3 ms·

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

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.
_nedR 8y ago
>It tends to bring this pointless debate to a quick end. Not really.. all the before photos are for keypad phones. All the after photos are for touchscreen phones. I would argue that if you are going to design a pure touchscreen phone, you are likely to end up with an 'iPhone-like' design. Case in point is the LG Prada which was unveiled before the iPhone.

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.

_nedR 8y ago

>It tends to bring this pointless debate to a quick end. Not really.. all the before photos are for keypad phones. All the after photos are for touchscreen phones. I would argue that if you are going to design a pure touchscreen phone, you are likely to end up with an 'iPhone-like' design. Case in point is the LG Prada which was unveiled before the iPhone.