iPhone’s beauty makes reviewers forgiving of serious flaws

We labeled 2007 the Year of Multi-touch and a big part of that is the iPhone release this June 29th.

The New York Times has an excellent review of it today, and it brings up several points regarding the clear benefits of UI "beauty" and a positive user experience.

What's sweet about the phone:

• "Phone is so sleek and thin, it makes Treos and BlackBerrys look obese" -- it's not a surprise that the first compliment is on the style of the phone, not the function. Simply put, beautiful things are perceived as performing better.
• "The bigger achievement is the software. It’s fast, beautiful, menu-free, and dead simple to operate." -- Again, a reference to the "beauty" of the device. Even if it was flawed, the mere fact it is so attractive will make people more forgiving.
• "[Menu physics] makes the phone fun to use, which is not something you can say about most cellphones." -- Software being fun? When was the last time you heard this? Check out our own take on the interface from our UI Research Labs.
• "Once the phone goes on sale this Friday, you won’t sign up for service in a phone store, under pressure from the sales staff" -- Surely non-pushy sales people improve the overall user experience of even purchasing the device.

So what is wrong with it?

• "AT&T’s ancient EDGE cellular network, which is excruciatingly slow."
• "Camera is only 2 megapixels."
• "There’s no memory-card slot, no chat program, no voice dialing."
• "No ability to install applications."
• "Battery starts to lose capacity after 300 or 400 charges" or about a year's worth of charges.
• "Tapping the skinny little virtual keys on the screen is frustrating."
• "In a Consumer Reports study, AT&T’s signal ranked either last or second to last in 19 out of 20 major cities."
• ""You can’t send picture messages (called MMS) to other cellphones."

Normally, these would be considered serious, perhaps even fatal, flaws for a new device. Imaging a clunker coming out from Microsoft with such issues (see the success of Zune). But that is exactly our point -- even though there are rather significant, glaring issues, people are forgiving. Simply put, beautiful things are perceived as performing better. The last quote sums this up perfectly.

But even in version 1.0, the iPhone is still the most sophisticated, outlook-changing piece of electronics to come along in years. It does so many things so well, and so pleasurably, that you tend to forgive its foibles.

So some words to software, device, and web developers: People like their technology like they like other things in life -- beautiful, simple, and easy-to-use.