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When the first iphone came out, it was the only mainstream device to ditch the physical keyboard, allowing for a very large (for the time) touchscreen, while ke

When the first iphone came out, it was the only mainstream device to ditch the physical keyboard, allowing for a very large (for the time) touchscreen, while keeping the device thinner and lighter than high-end competitors. This screen, along with pinch to zoom, allowed desktop websites (which were basically all websites at the time) to realistically be used on a mobile device. You certainly could browse websites on other devices, but you wouldn't want to, given a choice. The original iphone is what really started mobile browsing.

gambiting 10y ago
I remember the very first presentation, when Steve Jobs used pinch to zoom and a gesture to rotate an image. My mind was literally blown, and I was using a WindowsCE smartphone for a few years at that point. Also the browser looked like something that didn't suck. It was something above well-polished, it was that moment when you look at something and just think "why didn't anyone else think of this already? it's so simple!"
Nursie 10y ago
Mobile browsing had been around for quite a while, and I had used Opera Mobile on various phones for some time. PDAs, when they existed as separate devices, tended to have larger screens than phones, and allowed reasonable browsing too. The iPhone was a great product, I'm not denying it, but I wonder if the perception that it was revolutionary comes from the state of the US market at the time - generally thought to have been years behind Europe and Asia.
- maverick_iceman 10y ago
  I browsed web in phones before iPhone, the experience was awful. Though there is some truth in your saying that the US market was much behind Japan and Korea at that point. (Europe and rest of Asia was definitely not significantly ahead.)
wtvanhest 10y ago
I used a pocket pc in 2003sh. It was garbage, but the form factor was very close to an iPhone. Treos were damn good and we used them to surf the web, iPhone was just much better. iPhone was incremental, just like the bb was incremental

gambiting 10y ago

I remember the very first presentation, when Steve Jobs used pinch to zoom and a gesture to rotate an image. My mind was literally blown, and I was using a WindowsCE smartphone for a few years at that point. Also the browser looked like something that didn't suck. It was something above well-polished, it was that moment when you look at something and just think "why didn't anyone else think of this already? it's so simple!"

Nursie 10y ago

Mobile browsing had been around for quite a while, and I had used Opera Mobile on various phones for some time. PDAs, when they existed as separate devices, tended to have larger screens than phones, and allowed reasonable browsing too. The iPhone was a great product, I'm not denying it, but I wonder if the perception that it was revolutionary comes from the state of the US market at the time - generally thought to have been years behind Europe and Asia.

maverick_iceman 10y ago
I browsed web in phones before iPhone, the experience was awful. Though there is some truth in your saying that the US market was much behind Japan and Korea at that point. (Europe and rest of Asia was definitely not significantly ahead.)

wtvanhest 10y ago

I used a pocket pc in 2003sh. It was garbage, but the form factor was very close to an iPhone. Treos were damn good and we used them to surf the web, iPhone was just much better. iPhone was incremental, just like the bb was incremental