Study: Business Users All Thumbs on iPhone

In the daily barrage of iPhone carrots and sticks, another complaint has surfaced: The iPhone touchscreen keyboard makes shooting off a quick text message difficult for business users. That's according to a usability study conducted by User Centric, in which a group of regular text-message senders were timed using their old devices and the iPhone.

Users accustomed to sending text messages on a more traditional mobile QWERTY keyboard -- such as ones found on a Palm Treo -- took considerably longer to type a message on the iPhone touchscreen keyboard, according to User Centric.

The findings of the study hold no surprises, though, John Jackson, director with Yankee Group, told MacNewsWorld. "I don't think most people grounded in reality would have expected a similar experience on the iPhone" when compared to their more traditional QWERTY devices, he observed.

Business Users Not iPhone Target Market

Those texters who had used devices like Treos, BlackBerry devices or Motorola (NYSE: MOT) Q phones took nearly twice as long to enter a standardized text message on the iPhone, said User Centric. However, they had been given only one minute to familiarize themselves with the iPhone touchscreen, said the firm.

The study conditions were designed to approximate what a new iPhone user would experience upon first switching to the phone, said User Centric, which did not return calls in time for publication.

However, the traditional PDA-type device user is not the intended market for the iPhone, noted Jackson. "Any business people who set aside their trusted QWERTY device for an iPhone deserve the disappointment," quipped Jackson. "They're not the target in the first place."

Gunning for Apple

Users switching from a standard numeric keyboard mobile phone -- one that requires texters to tap keys multiple times for particular letters -- were able to type out their text messages on iPhones in times comparable to their accustomed devices, the User Centric study found.

It stands to reason that these users may fit more with the target market for the iPhone -- young, hip and interested in the multimedia capabilities of the phone's music and video functions.

Still, we should expect to see continued iPhone-bashing as the device rises in popularity, said Jackson. "Apple is the new Microsoft," he noted, adding that the iPhone certainly will have arrived when those with malicious intent begin writing viruses for it.

"Let's keep things in perspective," Jackson stressed. "A few hundred thousand [iPhones] have been sold thus far. Contrast this with the several million QWERTY-based Treos, BlackBerries, BlackJacks and Qs in use."