The Apple iPhone, like any device, can be improved. However, those who focus on the iPhone weaknesses are missing the point, according to Nick Merritt at Tech/UK on Thursday. It’s the iPhone UI that will create problems for the competition.

"What really matters technology-wise, is Apple’s interface. Apple at its best has always understood this: that in these days of ubiquitous information, processing power and networking, and the infinite ways those things can be brought together to the user, with all the attendant difficulties in doing so, it is always the interface that matters most," Mr. Merritt wrote.

We all think we understand that, but what’s important is that those who are in a position to copy the iPhone don’t because they’re in the phone business, not the UI business. One of the telltale signs that Apple understands something the competition doesn’t is the underlying philosophy of the iPhone integrated design, according to Mr. Merritt: "As Jobs himself put it, in a little-noticed comment, there are no ’verbs’ in the iPhone interface: that sense, familiar from Windows or OS X of selecting a file then doing something to it."

"Instead, you press an icon or select an object, then stuff happens immediately," the author continued." It sounds basic, but it’s actually cutting through a lot of the assumptions that have informed computer interface design since the GUI."

As a result, Apple has a solution that sells, although the competition may not know exactly why it sells. "The response of the handset makers has been pretty unadventurous," the author concluded. "...they’ve been aping the eye candy rather than rethinking their designs. And who can blame them, when they have so much money tied up in the status quo?"

So while Apple improves the Apple UI based on sound principles, they’re likely to stay ahead of the competition -- just as the iPod has stayed ahead of the Zune. The author concluded with this sharp insight. "Apple can and will make better featured phones - but can the handset makers make better interfaces?"