3 ms·

Not sure I understand what you or the article consider "revolutionary." I would consider products like the iPod, Mac Air, iPad, hell even iTunes or the App Sto

Not sure I understand what you or the article consider "revolutionary." I would consider products like the iPod, Mac Air, iPad, hell even iTunes or the App Store concept (which wasn't released at the same time as the first iPhone, but shortly fast-followed), to be "revolutionary" If, as an example, you're going to claim that the iPod is just a polished WalkMan or Mp3 player, that's a _real_ oversimplification in a way that can be applied to the iPhone = a polished cell phone with a bigger screen (touch screen cell phones were rare, but around before the iPhone.)

rusk 10y ago
I would also include the iMac, which was badly needed when it came out. A computer people actually wanted to own rather than grudgingly accept. Also the "it just works" philosophy which almost overnight raised the bar for what customers should expect in terms of UX. Also, the availability of Microsoft Office was key to early success, which other new platforms of the time (e.g. BeOS, the budding desktop Linux) just couldn't muster. Similarly the Macbook Pro for raising the bar in terms of what users could expect from the high end (aluminium body, sleek bevel, rock-solid reliability, high performance). Just to underline iTunes a little more - hand in glove with the iPod and eventually the iPhone completely turned the music industry upside down and gave it a new impetus since being destroyed by illegal downloading. App Store and iPhone revolutionised lifestyle computing (ad hoc: there's probably a better term) by getting the balance between the walled garden and innovation just right (various others had attempted this before but fell between these two stools). Also iCloud deserves a footnote for the automatic cloud backups if nothing else, which is still one of the killer features that keeps me with the platform. It's an interesting correlation that most of these innovations (perhaps all?) proceeded under Steve Jobs' watch. Interesting that not much has happened since ... the watch maybe is kind of cool but I don't think we're seeing the same kind of stellar revolutionary uptake and ROI with these other products. I wonder if he was around still would apple have made inroads into TV yet? Not much higher walled gardens than Film (Pixar), Music or Telecomms ... it would at least have been interesting to watch. Many say he wasn't the nicest guy going but for me that's beside the point. Innovator on a global scale. RIP
sametmax 10y ago
The iPod was not revolutionary. Arcos did a superior product before apple. They failed to market it. The iPad and mac air are not revolutionary. They are evolutions of iphone and mac book. A good idea don't make something revolutionary. Making something bigger or thiner is not a revolution unless you talk about 2 orders magnitude. iTune and the app store concepts are not revolutionary. They are just paid version of existing concepts. Linux had official software repo for decades. We used pirated music download services online for years. Apple products are never revolutionary. This word is just, literally, the one used in all their PR and people repeat it again and again. They take good existing idea (touch screens finger control, phone PDA, mp3 players), use them, make them better, integrate them better. They build great hardware, add solid software on top of it and design friendly beautiful UI to use them. The only apple revolution is their ability to always improve the user experience. Not their products. The apple watch has a poor user experience, and hence nobody uses it. This is not to diminish apple's merit. What they do is hard. It's just not revolutionary. Inventing the paper print is. Inventing the vaccine is. Inventing Internet is. Creating a better phone you manipulate by touching the screen years after Palm existed is not revolutionary. It's innovation.
- scarface74 10y ago
  "They take good existing idea (touch screens finger control, phone PDA, mp3 players), use them, make them better, integrate them better. They build great hardware, add solid software on top of it and design friendly beautiful UI to use them. The only apple revolution is their ability to always improve the user experience. Not their products." If all of that is so easy, why didn't anyone else do it?
  - sametmax 10y ago
    You are trying to make me say something I didn't. I specifically said: > This is not to diminish apple's merit. What they do is hard. It's just not revolutionary. You don't need revolutionary to be great. People confuse "apple has a great impact in their industry and society" and "apple products are revolutionary". "revolutionary" is marketing. And reading your comment, good marketing. It works.
  - 10y ago

rusk 10y ago

I would also include the iMac, which was badly needed when it came out. A computer people actually wanted to own rather than grudgingly accept. Also the "it just works" philosophy which almost overnight raised the bar for what customers should expect in terms of UX. Also, the availability of Microsoft Office was key to early success, which other new platforms of the time (e.g. BeOS, the budding desktop Linux) just couldn't muster. Similarly the Macbook Pro for raising the bar in terms of what users could expect from the high end (aluminium body, sleek bevel, rock-solid reliability, high performance). Just to underline iTunes a little more - hand in glove with the iPod and eventually the iPhone completely turned the music industry upside down and gave it a new impetus since being destroyed by illegal downloading. App Store and iPhone revolutionised lifestyle computing (ad hoc: there's probably a better term) by getting the balance between the walled garden and innovation just right (various others had attempted this before but fell between these two stools). Also iCloud deserves a footnote for the automatic cloud backups if nothing else, which is still one of the killer features that keeps me with the platform. It's an interesting correlation that most of these innovations (perhaps all?) proceeded under Steve Jobs' watch. Interesting that not much has happened since ... the watch maybe is kind of cool but I don't think we're seeing the same kind of stellar revolutionary uptake and ROI with these other products. I wonder if he was around still would apple have made inroads into TV yet? Not much higher walled gardens than Film (Pixar), Music or Telecomms ... it would at least have been interesting to watch. Many say he wasn't the nicest guy going but for me that's beside the point. Innovator on a global scale. RIP

sametmax 10y ago

The iPod was not revolutionary. Arcos did a superior product before apple. They failed to market it. The iPad and mac air are not revolutionary. They are evolutions of iphone and mac book. A good idea don't make something revolutionary. Making something bigger or thiner is not a revolution unless you talk about 2 orders magnitude. iTune and the app store concepts are not revolutionary. They are just paid version of existing concepts. Linux had official software repo for decades. We used pirated music download services online for years. Apple products are never revolutionary. This word is just, literally, the one used in all their PR and people repeat it again and again. They take good existing idea (touch screens finger control, phone PDA, mp3 players), use them, make them better, integrate them better. They build great hardware, add solid software on top of it and design friendly beautiful UI to use them. The only apple revolution is their ability to always improve the user experience. Not their products. The apple watch has a poor user experience, and hence nobody uses it. This is not to diminish apple's merit. What they do is hard. It's just not revolutionary. Inventing the paper print is. Inventing the vaccine is. Inventing Internet is. Creating a better phone you manipulate by touching the screen years after Palm existed is not revolutionary. It's innovation.

scarface74 10y ago
"They take good existing idea (touch screens finger control, phone PDA, mp3 players), use them, make them better, integrate them better. They build great hardware, add solid software on top of it and design friendly beautiful UI to use them. The only apple revolution is their ability to always improve the user experience. Not their products." If all of that is so easy, why didn't anyone else do it?
- sametmax 10y ago
  You are trying to make me say something I didn't. I specifically said: > This is not to diminish apple's merit. What they do is hard. It's just not revolutionary. You don't need revolutionary to be great. People confuse "apple has a great impact in their industry and society" and "apple products are revolutionary". "revolutionary" is marketing. And reading your comment, good marketing. It works.
- 10y ago