I am a functional kind of guy – the product has to do fantastic things and I am less concerned about how it looks. It does still have to look reasonable though. This post I found on Business Insider tells us that we have to look beyond our current product set and take a view that a great customer experience is more important than function… to an extent.
Research in Motion thought the iPhone would bomb, basically, because its not a BlackBerry.
via Research in Motion: Executives Thought The iPhone Was “Badly Flawed,” And Assumed It Would Bomb.
However I don’t go fully for the form over function argument. The iPhone did a great number of things very well compared to its competition whilst being a passable phone and the article does touch on these. Even today, the iPhone has the edge, in my book, over Android with respect to web browsing. One area though it really shines – Music and Podcasts. No other phone has the level of integration from store to content to device that the Apple iPhone has and I am missing that in my new Android phone. However Google has a stratospheric development cycle from having so many different partners on hardware and software, so I hope that will be resolved soon.
A great lesson for product developers – Passable to good function, and great form. Oh, and don’t rest on your laurels.
