4 ms·

It's worth noting re: #4 that the iPhone did not debut with an App Store. It had the pre-installed apps and that was it for the 1st year. The App Store arrived

by harryh 8y ago

It's worth noting re: #4 that the iPhone did not debut with an App Store. It had the pre-installed apps and that was it for the 1st year. The App Store arrived in year 2.

josh2600 8y ago
That's correct. Version 1 of the iPhone also didn't have MMS and was EDGE only.
- soylentcola 8y ago
  While I'm not implying that the iPhone "sucked" or some other meaningless fanboyism, when it came out, I was intrigued by the things it had that my Palm and WinMobile phones didn't. Those were always missing gpu drivers (poor responsiveness) or had resistive screens (no multitouch) or some other minor annoyance. But the list of things I'd have to give up for a first gen iPhone (not even counting the mandatory AT&T bill in the US) made it a no-go: No copy/paste. No third party apps (I regularly used mine to stream Shoutcast stations in the car on my cheap unlimited 3G data before it became a cash cow to be milked by the carriers). No 3G radio at all actually. No GPS. No multitasking/backgrounding apps. No MMS (which was doubly important if you didn't have 3rd party IM apps). I was in a geek dilemma. Apple fixed the UI but lacked most of what made my smartphone "smart" at the time. Likewise, all of the ones with more capabilities lacked the smooth UI and usability improvements of the iPhone. I'm just glad that in subsequent years Apple slowly added in functionality while their competitors got the message that usability was important as well.
  - okket 8y ago
    IMHO that is Apples secret to success. Ignore the geeks/nerds/fanboys, first try to reach the 'real' market. Then you can fix your product up for 'niche interests' later.
    - andrewhn 8y ago
      this is a well known business tactic, called "leading from behind."
archagon 8y ago
I'd say that "apps as first-class objects" was the real innovation. My first thought on seeing the iPhone demo was that having Phone as an app made so much sense! Every other device at the time seemed to treat apps almost like plugins running on top of a phone/productivity-centered OS. In iPhone OS, practically everything you did was neatly encapsulated by the round-rect of a friendly app on your home screen. The App Store naturally followed from this approach.

by harryh 8y ago

It's worth noting re: #4 that the iPhone did not debut with an App Store. It had the pre-installed apps and that was it for the 1st year. The App Store arrived in year 2.

josh2600 8y ago

That's correct. Version 1 of the iPhone also didn't have MMS and was EDGE only.

soylentcola 8y ago
While I'm not implying that the iPhone "sucked" or some other meaningless fanboyism, when it came out, I was intrigued by the things it had that my Palm and WinMobile phones didn't. Those were always missing gpu drivers (poor responsiveness) or had resistive screens (no multitouch) or some other minor annoyance. But the list of things I'd have to give up for a first gen iPhone (not even counting the mandatory AT&T bill in the US) made it a no-go: No copy/paste. No third party apps (I regularly used mine to stream Shoutcast stations in the car on my cheap unlimited 3G data before it became a cash cow to be milked by the carriers). No 3G radio at all actually. No GPS. No multitasking/backgrounding apps. No MMS (which was doubly important if you didn't have 3rd party IM apps). I was in a geek dilemma. Apple fixed the UI but lacked most of what made my smartphone "smart" at the time. Likewise, all of the ones with more capabilities lacked the smooth UI and usability improvements of the iPhone. I'm just glad that in subsequent years Apple slowly added in functionality while their competitors got the message that usability was important as well.
- okket 8y ago
  IMHO that is Apples secret to success. Ignore the geeks/nerds/fanboys, first try to reach the 'real' market. Then you can fix your product up for 'niche interests' later.
  - andrewhn 8y ago
    this is a well known business tactic, called "leading from behind."

archagon 8y ago

I'd say that "apps as first-class objects" was the real innovation. My first thought on seeing the iPhone demo was that having Phone as an app made so much sense! Every other device at the time seemed to treat apps almost like plugins running on top of a phone/productivity-centered OS. In iPhone OS, practically everything you did was neatly encapsulated by the round-rect of a friendly app on your home screen. The App Store naturally followed from this approach.