Filed under: Gaming, Hardware, Apple, iPhone, iPod touch
Survey: Less than half of touchscreen users prefer touchscreen
At least in France, Germany and the UK, reactions are mixed. While 38% of those surveyed say they were planning to get a touchscreen on their next mobile phone, only 47% of people who already owned a touchscreen said they would get another one. In other words, less than half of touchscreen owners thought they'd stick with the technology on their next purchase. Apple remains an anomaly -- both HTC and Apple have a higher amount of current customers planning to stick with their touchscreen interface (with the full numbers being released at a conference later this month), but the fact remains: current touchscreen users aren't anywhere near 100% on living button-free forever.
Especially as a gamer, that makes a lot of sense. Touchscreens are great for a lot of things -- they allow for limitless flexibility in the kinds of interfaces on offer, and especially with multi-touch, a lot of the controls on the iPhone are extremely intuitive (you automatically know now that pinching equals zooming, and so on). But as nice as touchscreen is, there are a lot of functions on mobile phones, from adjusting volume or changing music tracks on a phone out of sight in your pocket, to hitting exact button controls while twitch gaming, that work much better with tactile feedback. Steve, as he always does, made a big deal about the iPhone being a one-button interface, but I wouldn't be surprised at all to see future iterations of the iPhone include either a few more buttons, or, even better, a few more haptic interface technologies.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Greg said 9:24AM on 11-04-2009
I love my iPod Touch screen.
I hate my Samsung Glyde screen (and everything else about it).
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trainwrecka said 2:11PM on 11-05-2009
I agree with you. The iPhone/iTouch screen is lightyears ahead of everything else I've tried. I would like to see this survey be about just iPhone/iTouch owners, because I think it would be singing a different tune.
I agree that buttons are needed for games - but I'm a traditional gamer that always used buttons. Maybe it is different for those new to games.
Rafe H. said 9:31AM on 11-04-2009
"...I wouldn't be surprised at all to see future iterations of the iPhone include either a few more buttons..."
I've got a bridge to sell you.
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Raul Riera said 9:45AM on 11-04-2009
So, in conclusion people don't respond well to change... that's new
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Jon said 12:10PM on 11-04-2009
Yes it's new, and people aren't responding well to that either.
jimmy said 9:48AM on 11-04-2009
I don't think it's touchscreens in general, but the touchscreens people are using. This is proven by the iPhone/HTC numbers, where people are more likely to continue using touchscreens. the iPhone and HTC do touch right, so people like it.
The BB Storm is horrendous, those LG phones are just plain weird (haptic feedback is useless if the whole damn phone vibrates at every touch!) and even the Pre is pretty janky. Of course users of these less-than-ideal touch screens prefer buttons.
People prefer what they know, and the tech is dragging the world into touchscreen usage kicking and screaming. People want buttons like they want a horse or free TV. Cars and cable didn't take off in a couple years, it took a generation to switch consumers mentality. We're in the middle of the touch screen reprogramming now.
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leftnotracks said 9:50AM on 11-04-2009
>there are a lot of functions on mobile phones, from adjusting volume or changing music tracks on a phone out of sight in your pocket...
Maybe the iPhone could use volume buttons on the side and a button for switching tracks on the earbuds' cable?
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yonatron said 10:13AM on 11-04-2009
Maybe those are a bad example because the iPhone & iPod touch already have them covered, but he has a point: some things are nice to do without having to look at the screen. I think the iPhone could use some more buttons too, if for nothing else, so I could assign shortcuts. It’d be great, if instead of picking one function each for double- and triple-clicking the home button, I had an extra two buttons on each side. I could make one Camera, one Phone Favorites, one iPod, etc. Also, a dedicated camera shutter button might be useful too.
On the other hand, I would be *extremely* surprised if future iPhones gained any buttons, especially on the front. The design is really iconic, and I don’t think Steve or his successors will change it any time soon.
Yoshi1080 said 10:01AM on 11-04-2009
"Apple remains an anomaly -- both HTC and Apple have a higher amount of current customers planning to stick with their touchscreen interface ..., but the fact remains: current touchscreen users aren't anywhere near 100% on living button-free forever."
Translation: most touchscreen smartphones suck so users are thinking about switching back to known and trusted older technology. This survey could have also been called: users of crappy phones don't prefer crappy phones. Geez, what a surprise.
About the buttons on the iPhone: your assumption really surprises me. I think it is _much_ more likely that in the future they will not add any more buttons, but even remove the one button that's left and replace it with a touch button or some kind of finger gesture (like on the Pre).
