Use and Usability - Sony vs. Apple
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Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Archives
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September 26, 2011 6:15 AM
In the tablet world, the iPad is king. Sony is one of the latest entrants to the tablet market with the release of their new Tablet S, however is the new Sony product an iPad killer (or even an iPad competitor)?
It's all about experience. For all we know, the Tablet S could be better designed, constructed and assembled than the iPad2, however unless the user experience is superior, it is unlikely to unseat the reigning champion anytime soon.
I would like to share a little experience on usability that has some practical implications. Last year I purchased a Sony 6" Reader N50. I bought the Reader for travel, in particular because of the long battery life, light weight and clarity of the monochrome screen. The lack of WiFi required a software install on my laptop and without any problems I was dowloading titles from the book store. The device was a delight to travel with, and made for easy reading - exactly as promised. Without any long trips ahead, the Reader was packed away for a few months and recently taken out and dusted off. Thinking I would find some new reading material, I logged onto my Sony reader account, found a couple of interesting titles and clicked finish to purchase and download the books... and everything stopped. No matter what I did, I could not download the books. It appears they were available in the US book store, but when I tried to purchase them through the Canadian store (which my software had defaulted to), I was unable to do so. I tried installing the software on a different computer with no success. I also tried re-installing the Reader software which did not work.
Disgusted and frustrated, I picked up my wife's iPad2 and went to iBooks. Searched the store, found the same books I was looking for in the Sony reader store, clicked download and immediately had them on the iPad. It was that easy.
I like reading books on the iPad, but the Sony reader was equally enjoyable and much lighter to pack in my bag with a longer battery life. The Sony has become a bookend - unusable. The iPad is now the book reader of choice despite being less portable. Bottom line - the software was unusable.
The importance of this concept is that all elements of the experience need to be seamless for health IT to work in a high-pressured medical practice setting. As the functionality in different EMR products becomes more ubiquitous and standardized, usability becomes a much more important determinant of successful use. I hope EMR vendors have the resources and capability to focus on usability. That is where the battle will be won or lost.
Originally posted on Canadian EMR
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