6 ms·

So was the iPhone when it came out. It was an evolution over the available phones at the time. BlackBerry Razor if i recall correctly was the hottest phone at t

So was the iPhone when it came out. It was an evolution over the available phones at the time. BlackBerry Razor if i recall correctly was the hottest phone at the time. Actually the dominance of the iPhone was all but certain at the time. I remember a female friend sticking to Blackberry because it was easier for her to type on a physical keyboard than a touch-screen with her long nails. Good job to Magic Leap team for getting us closer to the last stroke in MR that will trickle down a plethora of innovations

danielvf 8y ago
When the iPhone came out, it felt like someone had handed you a little bit of Star Trek. It was nothing like using any other phone at the time - the entire way the device was designed and the way you interacted with it was a new paradigm.
- chadash 8y ago
  When the iPhone came out, it was pretty much identical to the already popular iPod Touch, but with a phone included. It was a very obvious next step for Apple to take, although I'm sure Apple had planned to launch the iPod Touch as an intermediate step to a phone. The original iPod was not all that much different from other MP3 players at the time, it simply had great design (both from a UX and aesthetic perspective). Similarly, the iPod Touch or early iPhones were technologically not much more impressive than a Blackberry. Touchscreens were nothing new at the time. But I agree with you that the way you interacted with the device was a new paradigm. Sometimes little evolutions make a big difference, especially when they make something easier to use, which is probably the most important factor for mass adoption.
  - octo_t 8y ago
    The iPod Touch was first released in September 2007, several months after the first iPhone in June 2007.
  - DonHopkins 8y ago
    The iPhone hardware and user interface made the leap from stylus to finger.
  - CydeWeys 8y ago
    In addition to getting your release timing off, as the other commenter has pointed out, the iPod Touch and iPhone are essentially the same thing, only the latter has a cellular radio and the respective features that enables. Regardless of which came out first, it's this platform that was truly innovative. So they should be considered together as the revolution.
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- JohnJamesRambo 8y ago
  That is not my recollection. I bought my girlfriend the first iPhone and had no desire to own one myself.
- josefresco 8y ago
  "When the iPhone came out, it felt like someone had handed you a little bit of Star Trek." Equivalent statement: "When the iPod came out, it felt like someone had handed you a little bit of Star Trek." In both cases, once you started using it you had the same reaction "this is REALLY cool but has major issues, I can't' wait for the next version". I remember my boss gleefully showing me his new iPod, and then him cursing from his office that afternoon (and many after that) as the thing crashed, and nuked his music library again, and again.
  - Angostura 8y ago
    Played with an iPod when it first came out. It was really nifty. I played with an iPhone when it first came out, even the swipe to unlock screen felt like star trek. The two things were not comparable
    - moomin 8y ago
      One of the big things was simply the touch screen. No-one else was using that tech at the time and it was light-years better than the existing tech. Turned it from nice in theory to actually usable.
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  - rsynnott 8y ago
    I don't think the iPod was in the same class, really. For the consumer, it was, mostly, a way better minidisc player. It was better enough than other MP3 players and other audio players that it took over (especially once the nano came out), but it was not, dare I say it, magical and revolutionary in the same way the iPhone was.
- FireBeyond 8y ago
  Well, you know, other than the LG Prada... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada)
  - prepend 8y ago
    Did you ever use the Prada? The UI was horrible, not to mention apps sucked (phone had no easy integration for contacts and calling, no visual voicemail). It had similar features, but not useful. iPhone was very useful.
- wilsonnb3 8y ago
  I think this only true for those that didn't have pre-iPhone smart phones. The iPhone was a massive upgrade to anyone using a flip phone still, but an evolutionary upgrade to people that had been using Palm Pilots, Blackberry's, and other devices since the late 90's.
  - chipotle_coyote 8y ago
    As someone who had both a Handspring Visor and a T-Mobile Sidekick (Danger Hiptop), I just don't think this is true. I get that nearly every single thing the iPhone did had an antecedent of some kind in an older product, but putting them all together the way Apple did matters--and if there was another product of that era or any previous one that provided the same level of UX responsiveness the first iPhone did, I sure never saw it, and I traveled in some pretty nerdy circles. We can debate about whether that's "evolutionary" vs. "revolutionary," but if it was evolutionary, it's the kind of evolutionary success that leads to epochal shifts. To bring this around to the actual OP, I'm dubious that Magic Leap is going to pull that same thing off, but that's because I'm dubious that AR in the form of "things you stick on your head" is ever going to be a mass-market phenomenon.
    - SimbaOnSteroids 8y ago
