There is a very good, very simple reason the iPhone has been so successful for Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL). It’s sexy. From the original curved 2007 model to the angular and trim iPhone 4, Apple’s smartphone shares the same basic appeal as gold — the human brain likes the smooth shiny object and wants to touch it.The same can be said for many popular smartphones and consumer electronics.
By making it about flashy form as much as flashy function, Apple Inc. has made the iPhone’s appeal intensified. You can’t underplay the importance of a good looking machine. Motorola (NYSE: MMI) and its Razr flip phone almost single-handedly rehabilitated the company when the gadget was released in 2004 and the stock popped as a result. And similarly, Wall Street is littered with the remnants of consumer electronics companies that fell far short when it came to flashy designs — or less charitably, phones that were downright ugly.
Here are five of the most repulsive phones to hit the market in recent years, devices so wretched that they made competitors successful for no other reason than they weren’t as ugly.
Nokia Ngage
As Angry Birds creator Rovio will likely tell you, mobile video games are a good way to make some extra pocket money. (Related: Find out which stocks may buy Rovio) That was the thinking behind Nokia’s disaster, the Ngage. It was the first devoted gaming mobile phone to hit the market, launched in 2007, but since app stores were still years away from being a reality the device relied on game cartridges. Installing them in the taco-shaped monstrosity necessitated taking out the battery first. Uncomfortable to hold, horrid to look at, the Ngage had no redeemding qualities. It died (thankfully) in 2010.
Palm Treo
From its first 2002 model all the way to its swan song in 2008, the Palm Treo was never a very appealing device. Each model looked like some variation on what might happen if you put one the Research in Motion (NASDAQ: RIMM) BlackBerry Curve handhelds in a kiln at varying temperatures. Cramped keyboards, ugly screens, and Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) Windows Mobile operating system mad for an uninviting package. The Palm Pre line was been a step up, but that isn’t saying much. The BlackBerry was never a show-stopper, and this knock off never caught on as a result.
HP Pre3
The Palm legacy of nastiness continues on even after the company has become a limb of Hewlett-Packard (NASDAQ: HPQ). The HP Pre3, successor to the Palm Pre 2, looks to trade on the minimalism of the iPhone but looks instead like a rotten egg. The Web OS 2.2 platform is at least more attractive and usable than the old Windows Mobile OS in the Treo. Oh yeah, and there’s a tiny keyboard to slide out if you want to make the thing even more uncomfortable to hold and to look at. Worst of all? It was just released announced in February of 2011 so we’ll have to suffer through this failure for quite a while.
Sony Ericsson Xperia Play
Like the HP Pre3, the Sony (NYSE: SNE) and Ericsson (NASDAQ: ERIC) gaming-centric smartphone isn’t even widely available yet, but it’s already in bad need of refinement. The central design—an Xperia with a slide game control pad rather than a QWERTY keyboard—isn’t fundamentally flawed, but tweaks need to be made. First is the problem of bulk; Xperia Play is a bit to chunky for most pockets. The second problem is the faux-metal façade. Rather than make the phone look sleek and futuristic, the fake metallic finish on the controller makes it look like a cheap carnival prize.
Nokia Twist
Nokia has had better luck with its smartphones than with the Ngage but not much. The Nokia 7705 Twist, released in fall 2010, exemplifies why the Finnish mobile giant has had trouble winning the public favor enjoyed by Apple. The Twist is a nasty little square device that’s as uncomfortable to speak on as the Ngage was. Rather than capture the youth market it was targeted at, the Twist has been roundly ignored due to its stumpiness and unpleasant screen. The Symbian OS certainly doesn’t help; it may be functional but it certainly isn’t pretty.
