HTC Touch Gesture-Based Phone - iPhone Not 5 Years Ahead
With the released of its new phone, the “Touch”, HTC has signalled that it has recognised one of iPhone’s key differentiators in the market place - the gesture-based interface. The new HTC Touch has some technology called TouchFLO, which builds a neat gesture-based touch screen interface on top of Windows Mobile.
Like the iPhone, as well as simple “taps” on the screen, the HTC system recognises horizontal and vertical “strokes” of the screen e.g. which can be used to scroll. And like Apple, HTC has implemented some simple physics into the UI in the form of momentum, so the screen keeps scrolling if you do a fast scroll. This allows you to rapidly find your place in a list.
So far, so good. However, ultimately, the HTC isn’t quite there yet with its interface, because TouchFLO isn’t integral to the phone operating environment; rather, it’s built on top of it (the phone OS is Windows Mobile 6). Unfortunately, that makes everything a bit clunky. For example, when you have a long list to scroll through, you still have scroll bars taking up valuable screen real estate - with a gesture-based UI, you just don’t need scroll bars. And TouchFLO is modal, so you have to “switch it on” i.e. start the gesture-software, and not all parts of the phone software work with it. How do you send SMS or e-mail? Answer - with the stylus. Still, it’s not a bad effort, and I think the Touch will do OK. HTC doesn’t have Apple beat just yet though.
However, while the HTC Touch might not be an iPhone killer, I think it tells us something pretty interesting. That is, Apple is not even close to being five years ahead of the competition, as Steve Jobs seems to believe. Apple is about to find out just how fast its competition can move - HTC is intending to actually have this device in this shops before the iPhone available (and it’s on sale right now). If Apple wants to stay ahead, the company is going to have to start innovating a lot more rapidly than it has done with its computer and iPod businesses. I wonder if it can…
Kevin D wrote:
One note: yes, gesture based screens can and do have scrollbars, because if you want to quickly move to a spot, you need them.
Many iPhone pages have them. Look carefully at the Contacts list, for example, and you’ll see a semi-transparent scrollbar on the right with the alphabet, as well.
Also, I’ve designed devices with fingertip scrolling, and I can tell you that the novelty eventually wears very thin on long documents (grin).
Posted 06 Jun 2007 at 1:40 pm ¶
Asam Bashir wrote:
Lets wait for real-world use of the phones, yes sure on paper other phones can appear to match iPhone features, but it’s the synergy between hardware and software that matters in the real-world. Wait to be blown away again on 11 June at WWDC…
Posted 06 Jun 2007 at 2:36 pm ¶
simon wrote:
Kevin,
I’m curious what gesture-based devices you’ve worked on!
You said,
“Look carefully at the (iPhone) Contacts list, for example, and you’ll see a semi-transparent scrollbar on the right with the alphabet, as well.”
Hmmmmmm… I didn’t think those are actually scroll-bars. I thought they were a quasi-modal visualisation of your position in a document/list. That is, they appear only when you’re doing gesture-based scrolling (a quasi-mode), to show you where you are in a document. To me, it looks like you can’t “pick ‘em up and move ‘em.” Perfectly happy to be proved wrong though.
Re: gesture-based scrolling on big documents. I can see your point about novelty wearing off (I have used gesture-based scrolling before where that’s the case). I’m curious as to whether you implemented the “momentum” feature that iPhone (and HTC Touch) has. To me, having the physics to enable fast navigation in places looks like a reasonably effective way of navigating long(ish) lists. Difficult to tell without trying it though…
Posted 06 Jun 2007 at 3:33 pm ¶
Kevin D wrote:
Simon, thanks for your reply.
My touch background spans decades on desktops, casino gaming devices, and handhelds. Casinos, of course, don’t like mistakes or unhappy customers. So they’re the hardest to please.
You’re right about the iPhone Contacts not quite being a true scrollbar on Contacts. It’s more of a “jump” bar. You can click on a letter to go straight to that alphabetic section.
Re: momentum based scrolling. Yes, but as I keep telling people, that feature almost always originates unexpectedly because the hardware can’t keep up with the finger… and thus it takes a while to catch up.
Programmers fix it as a bug so scrolling stops right away, then ironically the users ask for it back as a feature, so you actually add code to make it keep going and then fade off. Really easy to do.
Posted 06 Jun 2007 at 4:52 pm ¶
simon wrote:
Interesting stuff, Kevin. Thank you for that.
Posted 06 Jun 2007 at 5:13 pm ¶
Kevin D wrote:
To be an iPhone killer, someone (SPB?) will have to rewrite a half-dozen core apps to be large-button, touchscreen friendly.
Btw, one thing iPhone goofed up on bigtime, IMO, is that WM correctly has a Home screen with your most important info (a big watch for time, appt list, perhaps weather, plus whatever else you want on a custom Today screen).
OTOH, iPhone uses a Start Menu as its Home screen. That’s not what people normally like to see on their phones, and doesn’t seem as friendly or usable in normal life.
Posted 06 Jun 2007 at 7:29 pm ¶
Minimum91 wrote:
I hate these cheap looking phones! Why can’t Big companies understand, that People want cool, stylish = stuff (like iPhone), but not geeky looking phone like HTC Touch.
Posted 19 Nov 2007 at 9:26 pm ¶
Jamie wrote:
Minimum91,
Contrary to your inane comments, the look of the device is subjective.
The Apple iToy looks as if it was birthed from a damn gumball machine which is why it’s imperfect for businesses.
Meanwhile, Nokia know how to make an enterprise smartphone look professional.
Posted 20 Nov 2007 at 11:39 pm ¶