Bigmouth Strikes Again: Carrie Marshall's blog

Apple and the Engadget Awards

This time last year, I wrote about the Engadget awards and said:

There are some interesting differences between the readers’ choice awards and Engadget’s own picks, which suggests the power of the online Mac community – typically if Apple makes something in any of the categories, the readers overwhelmingly voted for it while Engadget tended to go for non-Apple kit

A year on, and Engadget’s giving out gongs again. I’m getting deja vu:

Gadget of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Apple iPod (5g)
Engadget Pick: Microsoft Xbox 360

Desktop of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Apple Power Mac G5 (quad)
Engadget Pick: Sony RC Series

Laptop of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Apple PowerBook (15-inch)
Engadget Pick: IBM Thinkpad Z

Media PC of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Apple iMac G5 with Front Row
Engadget Pick: Niveus Media K2

Portable Audio Device of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Apple iPod Nano
Engadget Pick: iRiver U10

Portable Video Device of the Year
Readers’ Choice: Apple iPod (5g)
Engadget Pick: Cowon A2

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Comments

0 responses to “Apple and the Engadget Awards”

  1. Stephen

    The market seems to generally side with the readers.

  2. Stephen

    I also noticed this:

    Cellphone of the Year
    ReadersÂ’ Choice: Motorola V3c
    Engadget Pick: Sony Erisson w800

    The Moto is definitely more “Apple-like” than the SE, from a popularity standpoint (everyone has one to go with their iPod it sometimes seems) and from a beautiful design standpoint.

  3. Squander Two

    Unless, of course, beautiful design extends to interface design and usability. Which it does. Motorola have some great solid-object designers working for them, but it’s all essentially turd-polishing.

  4. Gary

    I have to agree on that. I think moto phones are the badger’s nadgers until I actually use the damn things.

    I think Nokia do the best phone interfaces, although – heresy ahoy! – I like Windows Mobile too.

  5. Squander Two

    From what I can see, Sony Eriksson are doing a good job. Largely by copying Nokia. And there’s nowt wrong with that.

    By the way, to what extent do you think the mobile phone market is now influenced by how many Nokia chargers everyone already has? If you’re choosing between a Nokia and a Sony, the fact that you already have enough Nokia chargers to have one in each room of the house and one at work, plus that there’s guaranteed to be a charger at all your friends’ houses, has to be an important factor, doesn’t it?

  6. Gary

    I don’t think so. Nokia chargers have an amazing ability: they vanish without a trace as soon as you get a different phone. I’ve never thrown out a nokia charger, despite owning loads of ’em, but they just disappeared. It’s magic, probably.

  7. david

    I’ve got about 5 in a cupboard upstairs so mibbe I stole them. Nokia did bring out a couple of phones with different chargers a few years ago then (sensibly) changed back.

  8. Gary

    I preferred my “magic” explanation.

  9. Squander Two

    I’ve got hundreds of them. One of us must be better at losing things.

  10. Stephen

    I also drank the Nokia kool-aid once upon a time, but I now think it’s just what you get used to. I tried a friend’s Nokia recently after a year of a SonErr and a month of my RAZR and didn’t find it very intuitive at all. In fact it seemed like I was clicking buttons for ages. Having only two choices (instead of a clickwheel) probably had something to do with it, but I don’t think anyone coming to a Nokia from any other phone will be more at home than going the other way.

    The RAZR has some nice touches, and I love not having to lock and unlock the phone every time I use it- and just closing it instead of having to exit to the top menu before putting it away. And it’s so thin and light, you hardly feel it in your pocket.

  11. tm

    hmm some recent nokias have chargers that look eaxctly the same but are about half the size. Imagine your frustration as you realise that, no, that charger is not, in fact, simply further away…

  12. Squander Two

    Stephen,

    Sounds like you were trying a Series 40 phone. I honestly don’t know why Nokia don’t just ditch that OS completely, but I assume there must be some demand for it. After having used a Series 60 phone a few years back, I’ve found I’m even more reluctant to use a Series 40 than I am to use a non-Nokia. (I’m actually using a Series 80 these days, which is the knees of the bees.)

    And having to lock the phone after using it isn’t a Nokia thing; it’s just a non-flip-phone thing. Nokia do make flips and slides, which don’t have that problem.

    > And it’s so thin and light, you hardly feel it in your pocket

    OK, I’ll have to grant you that one, since I’ve got a 9500. It’s a bit of a brick, but I do love it so.

  13. Stephen

    Agreed, Moto isn’t the only flip-phone manufacturer; I was talking there more of the experience of moving from a SE K700i to the Moto, although any flip phone would have offered that advantage. But I do think Moto do the flip particularly well, ever since the Star-TAC (loved that phone!) Others always look very bulky to me. And I had a Nokia slide once, but didn’t really take to it.

    The Nokia I was talking about is the 6350i, which I actually had before the SE. Granted things have moved on but it was astonishing to me how old it felt.

    I used to be of the “separate PDA and phone” school, but I hardly ever used my Palm Tungsten T3 so I sold it. I don’t really feel the need for more functionality on my phone; I can set calendar events with alarm reminders, which is enough for me. Otherwise I use index cards, Moleskine notebooks, email…