I don't know how to put this but...
I've had PDA:s, touch screen pmp:s/audioplayers and there was one thing hitting me over and over lik a sledge hammer in the back of my head. (Note: I own both of the examples below and have used them extensively. This is all, of course, my personal opinion)
Take exhibit A: A Windows Mobile PDA (all the way up to ver 6).
Oodles and oodles of functionality, great hardware (I've got an old Dell Axim x50v) but a IMHO pretty ****** intreface. What's wrong? They seem to have developed the interface thinking that a stylus or your fingers are exactly the same thing as using a mouse on your home computer - well, whaddaya know, it's not. So it's more or less a home OS GUI shoehorned into a small format, including tiny buttons all over the place. And the interface doesn't feel very snappy at all, and a snappy interface IMO is *much* more important with a mobile device compared to a stationary.
So, Opera Mobile being better than Safari...? Er, no (again, it's all a matter of opnion). I'd venture saying that an app that is built for visual interaction, such as the web browsers of today, is only as good as its GUI and its ability to interact with the user. Every mobile browser (on a PDA) I've tried just isn't that hot to begin with in that regard. So what if there's every spec in the book, Flash and what not, if it's not easily accessible from the very beginning then there's something wrong with the design.
Exhibit B is probably a bad one but here goes: the Cowon D2 (since I've read opinions about the GUI that goes both ways).
Again, the over all functionality is great to me but again I see evidence of "your finger/stulys is the same thing as using a mouse on your home desktop so we'll just copy that behaviour and replace the mouse with a touch screen!" (No! It's not the same! Aaaah....! *runs away screaming and raving madly*) There is some evidence that they have tried a *bit*, such as the overlay when you touch the screen in play mode, but then it all degenerates into "yeah, ok that button/volume field is too small for my finger so I need the stulys here... Preferably a mouse, though...". And don't get me started on music selection (I mean, apart from putting out sound, that is the *one* thing it needs to do well and fails) ...
Now enter Apple. You can say what you want about Apple: rabid followers, maybe not always the best value in regards to some hardware specs but when it comes to realising interface designs to the end user market they are usually far ahead of other companies. The iPhone/iPod touch may or may not have some flaws, but face it: the interface is designed from the bottom and up for touching, *finger* touch. Be it listening to music or using Safari. I couldn't care less if the iPod touch was run on some old 286 hardware, as long as the interface and the usability of what is on there is great. I don't care if my PDA can do a zillion more things because it's just too much of a hassle to do it in the first place (yeah, I've used it as a FTP-server as well, not so sure why).
Yes, there is a lot of *research* going on from other companies but research isn't in my hand today as a realized device such as the iTouch and concepts rarely turn out like the saliva inducing objects they once were when first shown to the public.
I'm sorry for this obvous rant but I just can't get over it. There's so much possibilities with a lot of technology out there today but it seems far too many companies overlook one the most important aspects, if not *the*most important aspect (apart from the base ability - i.e. an audio player that doesn't play audio or doesn't do it sufficiently is no good as an audio player in the first place) and that is how you interact with the device and how it repsonds to commands, whether they are text based or by "clicking/touching" a graphic.
I understand that Apple is not the be all end all interface designers, far from it. The important difference is that they have devices out there today that is pretty close what the much needed fluidness of the GUI of a mobile device needs to avoid being a nuissance every time I use it. It might eventually lead to me being so frustrated that I stop using the device all together.
Sorry for the rant. Really.
