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> Hardware wise, the iPhone or a similar device was pretty much inevitable. The same components were available to everyone. I agree (more or less) with the fac
by macintux 5y ago
> Hardware wise, the iPhone or a similar device was pretty much inevitable. The same components were available to everyone.
I agree (more or less) with the fact that someone would have come out with something similar. I strongly disagree that it would have changed the world.
Apple had the "courage" to go all-in on the form factor with the retail footprint to sell it, and of course the built-in fan base and long history of innovation to make it interesting even in its fairly primitive form.
Any other manufacturer would have either been too small to be so influential, or would have hedged their bets with a dozen alternatives, and their "iPhone" would have just been another dusty device in the corner of an AT&T store that no one knew how to use.
- pier25 5y ago> Any other manufacturer would have either been too small to be so influential Maybe small manufacturers, but if Nokia or Motorola had done it first (with good software) maybe we'd be a in different world.
- macintux 5y agoYou left out the rest of that... > or would have hedged their bets with a dozen alternatives Nokia or Motorola wouldn't have bet their phone business on a single UI/hardware combination like Apple did, and so I don't believe it would have had the technological impact the iPhone did.
- pier25 5y agoThat's a good point. Maybe you're right, who knows.
- toast0 5y agoNokia pissed off too many US carriers around this time. They were pushing a preinstalled VoIP client, and US carriers responded by dropping their phones. Even if they had something great, the US focus of tech media would have made it hard to see, and the US/EU frequency differences would have made it hard to use in the US unless Nokia made a US version, but lack of distribution makes that less likely.