      Of course its going to be a mass market phenomenon. Its going to be a mass market phenomenon for the same reason the smart phone was a phenomenon. It takes the internet which in the smartphone's case was something you had to go seek out at a desktop or computer and put it in your pocket. It took a dopamine hit and put it in your pocket. AR is the same thing, it takes the dopamine hit and puts it on your face. Subsequently you get a lot more dopamine hits.
      - samstave 8y ago
        i think both of you guys are correct. for me, being in tech my whole life and growing up solidly a nerd and in the cyberpunk culture of the 80s, when the iphone hit, it was more of a sigh of relief of "ok finally we are making the steps into the cyberpunk future weve been fantasizing and thus building for decades" it wasnt until the snowden stuff hit and all the current tech problems we have that the sentiment is "oh crap, the dystopian cyberpunk future is a heck of a lot more of a slippry slope than we were ready to deal with as a society"
- hieu 8y ago
  I think first impression is important but not a key indicator of long term success. The first iPhone unlocked the mobile web browsing use case, which is huge. People had always wanted to browse the web, just not on mobile. That alone makes the first iPhone a revolutionary product. Magic Leap One has to create new user behavior, which is much much harder.
- gamblor956 8y ago
  the entire way the device was designed and the way you interacted with it was a new paradigm. Only if you ignored all the other smartdevices on the market at the time. Palm and WindowsMobile phones had touchscreens before the iPhone came out. The only big change with the iPhone from an interaction perspective was a switch to capacitative screens, which made it easier to use with fingers but far worse to use in any sort of weather or industrial situations.
  - Joeri 8y ago
    I had a windows mobile phone at the time and disagree. The ux of the iphone was so far beyond any competitor it was a different kind of product. It felt like a part of the future, instead of the bleeding edge of the present.
    - gamblor956 8y ago
      I had both a Windows Mobile and the first iPhone. The iPhone was definitely not "so far beyond any competitor" that it was a new kind of product. It just felt like another smartphone with a prettier UI.
      - lovemenot 8y ago
        One of you had stepped into Jobs's reality distortion field. The other had not.
  - matchbok 8y ago
    The fact that one of those phones exist anymore speaks to how incorrect this statement is.
    - rsynnott 8y ago
      And also, of course, all phones now are pretty much an evolution of the iPhone. No phones now are an evolution of Windows CE. Windows CE/Mobile didn't just die itself; it left no spiritual descendants.
- SimbaOnSteroids 8y ago
  I believe Apple will win this race, for this reason. They aren't talking about what they're doing but they are very much preparing developers to develop AR tech on their device with swift and ARKit as well as the capabilities of the A11. I suspect that by the time Apple starts signaling that they've got a headset and announce it at WWDCXX its going to feel like it fell straight out of the year 3000.
  - gremlinsinc 8y ago
    Apple has enough money in the bank they could buy ML...somebody will before they crash and burn completely if they do at all... I think ML will eventually be part of FB, MS, Google, or Apple, or even Amazon within 5 years. It'll be another 5 before AR is mainstreamed.
    - SimbaOnSteroids 8y ago
      A core component of any AR headset for everyday use is going to be that it not only has to be stylish, it has to be chic. I think Apple is the only one of the frightful five that have that kind of brand power. I have serious doubts that ML has a culture that can be molded to produce a product that has that aura around it. I can 100% see ML becoming part of Google, especially considering Google's stake in ML.
      - gremlinsinc 8y ago
        Google can make some snazzy things, and Amazon echo's pretty nice, I think Apple's not the 'only' ones who can do stylish, I personally prefer Google's phones over iphone, but I'm not an apple fanboy either. I prefer utility over style, and I enjoy android/linux over ios/macos anyday. Google seems to have had some decent experience lately with hardware, Amazon still feels like it flounders a little in this area with failed fireos phones, and alexa/echos' and maybe firesticks are the only major things they've really come out with that stuck, I guess kindles too a bit, but not great. Samsung I guess could also be another contender to buy them, they put out some great devices as well... I don't know who it'll be - but I think ML will be acqui-hired.
- deleted 8y ago
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digitaLandscape 8y ago
No.
Ajedi32 8y ago
It may indeed be true that a revolution isn't needed to make MR commercially viable for a consumer market, but I don't think we're there quite yet. The Magic Leap One costs $2.2k, which is cheaper than the competition but still pretty expensive for a product that hasn't yet established its usefulness to the extent PCs or smartphones have. If Magic Leap (or a competitor) can cut the price to a third, bump the specs a bit further, and get developers on board creating compelling experiences that just might do it, but it will take a couple more evolutionary iterations before we get to that point.
ebbv 8y ago
There was never a "Blackberry Razor" product. There was the Motorola RAZR phone that was just a flip phone that was very popular for a few years before the iPhone, and then there were Blackberry phones of the time which had small screens and small keyboards. Some people loved them but they were a fairly niche product mostly used by professionals who valued email access at all times. When the iPhone came out it was a true revolution and the plans for Android phones at the time were entirely redone.