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Gazoobee said 10:45AM on 11-04-2009
I have to totally disagree with the editorialising in the last paragraph. You mention several things that are better off being done with tactile physical controls instead of touch controls, but it's a bit of a straw man argument.
The reason behind why each of the things mentioned (volume, track changing etc.), are better off with tactile controls is because they are things you want to do without pulling the iPhone out of your pocket. You even mention this yourself. That's just not a fair comparison.
The most agreed upon, "best" solution for those things are controls that are off of the iPhone altogether and most likely attached to your headset or a wire control. The only straight ahead comparison you *could* make (although you don't really get into it), is between touch controls and physical buttons on the iPhone itself. Otherwise you are skewing the results of the comparison you are trying to make.
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Level 5 said 10:54AM on 11-04-2009
Most folks aren't 100% on either side really. Physical keyboards are stuck in their layout, and this is something I hate on my current HTC Touch Pro. It's a landscape slider, so one handed typing and several symbols mean back to the SIP. But, when I need to fire an SMS or e-mail of any sort of length, the hardware keys are prime. I'd go to a device that's strictly touch screen but what irritates me about that is you lose so much screen real estate when you need to bang out a long e-mail; I always need to see majority of the message that I'm currently typing. And for me, a LONG e-mail in portrait mode is a huge lose, especially when I have big hands and my Touch Pro is a fair bit narrower and thicker than the iPhone (and is not comfortable in this way because of it, I've tried).
We just need mind reading devices, no need to type.
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Jordan said 11:06AM on 11-04-2009
I somewhat agree. Since I've gotten my iphone there have been many times where I find the touch screen interface to be more cumbersome and take a lot longer to do things.
For instance, let's say I unlock my phone. Since I was last sending a text message it defaults to the messaging screen when I unlock it. I think have to press the home button, press phone, and then hit contacts, scroll through a list until I found the contact I want, select it and then finally select the number.
On my old phone I could hit a button for contacts, press the key for the letter of the contact, and hit dial.
In this instance it takes 7 steps to do on the iphone what only takes 3 steps on a normal phone.
I'm sure this isn't just limited to the iphone, but it's just one of those annoyances I've discovered about touch screens.
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S said 11:13AM on 11-04-2009
Unlock iPhone, double-tap Home button, you're at your favorites. You're missing some built-in shortcuts in your workflow.
S said 11:16AM on 11-04-2009
Or for that matter, hit Home twice (don't double-tap) and type the name of your contact in Spotlight. Easy.
Jordan said 11:18AM on 11-04-2009
Yeah and as soon as I flood my favorites with everything, because I don't have any particular contact I call all the time, it makes no difference.
Scott said 11:34AM on 11-04-2009
Your complaint has nothing to do with the touchscreen vs keyboard and everything to do with the UI decisions that Apple made. They could have just as easily put a persistent "soft" contact button at the screen at all times.
Raul Riera said 1:02PM on 11-04-2009
Using spotlight you are 4 keys aways from your contact
1 - home button
2 - home button again (for spotlight)
3 - M letter to call your Mom contact and she should be there
4 - Click on your mom
Jordan said 7:25PM on 11-04-2009
@Raul:
Incorrect
1. Click home button
2. Slide to unlock
3. Click home button
4. Click home button again
5. Type M
6. Select Mom
7. Select the number for mom to make it actually dial
7 steps, that is unless we leave out the unlocking part, then we're still at 5 steps. Still a lot of work just to make a call. Might not seem like it, but it gets tedious.
Kree said 8:01AM on 11-05-2009
I wish they had gone with a few extra buttons. It gets irritating when I have to reach towards two different places depending on if I want to change volume or change tracks. It was a while before I had even noticed there WAS a button on my headphones.
The overloading on the home button annoys me a lot. For example, I have double-tap set to the iPod app. Double-tapping has an annoying tendency to exit my current app to lauch iPod when I just wanted the popup iPod contols. Not to mention that any lag and I suddenly find my double-tap turning into an exit to the home screen and then Spotlight opening.
All this extra work on that button makes me concerned it's the first thing that will break on my iPhone...
Markus said 11:47AM on 11-04-2009
I hope in the end it breaks down to a large segment of smartphones featuring both a qwerty (or qwertz :P) and touchscreens, because that's what I prefer, and that's why I found the droid so interesting. I personally think I'd like a touchscreen for just dialing numbers and calling people, but when it comes to actually writing stuff, I'd always miss a qwerty.
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