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The market rejected it because it had crappy UX. Those smartphones were marketed for balding dads in white shirts, working in cubicles. Steve Ballmer types. Th

The market rejected it because it had crappy UX. Those smartphones were marketed for balding dads in white shirts, working in cubicles. Steve Ballmer types. The iPhone had 60 fps smooth animations, a built-in iPod, a huge capacitive touchscreen, and most importantly none of the baggage of being associated with balding managers in their 40s. It was sexy. It was a fashion statement. There wasn’t even an AppStore on iOS initially.

ChuckNorris89 6y ago
>Those smartphones were marketed for balding dads in white shirts, working in cubicles Ouch, burn. Though oldschool cubicles sound better than the current open office chicken farms I've seen.
- layoutIfNeeded 6y ago
  Hehe, true! Cubicles are much better from a privacy perspective, but the startup kids tore them down on the dubious pretext of hindering collaboration. It was only a matter of time before BigCos followed suit, if only for the obvious cost saving reasons.
  - ChuckNorris89 6y ago
    I don't mind open offices for the 5 man starups made of the guys who met in college and are trying their luck with blood sweat and tears, however I really do mind them in the nouveau wannabe pseudo startups where it's an open chicken coop for the developer plebs and private offices for the sales/marketing/management. But it's ok, they give you a ping pong and foosball table. /s
    - josuepeq 6y ago
      Let’s hope that the pandemic kills the open office!
ThrowawayR2 6y ago
> "Those smartphones were marketed for balding dads in white shirts, working in cubicles. " While true, I wouldn't say that's a burn because it was exactly those people who could afford smartphones and justify paying the painfully high bandwidth charges of that era. Remember, those phones cost as much as a iPhone today but in 2005 dollars (ouch). The ubiquitous Blackberry, a.k.a. the "Crackberry", and Palm devices were also aimed at the same business and professional market. These early devices paved the way to the current smartphone market.
oaiey 6y ago
That is exactly the point. When a 16 year old non-male teenager is accepting it, than you won. See iPhone, facebook, whatsapp, tiktok or whatever they are doing nowadays. I owned two of these devices as a personal information manager (contacts calendar ...). They were not comfortable and the data plans then were so prohibitive expensive that modern usage was far away.
- saagarjha 6y ago
  There's no need to stereotype.
  - oaiey 6y ago
    From the wording: you are right, I apologize. Regards the argument: if you do not win this audience (predominantly female) you are doomed. For the records: I do not want to attribute any positive or negative characteristics to any of the audiences.
  - spoopyskelly 6y ago
    You should go work at, then get fired from, the Google AI ethics team. They have the same prejudice against reality as you do.

ChuckNorris89 6y ago

>Those smartphones were marketed for balding dads in white shirts, working in cubicles Ouch, burn. Though oldschool cubicles sound better than the current open office chicken farms I've seen.

layoutIfNeeded 6y ago
Hehe, true! Cubicles are much better from a privacy perspective, but the startup kids tore them down on the dubious pretext of hindering collaboration. It was only a matter of time before BigCos followed suit, if only for the obvious cost saving reasons.
- ChuckNorris89 6y ago
  I don't mind open offices for the 5 man starups made of the guys who met in college and are trying their luck with blood sweat and tears, however I really do mind them in the nouveau wannabe pseudo startups where it's an open chicken coop for the developer plebs and private offices for the sales/marketing/management. But it's ok, they give you a ping pong and foosball table. /s
  - josuepeq 6y ago
    Let’s hope that the pandemic kills the open office!

ThrowawayR2 6y ago

> "Those smartphones were marketed for balding dads in white shirts, working in cubicles. " While true, I wouldn't say that's a burn because it was exactly those people who could afford smartphones and justify paying the painfully high bandwidth charges of that era. Remember, those phones cost as much as a iPhone today but in 2005 dollars (ouch). The ubiquitous Blackberry, a.k.a. the "Crackberry", and Palm devices were also aimed at the same business and professional market. These early devices paved the way to the current smartphone market.

oaiey 6y ago

That is exactly the point. When a 16 year old non-male teenager is accepting it, than you won. See iPhone, facebook, whatsapp, tiktok or whatever they are doing nowadays. I owned two of these devices as a personal information manager (contacts calendar ...). They were not comfortable and the data plans then were so prohibitive expensive that modern usage was far away.

saagarjha 6y ago
There's no need to stereotype.
- oaiey 6y ago
  From the wording: you are right, I apologize. Regards the argument: if you do not win this audience (predominantly female) you are doomed. For the records: I do not want to attribute any positive or negative characteristics to any of the audiences.
- spoopyskelly 6y ago
  You should go work at, then get fired from, the Google AI ethics team. They have the same prejudice against reality as you do.