The Automated Test Blog

My friend and colleague Ian Bell, Marketing Manager of our UK office, has started a blog as part of the publication Electronics Weekly. I, of course, welcome him to the blogging community. In merely his third blog, however, Ian has picked a fight with me. Not intentionally, of course. He could have blogged about something slightly less polarizing, like politics or religion, but, no, he had to go after something really controversial - the iPhone. You see there are two types of people in world, those that enjoy the pleasures of ownership of one of the greatest electronic devices of the decade, and the jealous majority that haven’t seen the light and thus fill their days talking about how over-hyped and unoriginal the iPhone is. If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am of the former camp, while Mr. Bell is of the later.

I’ve resisted blogging about the iPhone…its already over-hyped, nearly cliche. What else can I add? But I feel compelled to respond. Mr. Bell notes that “Apple invented nothing in the iPhone”. He couldn’t be more wrong. By this definition, anything built on top of pre-existing technology components is not invention. He also notes, like so many other iPhone haters before him, all the technical features it lacks. I think this is, in fact, Apple’s greatest contribution of all. As engineers, we are constantly tempted to add features into our designs. The products we use every day don’t have too few features, but rather too many. What we have too often lost is the elegance and simplicity that comes from making hard choices in our designs. The iPhone developers, for example, didn’t include 3G capability. A ridiculous oversight in 2007, you say? I say my phone is slimer with better battery life than any 3G phone I’ve seen - and WiFi hotspots are becoming more and more ubiquitous. They also ‘left off’ GPS. Yet, I have an software application on my iPhone that uses WiFi and cell phone towers to triangulate my position. Not perfect in wide open spaces, but on a recent trip to New York City, it gave me sub-block accuracy. It also can give me the position of my friends and family, by the way. As they have demonstrated many times before, Apple’s greatest contribution is their focus and restraint - the ability to understand what matters and sets them apart (Great software, a beautiful screen, the touch interface, sensors that works like magic, a slim design, and simple synchronization) and make the tough calls to not bloat the feature set with everything else.

I could go on all day…but I want to draw at least one parallel with the test industry. Apple made the decision to put a disproportionate amount of their resources in the software running on the phone - betting that through software they could deliver usability, integration, and features at a level never before available in a handheld device. My guess is that they have at least twice the number of software developers as their competitors. At NI, we have taken a similar approach to measurement and automation. We have placed our bet on the power of PC technology and software-defined measurement devices. We invest disproportionally in our drivers and application software and have been able to deliver a platform that continues to get more powerful and flexible through software.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Ian.