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I had an early smartphone, the Sony Ericsson P800, and it was a full screen and the home page was a grid of app icons. The iPhone design was extremely well don

I had an early smartphone, the Sony Ericsson P800, and it was a full screen and the home page was a grid of app icons. The iPhone design was extremely well done in comparison but hardly some radical unknown thing. The real design innovation was the capacitive touch screen

prepend 8y ago
I’m sorry, but I’m not sure how you think the p800 looked anything like the iPhone, https://goo.gl/images/t3XvMA https://goo.gl/images/t3XvMA Yes, they are both rectangles. But there were massive differences aside from the capacitive touch.
- JohnTHaller 8y ago
  Parent is referring to the fact that the phone was a full screen and had a grid of icons (reminiscent of Palm) on it like the iPhone did: https://i.imgur.com/Fdk0566.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Fdk0566.jpg Parent post didn't say the phones looked the same. The iPhone refined a lot of existing functionality.
  - stouset 8y ago
    People making this argument seem to be under the incorrect belief that Apple patented a grid of icons. They did not. They patented a specific aesthetic and functional design that incorporates a grid of icons, but is much more specific than only that.
- stouset 8y ago
  There’s an image out there of what phones used to look like imminently before the iPhone’s release and what phones looked like immediately afterward. It tends to bring this pointless debate to a quick end. Edit: found them. Before: https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/samsung-iphone-1.png https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/samsu... After: https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/samsung-iphone-3-640x405.png https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/samsu...
  - lostmsu 8y ago
    Yes, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Touch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Touch And waaay before that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_LOOX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_LOOX
    - berti 8y ago
      That Touch was announced on 5 June 2007... the iPhone was announced on 9 January 2007.
      - lostmsu 8y ago
        June 5 is the release date, not the announcement date AFAIK
        berti 8y ago
        June 5 is announce date AFAICT https://www.google.com/search?q="htc+touch+announced" https://www.google.com/search?q="htc+touch+announced"
      - olfox 8y ago
        Before: https://cdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/bigpic/htc-p3600.gif https://cdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/bigpic/htc-p3600.gif After: https://cdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/bigpic/htc-touch.gif https://cdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/bigpic/htc-touch.gif Sure it had an impact on design, but given a couple of years, they would have gotten there(hardware-wise).
  - oblio 8y ago
    While what you're saying holds a bit longer term, those images seem cherry-picked, maybe there's another one missing? I'm saying that because if you look at the years, the first one goes: 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - iPhone (2007) And the second one goes: iPhone (2007) - 2010 - 2011 If they want to prove the point they should not be disingenuous and show some Samsung phones from 2008 and 2009. I doubt that Samsung transitioned from the old design to the new one instantly in 2007, via their magic iPhone cloning machine. Also, the iPhone was more of a forcing function than anything. If you look at a longer term evolution, screens were getting bigger and bigger and the keyboard smaller and smaller. The iPhone shaved 5-10 years from that evolution by shaming complacent phone producers into moving forward at a decent pace.

prepend 8y ago

I’m sorry, but I’m not sure how you think the p800 looked anything like the iPhone, https://goo.gl/images/t3XvMA https://goo.gl/images/t3XvMA Yes, they are both rectangles. But there were massive differences aside from the capacitive touch.

JohnTHaller 8y ago
Parent is referring to the fact that the phone was a full screen and had a grid of icons (reminiscent of Palm) on it like the iPhone did: https://i.imgur.com/Fdk0566.jpg https://i.imgur.com/Fdk0566.jpg Parent post didn't say the phones looked the same. The iPhone refined a lot of existing functionality.
- stouset 8y ago
  People making this argument seem to be under the incorrect belief that Apple patented a grid of icons. They did not. They patented a specific aesthetic and functional design that incorporates a grid of icons, but is much more specific than only that.
stouset 8y ago
There’s an image out there of what phones used to look like imminently before the iPhone’s release and what phones looked like immediately afterward. It tends to bring this pointless debate to a quick end. Edit: found them. Before: https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/samsung-iphone-1.png https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/samsu... After: https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/samsung-iphone-3-640x405.png https://cdn.arstechnica.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/samsu...
- lostmsu 8y ago
  Yes, but https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Touch https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HTC_Touch And waaay before that https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_LOOX https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pocket_LOOX
  - berti 8y ago
    That Touch was announced on 5 June 2007... the iPhone was announced on 9 January 2007.
    - lostmsu 8y ago
      June 5 is the release date, not the announcement date AFAIK
      - berti 8y ago
        June 5 is announce date AFAICT https://www.google.com/search?q="htc+touch+announced" https://www.google.com/search?q="htc+touch+announced"
    - olfox 8y ago
      Before: https://cdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/bigpic/htc-p3600.gif https://cdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/bigpic/htc-p3600.gif After: https://cdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/bigpic/htc-touch.gif https://cdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/bigpic/htc-touch.gif Sure it had an impact on design, but given a couple of years, they would have gotten there(hardware-wise).
- oblio 8y ago
  While what you're saying holds a bit longer term, those images seem cherry-picked, maybe there's another one missing? I'm saying that because if you look at the years, the first one goes: 2004 - 2005 - 2006 - iPhone (2007) And the second one goes: iPhone (2007) - 2010 - 2011 If they want to prove the point they should not be disingenuous and show some Samsung phones from 2008 and 2009. I doubt that Samsung transitioned from the old design to the new one instantly in 2007, via their magic iPhone cloning machine. Also, the iPhone was more of a forcing function than anything. If you look at a longer term evolution, screens were getting bigger and bigger and the keyboard smaller and smaller. The iPhone shaved 5-10 years from that evolution by shaming complacent phone producers into moving forward at a decent pace.