5 ms·

In a way the experts were right, my recollection is that the first iPhones were not amazingly good at being phones. Where the experts got it wrong is the assump

In a way the experts were right, my recollection is that the first iPhones were not amazingly good at being phones. Where the experts got it wrong is the assumption that people wanted phones. What it turned out that people really wanted was a small portable computer that had a camera, Web browser, music and video player built in. And that could make phone calls and send sms messages. But they didn't know that is what they wanted until Apple punted it out...

InclinedPlane 11y ago
The first iPhones were actually not that great comparatively. They were pretty slow and they didn't even have 3g. But, Apple got a lot right, they had an intuitive multi-touch interface that anyone and everyone could use, they had a simplified ui, etc. Then they came out with the app store. And with the 2nd gen with 3g support they had a very solid product that had mass appeal. It didn't hurt that they had the Apple cult following driving adoption, but still they pushed things forward a lot.
vardump 11y ago
Nokia put a web browser in phone back in 1996. Phones already had all those features you listed. They were just slow and clunky to use.
- gregmac 11y ago
  But they were always phones, first. You turn it on / open it, and it's at the phone screen. You could just dial using the dedicated hardware numeric keypad, and it would place a call. To get to the web browser, calendar, and other functions you had to go into a sub-menu, because they were secondary, not-that-important functions of the device. If it's a phone, this is a fine design. If it's a device who only happens to have a phone feature (and personally, I barely use the "phone" part of my phone anymore), then it's actually a very annoying design. It's about as useful as if someone decided that upon startup or pressing the "home" button, it should go to Angry Birds, and all other apps/features could be accessed via a menu button after that. It's a subtle, but important, difference in the mindset that goes into designing both the hardware and software.
  - jonas21 11y ago
    I would hardly call a Blackberry or a Sidekick or any of a number of Windows Mobile devices of that era "phones, first." The difference in mindset is that Apple thought about how they were going to sell the product first and built the hardware and software around that.
  - vardump 11y ago
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9000_Communicator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9000_Communicator When you opened Nokia Communicator, it was more like PDA or a computer than a phone. Home screen, calendar, message, etc. widgets, very much like Android phones are nowadays. It was like a phone only when closed. Made sense that way. http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_9000_communicator-16.php http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_9000_communicator-16.php Note web browser and telnet client, that was pretty cool in 1996. gsmarena mistakenly says it was introduced in 1998. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E90_Communicator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E90_Communicator In 2007, Nokia E90 had a display that was almost like "retina", 219 DPI. The web browser was also usable at the time. It had even Flash player.
TheOtherHobbes 11y ago
The big difference between Jobs/Apple and the rest was that Jobs was able to think of products as interlocking markets and systems, with a fine design gloss. Most companies and engineers think of products as functional units differentiated by technical specs. The answer to "What does this do for the user?" is never "16GB of RAM and a quad-core processor." Blackberry and Nokia half understood this, but never quite got it to work reliably as a product pipeline. That creative ability to design markets rather than selling widgets is immensely valuable in business, and correspondingly hard to find. Corporate hierarchies typically select against it, which is why so many large corps can only hold onto customers by bullying them, browbeating them with ad spend or sales visits, trying to lock them in technically, or cultivating middle management spending decision inertia.
auganov 11y ago
At the time of the iPhone announcement I had the HTC TyTN and was about 13-14 I believe. My reaction was very similar to Ballmer's. Windows mobile users had all these features and more for a long time already. It seemed like the only new thing about the iPhone was the UI and UX. Purely technically it had much less features. Thus most windows mobile power users just couldn't get excited about it. What we all underestimated is how much of a game changer the iOS UX was for market adoption. No average person wanted a "PDA", most people probably didn't even know much about these devices. It was something used by tech-savy business people. That irrelevancy of WM PDAs made it seem like iPhone was the very first to have all these features. And it indeed was the first device to bring that to the mainstream and led the whole mobile revolution. In retrospect it's so painfully obvious, but at the time it did really seem like a nice toy to most smart people. And one has to remember at the time UX wasn't as appreciated. iPhone pretty much started the UX revolution as well. I don't think it's as simple as making the wrong assumptions. It's more about being unable to see the future and how much a few simple things can change the industry. Like lol, even a few years in I still got the HTC TyTN II and couldn't care less about iPhones or the new Android at the time. As iPhone didn't yet dominate the market, you could still get some popular apps for WM. Only now after so many years I picked up that old TyTN II and can tell how horrible it all was.

