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The iPhone is responsible for many things but "bringing tons of people to computing for the first time" is probably not one of them. The vast majority of iPhon

The iPhone is responsible for many things but "bringing tons of people to computing for the first time" is probably not one of them. The vast majority of iPhone users have a computer, it was even more prevalent in 2007 when the first iPhone came out, and was a luxury gadget that was mostly purchased by technology minded and wealthy people - a group who were vastly more likely to own home computers.

alwillis 8y ago
I see plenty of young people with iPhones who aren’t wealthy and because I work in education, I can tell you many of them don’t have computers at home. If there’s a computer at home, it may not have broadband. The iPhone is their computer. If a kid needs a traditional computer after school lets out and they live in an urban area, they go to a library or to a community center. I was surprised to see Mac Pros at the main branch of the Boston Public Library this summer for young people to use for media production, for example.
- emptyfile 8y ago
  "Young poor people" buying 1000$ phones is a strictly American phenomenon.
  - cprecioso 8y ago
    I'm from Spain and I can 100% confirm it is not only in America.
  - alwillis 8y ago
    You’re right about that. Because as long as you have income and your credit isn’t terrible and you pay your monthly bill, you can get an expensive cell phone.
- Illniyar 8y ago
  In 2015 roughly 85% of households had a laptop or PC[1]. iPhone's marketshare in the U.S. is roughly 40%[2]. Even if you assume that all those without a computer at home have an iPhone at home, that still means that 62.5% of iPhone users have a computer at home, and that's just unthinkable. It should be obvious that the vast majority have iPhone users have computers at home and it's most likely was even more pronounced in 2007. Also, broadband is irrelevant to the discussion. [1]-https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2017/acs/acs-37.pdf https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publicatio... [2]-https://www.macrumors.com/2017/04/20/iphone-ownership-all-time-high-us/ https://www.macrumors.com/2017/04/20/iphone-ownership-all-ti...
  - gdubs 8y ago
    You’re comparing household statistics to individuals. Plus, totally anecdotal, but even if every house in the 90s had a PC (and it was really more like 40% around 1997), they weren’t used anywhere remotely like the TV in the household was. Like, a couple of teenagers maybe spent all day on it, and everyone had the tech savvy aunt or uncle, but it just was nothing like today where it’s typical to see grandma and grandpa FaceTiming.
    - Illniyar 8y ago
      I am, but that hardly makes a difference. Assuming households residents amount are spread randomly between household with computers and households without then the ratio holds for individuals(the assumption is probably slightly off, since there is likely a correlation between poverty and having a computer and poverty and number of children, but I doubt it's very big and besides the same correlation most likely holds between poverty and having iPhones) And the iPhone was released in 2007, not 1997.
  - alwillis 8y ago
    Remember, that old Windows XP desktop in the guest bedroom that nobody really uses anymore counts as having a PC at home, even if for all intents and purposes, it’s not used for anything except for the occasional game of Solitaire.
gdubs 8y ago
Outside of certain demographics you just don’t see people staring into their computers in line at the bakery, on the subway platform, at dinner, at the grocery store. Television remained a dominant media deep into the penetration of the personal computer with people spending hours and hours watching every day. Again, outside certain demographics, this just wasn’t the experience of most people with respect to computers. For me and my friends, yes - we spend all day on our computers. Most didn’t. Today, people are glued to their smartphones. I’m not saying that literally everyone owns an iPhone, either. What I am saying is that smartphone adoption hit an inflection point with the iPhone - heading upwards into the stratosphere. When you look at the concepts people had for what an Apple phone might look like pre-iphone, no one was prepared for what was coming.

alwillis 8y ago

I see plenty of young people with iPhones who aren’t wealthy and because I work in education, I can tell you many of them don’t have computers at home. If there’s a computer at home, it may not have broadband. The iPhone is their computer. If a kid needs a traditional computer after school lets out and they live in an urban area, they go to a library or to a community center. I was surprised to see Mac Pros at the main branch of the Boston Public Library this summer for young people to use for media production, for example.

emptyfile 8y ago
"Young poor people" buying 1000$ phones is a strictly American phenomenon.
- cprecioso 8y ago
  I'm from Spain and I can 100% confirm it is not only in America.
- alwillis 8y ago
  You’re right about that. Because as long as you have income and your credit isn’t terrible and you pay your monthly bill, you can get an expensive cell phone.
Illniyar 8y ago
In 2015 roughly 85% of households had a laptop or PC[1]. iPhone's marketshare in the U.S. is roughly 40%[2]. Even if you assume that all those without a computer at home have an iPhone at home, that still means that 62.5% of iPhone users have a computer at home, and that's just unthinkable. It should be obvious that the vast majority have iPhone users have computers at home and it's most likely was even more pronounced in 2007. Also, broadband is irrelevant to the discussion. [1]-https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2017/acs/acs-37.pdf https://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publicatio... [2]-https://www.macrumors.com/2017/04/20/iphone-ownership-all-time-high-us/ https://www.macrumors.com/2017/04/20/iphone-ownership-all-ti...
- gdubs 8y ago
  You’re comparing household statistics to individuals. Plus, totally anecdotal, but even if every house in the 90s had a PC (and it was really more like 40% around 1997), they weren’t used anywhere remotely like the TV in the household was. Like, a couple of teenagers maybe spent all day on it, and everyone had the tech savvy aunt or uncle, but it just was nothing like today where it’s typical to see grandma and grandpa FaceTiming.
  - Illniyar 8y ago
    I am, but that hardly makes a difference. Assuming households residents amount are spread randomly between household with computers and households without then the ratio holds for individuals(the assumption is probably slightly off, since there is likely a correlation between poverty and having a computer and poverty and number of children, but I doubt it's very big and besides the same correlation most likely holds between poverty and having iPhones) And the iPhone was released in 2007, not 1997.
- alwillis 8y ago
  Remember, that old Windows XP desktop in the guest bedroom that nobody really uses anymore counts as having a PC at home, even if for all intents and purposes, it’s not used for anything except for the occasional game of Solitaire.

gdubs 8y ago

Outside of certain demographics you just don’t see people staring into their computers in line at the bakery, on the subway platform, at dinner, at the grocery store. Television remained a dominant media deep into the penetration of the personal computer with people spending hours and hours watching every day. Again, outside certain demographics, this just wasn’t the experience of most people with respect to computers. For me and my friends, yes - we spend all day on our computers. Most didn’t. Today, people are glued to their smartphones. I’m not saying that literally everyone owns an iPhone, either. What I am saying is that smartphone adoption hit an inflection point with the iPhone - heading upwards into the stratosphere. When you look at the concepts people had for what an Apple phone might look like pre-iphone, no one was prepared for what was coming.