danielvf 8y ago

When the iPhone came out, it felt like someone had handed you a little bit of Star Trek. It was nothing like using any other phone at the time - the entire way the device was designed and the way you interacted with it was a new paradigm.

chadash 8y ago
When the iPhone came out, it was pretty much identical to the already popular iPod Touch, but with a phone included. It was a very obvious next step for Apple to take, although I'm sure Apple had planned to launch the iPod Touch as an intermediate step to a phone. The original iPod was not all that much different from other MP3 players at the time, it simply had great design (both from a UX and aesthetic perspective). Similarly, the iPod Touch or early iPhones were technologically not much more impressive than a Blackberry. Touchscreens were nothing new at the time. But I agree with you that the way you interacted with the device was a new paradigm. Sometimes little evolutions make a big difference, especially when they make something easier to use, which is probably the most important factor for mass adoption.
- octo_t 8y ago
  The iPod Touch was first released in September 2007, several months after the first iPhone in June 2007.
- DonHopkins 8y ago
  The iPhone hardware and user interface made the leap from stylus to finger.
- CydeWeys 8y ago
  In addition to getting your release timing off, as the other commenter has pointed out, the iPod Touch and iPhone are essentially the same thing, only the latter has a cellular radio and the respective features that enables. Regardless of which came out first, it's this platform that was truly innovative. So they should be considered together as the revolution.
- deleted 8y ago
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- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
JohnJamesRambo 8y ago
That is not my recollection. I bought my girlfriend the first iPhone and had no desire to own one myself.
josefresco 8y ago
"When the iPhone came out, it felt like someone had handed you a little bit of Star Trek." Equivalent statement: "When the iPod came out, it felt like someone had handed you a little bit of Star Trek." In both cases, once you started using it you had the same reaction "this is REALLY cool but has major issues, I can't' wait for the next version". I remember my boss gleefully showing me his new iPod, and then him cursing from his office that afternoon (and many after that) as the thing crashed, and nuked his music library again, and again.
- Angostura 8y ago
  Played with an iPod when it first came out. It was really nifty. I played with an iPhone when it first came out, even the swipe to unlock screen felt like star trek. The two things were not comparable
  - moomin 8y ago
    One of the big things was simply the touch screen. No-one else was using that tech at the time and it was light-years better than the existing tech. Turned it from nice in theory to actually usable.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- rsynnott 8y ago
  I don't think the iPod was in the same class, really. For the consumer, it was, mostly, a way better minidisc player. It was better enough than other MP3 players and other audio players that it took over (especially once the nano came out), but it was not, dare I say it, magical and revolutionary in the same way the iPhone was.
FireBeyond 8y ago
Well, you know, other than the LG Prada... (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LG_Prada)
- prepend 8y ago
  Did you ever use the Prada? The UI was horrible, not to mention apps sucked (phone had no easy integration for contacts and calling, no visual voicemail). It had similar features, but not useful. iPhone was very useful.
wilsonnb3 8y ago
I think this only true for those that didn't have pre-iPhone smart phones. The iPhone was a massive upgrade to anyone using a flip phone still, but an evolutionary upgrade to people that had been using Palm Pilots, Blackberry's, and other devices since the late 90's.
- chipotle_coyote 8y ago
  As someone who had both a Handspring Visor and a T-Mobile Sidekick (Danger Hiptop), I just don't think this is true. I get that nearly every single thing the iPhone did had an antecedent of some kind in an older product, but putting them all together the way Apple did matters--and if there was another product of that era or any previous one that provided the same level of UX responsiveness the first iPhone did, I sure never saw it, and I traveled in some pretty nerdy circles. We can debate about whether that's "evolutionary" vs. "revolutionary," but if it was evolutionary, it's the kind of evolutionary success that leads to epochal shifts. To bring this around to the actual OP, I'm dubious that Magic Leap is going to pull that same thing off, but that's because I'm dubious that AR in the form of "things you stick on your head" is ever going to be a mass-market phenomenon.
  - SimbaOnSteroids 8y ago
    Of course its going to be a mass market phenomenon. Its going to be a mass market phenomenon for the same reason the smart phone was a phenomenon. It takes the internet which in the smartphone's case was something you had to go seek out at a desktop or computer and put it in your pocket. It took a dopamine hit and put it in your pocket. AR is the same thing, it takes the dopamine hit and puts it on your face. Subsequently you get a lot more dopamine hits.
    - samstave 8y ago
