It's not just the "what", it's the "how"

Michael Gartenberg | June 13, 2007, 08:14 AM

Dave Winer comments on the new iPhone ads and wonders if his Blackberry can some of the same functions seen in this ad and discovers that it can. (although it would be a real trick to replicate the entire commercial on a Blackberry at the moment)

I found this most interesting, Dave is a pretty smart guy and he didn't realize the extent of the capabilities of his phone. That's pretty significant to me and it underscores just how good Apple's ads are. No chance of consumers missing the point of this device.

But even more important isn't what the iPhone does, but how it does it. Yes, my Blackberry, Dash and even my RAZR can all run Google Maps but having spent some time with the iPhone, I can tell you that none of the versions of Google Maps for other platforms compares with the version for the iPhone. Yes, all versions do the same thing but not in the same way. Elegance in use as well as style and fashion are extremely important to consumers (otherwise why would anyone ever have bought a RAZR or a Nano over other devices on the market).

John Markoff over at the NY Times talks about the issue of the iPhone lacking a full keyboard. Perhaps that will be an issue for heavy email users, but that's not the iPhone demographic for now (and it wouldn't shock me if we saw an iPhone with a keyboard at some point in the future) and I suspect that most folks who buy this first version of the device will find Apple's implementation good enough. Again, it's not what Apple is doing but how they are implementing it. Folks who miss understanding the importance of the how are missing most of the story here.