InclinedPlane 11y ago

The first iPhones were actually not that great comparatively. They were pretty slow and they didn't even have 3g. But, Apple got a lot right, they had an intuitive multi-touch interface that anyone and everyone could use, they had a simplified ui, etc. Then they came out with the app store. And with the 2nd gen with 3g support they had a very solid product that had mass appeal. It didn't hurt that they had the Apple cult following driving adoption, but still they pushed things forward a lot.

vardump 11y ago

Nokia put a web browser in phone back in 1996. Phones already had all those features you listed. They were just slow and clunky to use.

gregmac 11y ago
But they were always phones, first. You turn it on / open it, and it's at the phone screen. You could just dial using the dedicated hardware numeric keypad, and it would place a call. To get to the web browser, calendar, and other functions you had to go into a sub-menu, because they were secondary, not-that-important functions of the device. If it's a phone, this is a fine design. If it's a device who only happens to have a phone feature (and personally, I barely use the "phone" part of my phone anymore), then it's actually a very annoying design. It's about as useful as if someone decided that upon startup or pressing the "home" button, it should go to Angry Birds, and all other apps/features could be accessed via a menu button after that. It's a subtle, but important, difference in the mindset that goes into designing both the hardware and software.
- jonas21 11y ago
  I would hardly call a Blackberry or a Sidekick or any of a number of Windows Mobile devices of that era "phones, first." The difference in mindset is that Apple thought about how they were going to sell the product first and built the hardware and software around that.
- vardump 11y ago
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9000_Communicator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_9000_Communicator When you opened Nokia Communicator, it was more like PDA or a computer than a phone. Home screen, calendar, message, etc. widgets, very much like Android phones are nowadays. It was like a phone only when closed. Made sense that way. http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_9000_communicator-16.php http://www.gsmarena.com/nokia_9000_communicator-16.php Note web browser and telnet client, that was pretty cool in 1996. gsmarena mistakenly says it was introduced in 1998. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E90_Communicator https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_E90_Communicator In 2007, Nokia E90 had a display that was almost like "retina", 219 DPI. The web browser was also usable at the time. It had even Flash player.

TheOtherHobbes 11y ago

The big difference between Jobs/Apple and the rest was that Jobs was able to think of products as interlocking markets and systems, with a fine design gloss. Most companies and engineers think of products as functional units differentiated by technical specs. The answer to "What does this do for the user?" is never "16GB of RAM and a quad-core processor." Blackberry and Nokia half understood this, but never quite got it to work reliably as a product pipeline. That creative ability to design markets rather than selling widgets is immensely valuable in business, and correspondingly hard to find. Corporate hierarchies typically select against it, which is why so many large corps can only hold onto customers by bullying them, browbeating them with ad spend or sales visits, trying to lock them in technically, or cultivating middle management spending decision inertia.

auganov 11y ago

At the time of the iPhone announcement I had the HTC TyTN and was about 13-14 I believe. My reaction was very similar to Ballmer's. Windows mobile users had all these features and more for a long time already. It seemed like the only new thing about the iPhone was the UI and UX. Purely technically it had much less features. Thus most windows mobile power users just couldn't get excited about it. What we all underestimated is how much of a game changer the iOS UX was for market adoption. No average person wanted a "PDA", most people probably didn't even know much about these devices. It was something used by tech-savy business people. That irrelevancy of WM PDAs made it seem like iPhone was the very first to have all these features. And it indeed was the first device to bring that to the mainstream and led the whole mobile revolution. In retrospect it's so painfully obvious, but at the time it did really seem like a nice toy to most smart people. And one has to remember at the time UX wasn't as appreciated. iPhone pretty much started the UX revolution as well. I don't think it's as simple as making the wrong assumptions. It's more about being unable to see the future and how much a few simple things can change the industry. Like lol, even a few years in I still got the HTC TyTN II and couldn't care less about iPhones or the new Android at the time. As iPhone didn't yet dominate the market, you could still get some popular apps for WM. Only now after so many years I picked up that old TyTN II and can tell how horrible it all was.