S60 Open to new features

People care about their phones, sometimes very deeply. I think it’s because they’re made of wood. Well, so to speak.

I live near the water and I see boats all the time, although I don’t own one. From my outsider’s perspective, there are two categories of boats: the ones you’re primarily involved with when you’re on the water, and the ones you’re just as involved with on land. Which category better describes a particular boat often follows from the materials used in the boat construction: if you have a wooden boat you’re probably going to be scraping, sanding, painting, varnishing, and otherwise “being involved with” the boat when it’s not actually floating. If you have a plastic boat you have far less to do on land (at least it looks that way to the non-boat-owner). People seem to enjoy both kinds of boats, but (again from an outside perspective) my impression is that wooden boats inspire greater passion. Wooden boats need more involvement and can also reward it.

Many artifacts can be categorized this way: things you’re involved with only when using them for their intended purpose, and things that may have the same purpose, but need your involvement at other times as well. With some artifacts you’re merely involved in “use”, while with others you’re also involved in “maintenance”. An artist who uses a Rapidograph pen, for example, both draws with it and maintains it by cleaning it regularly. She could draw the same things with a marker pen, but there’s no such thing as “maintenance”. Cars, homes, even clothing can be divided into “maintenance free” and “needs maintenance” categories.

I think mobile devices, particularly high-performance S60 eamples, are generally “high maintenance” artifacts that tend to involve users outside of “use”. If you use your S60 for photos or music, you have to be careful not to run out of storage. The software doesn’t have the resources that a PC makes available, and you often have to carefully adjust your settings or your patterns of use accordingly. You can make your own changes in ringtones, backgrounds, playlists, bookmarks, RSS feeds, shortcuts, and more. I haven’t seen many S60s with physical decoration but it could certainly be done.

It’s possible that mobile devices need more maintenance simply because it’s early in their history and the state of the art hasn’t yet progressed to the maintenance free stage. Most the “low involvement” versions of artifacts I can think of were developed after — sometimes long after — the high-involvement versions. Lower-end mobile phones already feature much less need — and opportunity — for involvement in maintenance and adjustment. But just like you can still choose a Rapidograph or a marker pen; a wooden or plastic boat, I hope S60 always has some high-involvement options.