Just Enough Computing: Part 1

When it comes to portable computing, the iPhone works in that it gets the job done. Its screen is barely big enough to read comfortably. Its onscreen keyboard will never match up fully to the needs of a trained typist accustomed to physical data entry. It's a gadget made from compromise and limitations. But where it excels is in bridging the gap. If you're serious about reading ebooks, managing your calendar, watching videos, and performing other acts of portable computing, surely a laptop will better suit your needs. But the iPhone offers just enough computing to allow you to untether yourself from a normal laptop and strike out with the Internet in your pocket.

Since the iPhone debuted, I've taken trips bringing along the iPhone as my sole computing device. The iPhone comes with me to the supermarket and to the pizza parlor, places it would be awkward to be dragging along a normal computer but places where the iPhone can and does get used. That's because the iPhone develops on the back of "Blackberry computing": the "just enough" connection that allows you to touch base, get a little work done, and then move on in life without focusing solely on your computing tasks.

Blackberry users have been approximating this space for years. They've detached themselves from their office while bringing their connectivity along with them. What the iPhone adds above Blackberry use is the leap into flexible application development.

Compared to other phones, the iPhone offers a bigger screen, multitouch interactions, accelerometer, and so forth. The SDK makes it easy for 3rd party developers to help it get that stuff done. With my iPhone, I do typical phone tasks like playing games, managing photos, and recording and managing my voice notes, and atypical phone tasks like checking in at my ongoing IRC conversations and updating Twitter with my location. This isn't a huge leap forward in mobile phone technology. It's just nicer and easier to develop these on the iPhone.

And as with other mobile platforms, the biggest design issue remains the porting of functionality from the desktop to the palmtop. Yes, this challenge is not limited to the iPhone but the iPhone with all its advertising about not offering "watered down" anything perfectly exemplifies the balance between offering the best possible user experience and the need to simplify your applications.

The best iPhone applications do "water down" their functionality. They provide fewer options, simpler screens and tasks targeted to the person on-the-go. When developing for the iPhone it's crucial to edit applications down to that "just enough" state. When users really need full desktop apps while moving, they're better served by laptops. Give your users that "just enough" experience by designing your iPhone apps for the realities they'll encounter when detethering themselves from normal computing.