23.Aug.2008 Nice app, shame about the OS – Windows Mobile Opera 9.6 beta
This blog entry is inspired by a Twitter tweet by sachendra@twitter. It was enough for me to dust off an HTC Raphael/Touch Pro, install the app and have a look.
The release of the iPhone really gave the mobile phone industry a kick that was needed. The iPhone managed to leverage an already successful ipod platform and bring out a mobile device that while not technologically superior was streets ahead of the competition in terms of usability. This was a device that prompted the user to use their fingers – no stylus and no hardware keyboard, this was brave and I feel, a masterstroke.
Unfortunately instead of the competition pushing the envelope and bringing out re-imagined devices/platforms of their own, they have been trying to play catch-up. Attempting to fudge current offerings to mimic iPhone like functionality. The biggest culprits I feel are manufacturers releasing devices based around Windows Mobile platform. Nokia are still yet to bring out their supposed iPhone killer – the Nokia Tube.
3rd party developers have been also trying to innovate but within the confimes of the platform being developed for. In this regard in Opera 9.5 I feel we have a prime example of a successful crossover of an iPhone functionality to another platform. Opera 9.5 is currently in beta and available for download for Windows Mobile devices from the website.
I have seen plenty of devices the majority of which are Windows Mobile PPC based attempting to ape the OS gui and apps of the iPhone, mainly failing quite badly. It was with a rather cynical attitude that I replied on twitter to sachendra
When I started to use the app, to my surprise I found an extremely polished UI on Opera and good use of the Windows Mobile platform to give it a more iPhone look and feel in its usability. The main features of the successful iPhone Safari browser are all accounted for:
- Instead of multi-touch to zoom in/out Opera uses double tap action.
- The actual zooming action itself is very smooth.
- Multiple pages can be opened
- Optimisation for use of finger instead of stylus
I also liked the seamless installation and setting of default browser. The illusion of the iPhone-esque feel is broken when you leave the app and move into a different app such as the pdf viewer (I found myself trying to double tap the screen to zoom, this is an Opera only functionality).
All in all it does in fact compare quite well against the iPhone browser. The only problem now is with the Windows Mobile platform which really needs an over-haul from a usability point of view. Microsoft need to get their hands dirty rather than leaving the work solely to hardware and 3rd party app developers to find shortcuts and create solutions.