6 ms·

Another point is that very little about pre-iphone phones was customizable. I can't even remember downloading any apps before the iPhone. Custom ring-tones were

by Daub 6y ago

Another point is that very little about pre-iphone phones was customizable. I can't even remember downloading any apps before the iPhone. Custom ring-tones were therefore one of the few outlets for making your device your own.

hosteur 6y ago
That and custom covers for Nokia phones.
- majikandy 6y ago
  And adding after market vibration motors to the 3210 since they decided to leave it out of the UK model. I still have mine.
djxfade 6y ago
I don't know where you are located, but in Norway, the "app" market (J2ME apps) was huge. It worked kinda like how the ringtone market worked.
- skibz 6y ago
  I had a lot of fun writing J2ME apps on my old mobile phone back then. If I recall, it also used a special version of the JVM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_virtual_machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_virtual_machine) known as the KVM.
- Daub 6y ago
  I am speaking from experience as a consumer.., that the app market was very ‘thin’... difficult to navigate, hard to locate and lacking in variety. But I also have talked at length. With someone who developed apps for phones pre-iPhone. His was a horror story. As I recall (details fuzzy), He had to pay a substantial fee to the carriers in order for his app to be quality reviewed. If it failed, then he would gave to pay again. For each phone they supported, an extra fee was required. Also extra fees for different carriers, even if it was for a device already approved by another carrier. Simply... in the days when the carriers ruled the waves, there was no profit in a healthy app dev community. In the UK, my first experience of a healthy app eco-system came with the dawn of the Palm Pilot.
  - djxfade 6y ago
    I dont think we had such carrier restrictions in Norway. You usually just sent an SMS with a code for which "app" you wanted, was charged on your phone bill for it, and received an MMS with the JAR file ready to go
matsemann 6y ago
As a sibling commenter I'm also from Norway. Here all magazines always had at least one full page with things one could buy for your phone. Ringtones, backgrounds, java games, util apps etc. On my old Sony Ericsson I even had a GBA emulator and used to play Pokemon, I used Opera Mini to cheaply browse wap/gprs etc. I didn't feel the jump to a "smart phone" was particularly big at the time, actually.
throwaway8941 6y ago
I used to run Windows 95 on my Nokia S60-something (I don't even remember the model know). This was back in 2006, or at most early 2007.
input_sh 6y ago
> I can't even remember downloading any apps before the iPhone. I'm pretty sure I've downloaded a bunch of games on my Sony Ericsson K700/750i/800. I believe they were just Java (jar) files that you download from some semi-shady-looking website that usually used a .mobi domain via a very expensive mobile data connection. Granted, that's just a couple of years before the original iPhone, but I believe that the first iPhone that came with the App Store was 3G.
Jaruzel 6y ago
A lot of pre-iPhone phones had a micro version of Java on them, and you could download via WAP stores, or even over the data cable, little apps and games. The SonyEricsson range of phones had full theming ability allowing you to customise the look and feel of the GUI completely.
- thewebcount 6y ago
  Oh man, I did this with my Motorola Razr. I downloaded some version of Civilization. It was awful. The WAP stores were like 1990s web pages - all text, improperly formatted due to the small screen, confusing to navigate. The game itself was almost unusable. The "docs" were a single page text file of instructions poorly translated from Polish to English. I think I also had some version of Prince of Persia. Playing them both was not fun in any way. So yeah, they technically existed, and were basically useless.
macNchz 6y ago
In the US I remember there was some variation between carriers on how locked down the devices were–my Motorola SLVR on Cingular circa 2005 ran the standard Motorola system and I had a bunch of Java games on it and could browse WAP sites for more. I was also able to install wallpapers and any MP3 clip from my computer as a ringtone. My friends who had RAZRs on Verizon, however, had some kind of crippled Verizon OS that forced you to use their store and were less customizable. They did have T9 predictive text, though, which I was jealous of.

by Daub 6y ago

hosteur 6y ago

That and custom covers for Nokia phones.

majikandy 6y ago
And adding after market vibration motors to the 3210 since they decided to leave it out of the UK model. I still have mine.

djxfade 6y ago

I don't know where you are located, but in Norway, the "app" market (J2ME apps) was huge. It worked kinda like how the ringtone market worked.

skibz 6y ago
I had a lot of fun writing J2ME apps on my old mobile phone back then. If I recall, it also used a special version of the JVM (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_virtual_machine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_virtual_machine) known as the KVM.
Daub 6y ago
I am speaking from experience as a consumer.., that the app market was very ‘thin’... difficult to navigate, hard to locate and lacking in variety. But I also have talked at length. With someone who developed apps for phones pre-iPhone. His was a horror story. As I recall (details fuzzy), He had to pay a substantial fee to the carriers in order for his app to be quality reviewed. If it failed, then he would gave to pay again. For each phone they supported, an extra fee was required. Also extra fees for different carriers, even if it was for a device already approved by another carrier. Simply... in the days when the carriers ruled the waves, there was no profit in a healthy app dev community. In the UK, my first experience of a healthy app eco-system came with the dawn of the Palm Pilot.
- djxfade 6y ago
  I dont think we had such carrier restrictions in Norway. You usually just sent an SMS with a code for which "app" you wanted, was charged on your phone bill for it, and received an MMS with the JAR file ready to go

matsemann 6y ago

As a sibling commenter I'm also from Norway. Here all magazines always had at least one full page with things one could buy for your phone. Ringtones, backgrounds, java games, util apps etc. On my old Sony Ericsson I even had a GBA emulator and used to play Pokemon, I used Opera Mini to cheaply browse wap/gprs etc. I didn't feel the jump to a "smart phone" was particularly big at the time, actually.

throwaway8941 6y ago

I used to run Windows 95 on my Nokia S60-something (I don't even remember the model know). This was back in 2006, or at most early 2007.

input_sh 6y ago

> I can't even remember downloading any apps before the iPhone. I'm pretty sure I've downloaded a bunch of games on my Sony Ericsson K700/750i/800. I believe they were just Java (jar) files that you download from some semi-shady-looking website that usually used a .mobi domain via a very expensive mobile data connection. Granted, that's just a couple of years before the original iPhone, but I believe that the first iPhone that came with the App Store was 3G.

Jaruzel 6y ago

A lot of pre-iPhone phones had a micro version of Java on them, and you could download via WAP stores, or even over the data cable, little apps and games. The SonyEricsson range of phones had full theming ability allowing you to customise the look and feel of the GUI completely.

thewebcount 6y ago
Oh man, I did this with my Motorola Razr. I downloaded some version of Civilization. It was awful. The WAP stores were like 1990s web pages - all text, improperly formatted due to the small screen, confusing to navigate. The game itself was almost unusable. The "docs" were a single page text file of instructions poorly translated from Polish to English. I think I also had some version of Prince of Persia. Playing them both was not fun in any way. So yeah, they technically existed, and were basically useless.

macNchz 6y ago

In the US I remember there was some variation between carriers on how locked down the devices were–my Motorola SLVR on Cingular circa 2005 ran the standard Motorola system and I had a bunch of Java games on it and could browse WAP sites for more. I was also able to install wallpapers and any MP3 clip from my computer as a ringtone. My friends who had RAZRs on Verizon, however, had some kind of crippled Verizon OS that forced you to use their store and were less customizable. They did have T9 predictive text, though, which I was jealous of.