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Apple vs Google: user experience

18 July 2012 2 comments

Retired member

The following fact always comes as a surprise to many people: there are very few technologies (as opposed to features) that Apple actually invented. Take iPhone, for example: Apple simply "glued" together (OK, it was far from simple and trivial, but still) components and technologies that existed for a number of years elsewhere.

It all started with Apple's cornerstones - GUI and a mouse - we all know where those two technologies originated from (the same place where Steve saw the technology he later regretted he had overlooked - the network).

In 2005 I had a number of discussions with senior system architects of HTC and Motorola - my group was interested in developing a mobile phone without... buttons. We were flatly told by "experts" that a touchscreen phone is a "complete nonsense" and would never fly because "consumers need buttons, they like pressing them".

That's what 99% of companies out there don't get about Apple. It's not about a technological invention (e.g. Apple did not invent an MP3 player), it's about unparalleled user experience (e.g. iPod and, more importantly, iTunes). To truly understand the importance of that, one needs to go through the "Nexus 7 box opening" experience. That's why everything we do at TEDIPAY is driven by UX.

Apply the above principles to mobile payments and mobile wallets, and it becomes clear which companies don't stand a chance to be a leader. It's just a matter of time before the pecking order is crystallized.

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Comments: (3)

A Finextra member

20 July 2012

Case Example - it took me more than 3 weeks to enroll for the Barclays PingIt wallet. The indentification phase involves a 1penny credit to my linked bank account, which therefore required me to access said account and view the Reference of the transaction. Except the bank I chose (HSBC) requires a 2-factor token to view my statement and I didn't have it handy - hence the delay.

On eventually resuming this disjointed registration, the transaction had expired and I had to completely re-register with PingIt. At the end this failed and I spent the best part of 45 mins talking to a Barclays support person on the phone to restore the broken process. However, the bank I chose that time (Natwest, to avoid the 2-factor token hassle) did not assign a Txn Reference for 24hrs and so caused yet more delay.

Now I have it, I have yet to use it and its yet another prepaid wallet I have to topup and dump funds into. Maybe Google Wallet will be better.

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A Finextra member

20 July 2012

Spot on comment! I introduced a few friends of mine to PingIt (a separate story), all of them who don't bank with Barlays had exactly the same experience. The questions are: does Barclays care and will consumers switch to an alternative "PingIt" if it delivers much better UX? (No. Yes.)

As for PingIt, Barclays are cheeky: if you are not a Barclays' customer and someone "pingits" you money, the funds will stay... at PingIt - you have to manually go through the "transfer to my a/c" step to channel the funds to your bank. Talk about "instant"...

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A Finextra member

23 July 2012

Well, I'd give the Barclays support guy 9/10 for persistence in keeping me going when I was about ready to drop the idea altogether, so I think they want the customers.

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Todd Clyde CEO at Token.io