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Prior to the iPhone, apps on an a phone were paying $3/month to a carrier for crappy junk. The phones were locked down. It was far from "standard practice" to

by lzw 16y ago

Prior to the iPhone, apps on an a phone were paying $3/month to a carrier for crappy junk. The phones were locked down. It was far from "standard practice" to load your own apps onto your own phone, and the apps you could choose to use were highly limited and far more controlled. I think people forget that before the Apple AppStore there really were very few apps for phones.

nailer 16y ago
> I think people forget that before the Apple AppStore there really were very few apps for phones. Fewer than today, sure. But Windows Mobile had thousands of apps and a pretty decent app development ecosystem.
jonknee 16y ago
I think you're confusing smartphones and feature phones. You're right that the experience of apps on feature phones was lackluster (it still is actually). The iPhone helped catapult smartphones into the mainstream, but there wasn't a lack of smartphone software before the iPhone. Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile (and BlackBerry to a lesser degree) all had a wide array of apps available before the iPhone was ever announced.
- jad 16y ago
  It's pretty clear to most people that the smartphone app market that exists today is qualitatively different than the one that existed before the App Store. I think that's the point the parent was trying to make.
  - jrockway 16y ago
    Definitely. The emphasis now is to get your potential users to spend 99c as many times as possible (with "do one thing" and shiny graphics; see "fart apps"). Previously, everything was either free, or something you found for $20 at some commercial vendor's website.
there 16y ago
I think people forget that before the Apple AppStore there really were very few apps for phones. really? i've owned a palm treo and nokia e71 that both had hundreds of applications available that i could just download and install right from the device's web browser. no market, no restrictions.
martythemaniak 16y ago
You either didn't read my post or you're deliberately being obtuse to make your point - there was a huge difference between smartphones and featurephones. What you're describe is the featurephone app model, which Apple made more user and developer friendly and brought to the smartphone arena. I used to have a blackberry (and yes, I had both apps and games on it) and when I bought the original iPhone, I had to jailbreak it in order to be able to do the same things I could do before. That's a regression.

by lzw 16y ago

nailer 16y ago

> I think people forget that before the Apple AppStore there really were very few apps for phones. Fewer than today, sure. But Windows Mobile had thousands of apps and a pretty decent app development ecosystem.

jonknee 16y ago

I think you're confusing smartphones and feature phones. You're right that the experience of apps on feature phones was lackluster (it still is actually). The iPhone helped catapult smartphones into the mainstream, but there wasn't a lack of smartphone software before the iPhone. Palm, Symbian and Windows Mobile (and BlackBerry to a lesser degree) all had a wide array of apps available before the iPhone was ever announced.

jad 16y ago
It's pretty clear to most people that the smartphone app market that exists today is qualitatively different than the one that existed before the App Store. I think that's the point the parent was trying to make.
- jrockway 16y ago
  Definitely. The emphasis now is to get your potential users to spend 99c as many times as possible (with "do one thing" and shiny graphics; see "fart apps"). Previously, everything was either free, or something you found for $20 at some commercial vendor's website.

there 16y ago

I think people forget that before the Apple AppStore there really were very few apps for phones. really? i've owned a palm treo and nokia e71 that both had hundreds of applications available that i could just download and install right from the device's web browser. no market, no restrictions.

martythemaniak 16y ago

You either didn't read my post or you're deliberately being obtuse to make your point - there was a huge difference between smartphones and featurephones. What you're describe is the featurephone app model, which Apple made more user and developer friendly and brought to the smartphone arena. I used to have a blackberry (and yes, I had both apps and games on it) and when I bought the original iPhone, I had to jailbreak it in order to be able to do the same things I could do before. That's a regression.