When you work in the mobile business you tend to have the latest multifunction, just released, never-been-tested smartphone. In my case it’s a SonyEricsson W900i which makes a passable job as a camera and works well as an MP3 device. The sound quality is really quite good. Not so keen on the styling, the swivel, or the Java implementation, but I can live with those.

Yesterday I bought a Nokia 1100 as a backup mobile for my Mother. It fits nicely in the hand, it has a sharp black and white display, is very light, and has a blissfully simple user interface. I suspect the battery lasts forever. All my Mother needs is the ability to make and receive calls, and this device delivers that in spades. Up/down arrows select from the address book and the central button calls.

Congratulations to Nokia for delivering something that works and is instantly obvious.

Now the question is, how do we get that degree of ease of use into the smart phones? More complex should not necessarily mean more difficult to use.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 5th, 2006 at 5:57 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.