4 ms·

I’d agree with Uber making a big positive impact, but without the iPhone, there is no Uber. I’m not sure many remember the challenges to ordering a taxi/booking

I’d agree with Uber making a big positive impact, but without the iPhone, there is no Uber. I’m not sure many remember the challenges to ordering a taxi/booking a ride pre-Uber. The problem though is it is very much like the airline industry pre 2014. It is a challenging business model with a lot a capital and resources required to make it work. Ironically, Travis probably could have sold Uber Eats to Amazon now and the self driving car unit to GM! But, a pre-ipo company probably doesn’t have a great initial business model when they feel that it is necessary to pivot from it.

MrStonedOne 8y ago
>but without the iPhone, there is no Uber. An Uber company that still took calls but actually accepted a cross street in downtown seattle would still be a million times better the yellow cab's "Sorry, but we can only dispatch to a full street address"
1stcity3rdcoast 8y ago
I used to call Uber in the early 2010-2012 days on my Blackberry by texting my current location. Worked great even without an app.
- SilasX 8y ago
  Yep! You can see the option in this cache of the site from January 2011: https://web.archive.org/web/20110109084838/http://www.uber.com/learn https://web.archive.org/web/20110109084838/http://www.uber.c...
  - pmart123 8y ago
    Interesting. I didn't know that. I wonder if there was any 00's era startup that tried to create a taxi hailing service prior to the app store developing? My gut says the iphone/app alongside location data was critical for widescale adoption.