Nokia's "not enthusiastic" about touchscreens -- Apple, LG, and HTC say wha?
By Thomas Ricker 
posted Jun 11th 2007 11:04AM
posted Jun 11th 2007 11:04AM
Nokia's General Manager of Mobile Devices, Antti Vasara, had some interesting things to say in an interview with Sweden's E24.SE this morning. Of course, the fact that the E90 ramp-up has begun is notable, especially if you happen to be reading this in Finland where the first shipments of the hotly anticipated communicator will rollout. However, what we found to be most enlightening is Nokia's take on the recent trend towards high-end touchscreen displays -- a la the LG Prada, HTC Touch, and Apple iPhone. Antti claims that people don't like touchscreens and prefer keyboards and joysticks as their input devices. Of course it's true, people don't like using touchscreens for UIs built for a mouse and nothing beats a keyboard with plenty of tactile input for fast data entry. Still, as HTC recently demonstrated with TouchFLO, the combination of using your finger with a UI designed for the finger can be killer -- a lesson presumably not lost on the iPhone as well. Nevertheless, Antti does concede that Nokia is ready for touchscreens if they see the demand. In fact, Nokia "will be launching an entirely new type of mobile next year." Do tell Antti, do tell.
[Via Unwired View]
How am I supposed to belive anyone with teeth jack up like that?
ei helvetti! it's Antti
I've been saying that the lack of a keyboard is going to be the downfall of the iPhone since it was first confirmed. Them Fin's are smart feller's and clearly know what's good for them. People are NOT going to be sending text messages with any frequency if they're banging away on a touch screen. They're fine for mall kiosks but not a phone. I honestly can't believe how short-sighted the gadget community in general has been on this issue.
I'm with you Frank. Gotta have a "real" keyboard. As long as humans have fingers that respond to tactile feedback a "real" keyboard will be in demand.
And also what's with Engadget and all other sights spinning this whole "touch" thing as "new". Pocket pc has had a touch screen for EONS. What's new? How it looks? C'mon.
"...people don't like using touchscreens for UIs built for a mouse..."
Irrelevant because that's not the issue. The issue is whether people like UIs designed for touchscreen versus keyboard-only on small, handheld devices. The market so far has shown overwhelmingly that people want keyboards on these devices. Not one UI--WM, Palm, UIQ, S60--was designed for a mouse. Neither is the iPhone. You're just tossing out a bogus argument so you can defeat it.
"Still, as HTC recently demonstrated with TouchFLO, the combination of using your finger with a UI designed for the finger can be killer -- a lesson presumably not lost on the iPhone as well."
How so? How is that "lesson" not lost on the iPhone? Who says the TouchFLO is "killer"? All it shows is that even touchscreen advocates realize tactile feedback is a problem. No product has proven in the market that it can overcome that.
"Antti does concede that Nokia is ready for touchscreens if they see the demand."
Concede? You're a fool. How about a little less bias, please.
I couldn't agree with you any more. He certainly did narrow down the argument to suit his needs, while not addressing the entire point.
The funny thing is that nokia has made 2 touchscreen devices: the N800 and the other one...
Just as a clarification, if translated from the original article in Swedish, he actually said that Nokia's studies show that "most" users prefer joystick or keyboards - which means that Nokia does see that some users are interested in a touchscreen input.
If you look at Windows Mobile devices all the best selling have keyboard (QWERTY mostly). US operator's offer almost no WM phones without keyboard at all. Touch screen is bad because it encourages to bad UI design meaning that the UI is hard to use without a stylus. We see this when we compare Smartphone and Pocket PC. SP usability is light years ahead of PPC. PPC phones have so many extra buttons for different tasks like opening Start menu, pressing OK button etc. and still you need the stylus to use the UI efficiently.
Touchscreens definitely have their ups and downs and they certainly have been around for awhile . . . I still can't over the fact that because of the iPhone, some people are just now thinking that touchscreens are something new, LOL. I'll admit, Apple may have something up their sleeve with this whole multi-touch technology, however I will always want a secondary way of inputing stuff, not just strictly touchscreen. You don't know how many times I wipe down the screen of my cell phone from fingerprints and smudges and it's not even a touchscreen. I've seen some phones that are just as sexy and sleek as the iPhone, but have both touchscreen AND tactile input. But then again, I've mentioned before that touchscreen phones are more of a preference.