Type in ‘iPhone’ into any search engine and you’ll find a plethora of articles expressing polarising views on why the iPhone is the ‘invention of the year’ (Time Magazine, we’re looking at you), and why the device is a smidgen overhyped. However, with the iPhone gaining just over a quarter of the smartphone market share by December last year, there must be something Apple is doing right.

The iPhone integrates perfectly with iTunes and the Appstore, which as of March 2010 hosted more than 170,000 apps to help you with your day-to-day tasks. Become a cook with the Jamie Oliver iPhone app, become an accountant and manage your bank accounts with an embarrassing amount of accounting apps, and keep up to date with news via RSS.

The iPhone supports a copy and paste function, it can connect to the net via Wi-Fi, and it integrates a full-featured iPod along with a relatively useful camera and video camera. You can shoot clear videos and trim off the unwanted chunks with the easy-to-use video editing program. Upload it in minutes to YouTube.

While all this sounds great, we know what you’re thinking: there are other smartphones that can perform these functions too. There are iPhone alternatives that are similar in specs, so what’s so good about the iPhone?

It’s simple and it’s easy:

While other phones have complicated names like the FQQWPS44i (we made that one up, but you get the point), an iPhone is, well, an iPhone (3GS). The iPhone stands out because in terms of design and navigation it could not be any simpler. With just one exterior button on the front and a large touchscreen, the iPhone is minimalism at its best. The design is intuitive and logical; there’s no instruction booklet needed. The text is sharper and crisper than what appears on the screens of most other smartphones, and you don’t have to go searching for information such as new voicemail messages, you just let the information literally arrive at your fingertips.

Press the ‘On’ button to turn something on, and the ‘Off’ button to turn something off. The designers of the iPhone have focussed just as hard on how you perform a function, as they did on producing the technology to get you there. Other manufacturers are still playing catch-up in terms of design and simplicity.

The iPhone trusts that you know best:

The iPhone is essentially a blank canvas. The makers at Apple have trusted that you know what apps you need to make it work. You can customise the iPhone’s interface to suit your fingertips: add, change and even create your own apps. 

It feels good:

Humans are tactile creatures, and the designers of the iPhone know this. You can physically manoeuvre data on your screen: zoom outwards on a map by pinching inwards, or flip through photos by swiping a finger across the screen. Not only is it easy to perform any task, whether it is making a call or transferring money between bank accounts, it is also a joy. The exterior of the phone is slick, and the touchscreen is hypersensitive. Watch the text bounce as you reach the bottom of the scroll bar: it is happiness in its purest form.

While purchasing the iPhone outright may be out of the question, the iPhone 3GS 16GB or 32GB is very affordable on many mobile phone plans and iPhone-specific plans. Click here to compare mobile phone plans.