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