      i think both of you guys are correct. for me, being in tech my whole life and growing up solidly a nerd and in the cyberpunk culture of the 80s, when the iphone hit, it was more of a sigh of relief of "ok finally we are making the steps into the cyberpunk future weve been fantasizing and thus building for decades" it wasnt until the snowden stuff hit and all the current tech problems we have that the sentiment is "oh crap, the dystopian cyberpunk future is a heck of a lot more of a slippry slope than we were ready to deal with as a society"
hieu 8y ago
I think first impression is important but not a key indicator of long term success. The first iPhone unlocked the mobile web browsing use case, which is huge. People had always wanted to browse the web, just not on mobile. That alone makes the first iPhone a revolutionary product. Magic Leap One has to create new user behavior, which is much much harder.
gamblor956 8y ago
the entire way the device was designed and the way you interacted with it was a new paradigm. Only if you ignored all the other smartdevices on the market at the time. Palm and WindowsMobile phones had touchscreens before the iPhone came out. The only big change with the iPhone from an interaction perspective was a switch to capacitative screens, which made it easier to use with fingers but far worse to use in any sort of weather or industrial situations.
- Joeri 8y ago
  I had a windows mobile phone at the time and disagree. The ux of the iphone was so far beyond any competitor it was a different kind of product. It felt like a part of the future, instead of the bleeding edge of the present.
  - gamblor956 8y ago
    I had both a Windows Mobile and the first iPhone. The iPhone was definitely not "so far beyond any competitor" that it was a new kind of product. It just felt like another smartphone with a prettier UI.
    - lovemenot 8y ago
      One of you had stepped into Jobs's reality distortion field. The other had not.
- matchbok 8y ago
  The fact that one of those phones exist anymore speaks to how incorrect this statement is.
  - rsynnott 8y ago
    And also, of course, all phones now are pretty much an evolution of the iPhone. No phones now are an evolution of Windows CE. Windows CE/Mobile didn't just die itself; it left no spiritual descendants.
SimbaOnSteroids 8y ago
I believe Apple will win this race, for this reason. They aren't talking about what they're doing but they are very much preparing developers to develop AR tech on their device with swift and ARKit as well as the capabilities of the A11. I suspect that by the time Apple starts signaling that they've got a headset and announce it at WWDCXX its going to feel like it fell straight out of the year 3000.
- gremlinsinc 8y ago
  Apple has enough money in the bank they could buy ML...somebody will before they crash and burn completely if they do at all... I think ML will eventually be part of FB, MS, Google, or Apple, or even Amazon within 5 years. It'll be another 5 before AR is mainstreamed.
  - SimbaOnSteroids 8y ago
    A core component of any AR headset for everyday use is going to be that it not only has to be stylish, it has to be chic. I think Apple is the only one of the frightful five that have that kind of brand power. I have serious doubts that ML has a culture that can be molded to produce a product that has that aura around it. I can 100% see ML becoming part of Google, especially considering Google's stake in ML.
    - gremlinsinc 8y ago
      Google can make some snazzy things, and Amazon echo's pretty nice, I think Apple's not the 'only' ones who can do stylish, I personally prefer Google's phones over iphone, but I'm not an apple fanboy either. I prefer utility over style, and I enjoy android/linux over ios/macos anyday. Google seems to have had some decent experience lately with hardware, Amazon still feels like it flounders a little in this area with failed fireos phones, and alexa/echos' and maybe firesticks are the only major things they've really come out with that stuck, I guess kindles too a bit, but not great. Samsung I guess could also be another contender to buy them, they put out some great devices as well... I don't know who it'll be - but I think ML will be acqui-hired.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]

digitaLandscape 8y ago

No.

Ajedi32 8y ago

It may indeed be true that a revolution isn't needed to make MR commercially viable for a consumer market, but I don't think we're there quite yet. The Magic Leap One costs $2.2k, which is cheaper than the competition but still pretty expensive for a product that hasn't yet established its usefulness to the extent PCs or smartphones have. If Magic Leap (or a competitor) can cut the price to a third, bump the specs a bit further, and get developers on board creating compelling experiences that just might do it, but it will take a couple more evolutionary iterations before we get to that point.

ebbv 8y ago

There was never a "Blackberry Razor" product. There was the Motorola RAZR phone that was just a flip phone that was very popular for a few years before the iPhone, and then there were Blackberry phones of the time which had small screens and small keyboards. Some people loved them but they were a fairly niche product mostly used by professionals who valued email access at all times. When the iPhone came out it was a true revolution and the plans for Android phones at the time were entirely redone.