The Ultimate Smartphone

Blogger: Richard Monson-Haefel

ComputerWorld compared the iPhone, Nokia N95 and the HTC Touch in Usability test: Does iPhone match the hype?.

"Let's cut to the bottom line: In terms of usability, iPhone blew away its two competitors. Its overall score in the usability tests was 4.6 out of 5. The HTC Touch was a distant second at 3.4, and the Nokia N95 scored 3.2."

When it comes to usability the iPhone is unrivaled and that speaks volumes about simplicity and great experience design. In short, less features and great design can make a phone more usable - but don't we also want the features and ease of application development?

The Nokia N95 is one of the most feature-rich smartphones available today - but its not as easy to use (so the report says) as the iPhone. The HTC Touch sports the Windows Mobile 6 operating system which includes .NET Compact Framework making it an excellent platform for enterprise development (lots of features, great tooling, extensive integration).   

The ultimate smartphone, in my opinion, would offer the features of the Nokia N95, the operating system and application development framework of Windows Mobile 6, and the wonderful usability of the iPhone.