Macopinion

iPhones Are for Old Fogies?

by Marc Zeedar macopinion@designwrite.com

[ A side note. For those of you wondering where Less Tangible has been, I've been writing a slew of iPhone articles that have been published on Applelinks. If you missed them, check them out, including my multi-part iPhone review. You should specifically check out my iDay and iPhone Loophole articles, which explain how I ended up with an iPhone. -- Marc ]

Of the half-dozen or so personal acquaintances I know who have bought iPhones (including myself), only one is under the age of 35. This struck me as unsual. I haven't seen any hard numbers on iPhone buying patterns, but you'd think that something as high-tech as the iPhone would primarily appeal to the younger crowd. So why are old fogies buying iPhones?

There are a number of reasons. For instance, the iPhone is not cheap. (I refuse to say it's expensive, because it's not when you consider what you are getting.) Young people usually have less income than older folks, so while a ton of youth are currently lusting after the iPhone, it may take a while before they can save the dough to buy one. (It was genius of Apple to release the iPhone early in the summer -- just think of all the high school and college kids working this summer so they can go back to school in the fall with a gleaming new iPhone!)

Another possibility is that the iPhone -- like much technology today -- is the middle age crisis equivalent of a sports car. An older person, wanting to feel hip and young again, and show off a bit, comes home with an iPhone or plasma TV, not a Corvette. In that kind of comparison, the iPhone is cheap!

But the primary reason older people are buying the iPhone is because it's easy to use. That's it. It's that simple. Ease of use is the "killer app" of the iPhone.

Yes, the iPhone is being compared to traditional "smartphones" -- that's because like them it is multi-functional: it surfs the web, handles email, manages contacts, and is a media device. But regular smartphones are way, way, way too complicated for the average person, and that's even more true of busy, non-technical, older people.

This doesn't mean older people are stupid. Older people just don't have the patience of the young when it comes to technology. Something either just works or it gets dumped in the trash, end of story. An older person has experienced life and knows what's important and what's not. An older person knows the value of time, for instance, and knows that time is priceless and can never be retrieved, while money is renewable. An older person isn't wowed by trends and fads, but values elegance and wants simplicity and reliability.

If you look at the criticisms of the iPhone, 99% of them are things that only matter to power users. For the average user, who is not that technical and doesn't need -- or even want -- all the options and configuration mess of a traditional smartphone, the iPhone is the ideal device. Its fantastic touch-screen interface keeps things elegantly simple: only the buttons you need right now are available. All the other functions are hidden, not distracting you with reminders that they exist.

Yet despite its simplicity, the iPhone is a tremendously powerful device. Granted, version 1.0 has some significant limitations for power users, but for most people the iPhone is a breakthrough device. In fact, I'd argue that it's the most powerful phone in the world -- not based on feature count, but simply because it's so easy to use all of the features it has that those features will actually get used. What good is a phone with an impressive feature list if the thing is too dang hard to figure out? I bet most smartphone users hardly use a fraction of their phone's features!

Now when I say "ease of use" I'm not just talking the phone itself. I'm talking about the entire ecosystem: phone + computer + media. If the iPhone's interface is a home run, the ecosystem is where Apple hits the ball off the planet. No one else can come close to Apple here.

Most phones -- even the smartest ones -- have issues with syncing information with computers. There are many reasons for this: bad software, too many options, excessive complexity, a poor interface, etc. Apple makes it easy. You don't even have to press a button -- just plug it in!

Best of all, this is an easy sell because people already know it's easy because an iPhone syncs just like an iPod.

What other device maker would think to sync not just your address book, but all your email settings (configuration and password)? Who else would automatically back up your entire iPhone each time you sync so you can easily restore your iPhone?

No, Apple doesn't sync with every software program out there, but it works with the main ones most people use. For 95% of the world, Apple's sync is the best and easiest. Even my mom can sync her iPhone -- and loves having all her contacts (phone numbers, email addresses, mailing addresses, even birthdays) on both her phone and her MacBook.

The iPhone was not designed for any specific age group. It was designed for people. It makes the complex simple, and truth be told, that appeals to everyone, even technophiles.

The iPod was a monster product. It appealed to a wide range of people because it made managing digital music easy for anyone. But music -- especially music all the time, everywhere -- is of primary appeal to youth. Older folks just aren't that into music and don't have to have it always with them (though it's a nice bonus).

Thus I predict the iPhone will be even more successful because it handles much more than just music (contact information, photo collection, emails, data, the Internet, etc.). The iPhone offers something for everyone. It's a more practical, more useful product than a mere music player. As the costs come down and 2.0 and 3.0 devices are born, you watch: iPhone will become the best-selling electronics product in the world. All because it appeals to old fogies.

macopinion@designwrite.com