1) Do you really think the web browser was the only reason the iPhone took off? There were no other ways it failed to suck that all previous phones had sucked?

1) Do you really think the web browser was the only reason the iPhone took off? There were no other ways it failed to suck that all previous phones had sucked? 2) Actually, the pattern fits better if you compare smartphones before 2007 to tablets before the iPad. In both cases, the category contained shitty products that relatively few people used. In both cases, Apple got a bunch of different things right that made the entire category suddenly seem like it wasn't a bad idea anymore. 3) The comparison in TFA was to netbooks, not laptops. Netbooks were not fantastically widely used, and they did have problems.