Just like that 1992 basketball team, The Dream Phone must have several talented players working together–both metaphorically and literally. Company’s must cooperate in order to form a more perfect union between software and hardware. And on a more micro-level, elements of the phone must work together to give the user a unified experience.
I will admit that Apple, with the iPhone and historically, creates products that have a certain flow. Nothing ever feels cheap and nothing ever feels out of place or clunky. Every motion and graphic on the iPhone feels natural and purposeful. Maybe its just their cool marketing strategies, or maybe they actually put a little more thought than other companies into their products.
The Dream Phone must have sleek, and solid hardware while still maintaining optimal functionality. For myself, and many other, this probably requires a touchscreen and a physical full qwerty keyboard. Ever since Palm started putting touchscreens in their Treos it has become abundantly clear that a touch screen (Dream Phone requires a capacitive) makes things much simpler and quicker. The keyboard, thanks to the modern age of instant communication, is necessary for both teenagers and business professionals alike.
There are many phones which combine these two elements, yet very few of them are truly unique, innovative, or sexy. And worse, oftentimes the addition of a slide out keyboard makes the phone feel slightly cheap. While it is obviously difficult to come up with an innovative form factor while still using the aforementioned hardware components, I feel that phone companies have given up. Like car companies, I think they should start releasing more concept models. By gauging the public’s (by public I mean myself and other self-proclaimed phone junkies) reaction, perhaps the phone companies can continue to push the envelope with regards to form factor.
….The Dream Phone will continue as a series. Next up: A better OS?
