4 ms·

Microsoft was shipping PDAs (of which iPhone is an evolution of) since the 90s. I had a Casio E-95. It's about the same size as an iphone. It has a single butto

Microsoft was shipping PDAs (of which iPhone is an evolution of) since the 90s. I had a Casio E-95. It's about the same size as an iphone. It has a single button below the display at the bottom (same place as the home button on the original iPhone). It's home screen has a grid of 3x4 icons for apps (similar to an iPhone's 4x5 grid). What it doesn't have, it doesn't have capacitive touchscreen, it has resistive so it used a stylus, though I used my fingernail often). It doesn't have cellular service (but plenty did before iPhone shipped). Its UX is not optimized for touch as much as iOS. But it runs an OS, Win-CE, on a PDA so I'm not sure anything needed to be rearchitected rather than just deprecate the desktop UI widgets for more touch friendly alternatives (yea I know that's easier said than done but it's a tiny part of an OS vs all the rest). Also I'm not under any delusion that MS would have gotten it right. The same reasoning that led them to do the minimal changes from Windows -> Windows CE would have likely always been a drag on them fully embracing letting go and making the necessary changes.

ethbr0 5y ago
From early Windows CE memories, Microsoft's mobile hubris always seemed to start from "desktop Windows is the best OS." Ergo, the closer to desktop Windows they could put on mobile devices, the happier people would be. Blackberry, Palm, and Apple all realized that given hardware and interface limitations, a better solution was to cut the Gordian knot and strike a different balance between desktop and something else. Honestly, any of the three had a shot at being Apple. Palm had Graffiti and really slick for the time OSs. Blackberry had iMessage of their own. But Apple had a more complete package + Apple fans + iTunes.
- thrashh 5y ago
  I think the issue is that Microsoft only targeted enterprise users and never tried that hard to make their mobile platform for consumers. Because I remember having a Windows Mobile device and it was fairly powerful. You could do more on it than you could on Android or iOS for many years.
- Seanambers 5y ago
  And then later on Microsoft shipped Windows 8 - which was a touch first interface on millions and millions of desktop computers. I still remember the utter despair when non pro users didn't understand what was happening with the interface. You can't make this sh!t up!
- GeekyBear 5y ago
  > From early Windows CE memories, Microsoft's mobile hubris always seemed to start from "desktop Windows is the best OS." Ergo, the closer to desktop Windows they could put on mobile devices, the happier people would be. This insanity reached it's peak just before the iPhone introduction with Microsoft's "Ultra Mobile PC" handheld device initiative. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-mobile_PC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-mobile_PC I can remember an implementation of this from ASUS that used a D-Pad to drive a mouse pointer on a handheld device running an unchanged Windows XP UI.
- gumby 5y ago
  To be fair to Microsoft,* there was customer pull for “desktop everywhere”. I remember asking 20 years ago at a city council meeting why they planned to spend so much on Exchange/Outlook rather than, say, Netscape. The answer was that the Netscape icons looked different from Microsoft’s so lack of training costs would make MS cheaper. Sounds like bullshit but back then there was enormous learned helplessness when it came to anything computerish. Walk to any desk in most companies and there would be a stack of books to explain it all. One of the best things about the iPhone was that it jettisoned all that crap and acknowledged that people aren’t idiots. The stores still offered free “training” for the fearful. * strange, I know, as they were rarely fair to others.
spoonjim 5y ago
The feature parity minimizes how much better the iPhone was, even at launch when it was clearly rough around the edges. It’s like comparing a 1988 Hyundai with a Tesla Model S. The features are all the same: 4 doors, 4 seats, steering wheel, brake and gas pedals. But the experiences couldn’t be more different.
- xorcist 5y ago
  One thing Apple had was the political ability to iterate on the design. Remember that the original iphone had no apps, and no mobile data. That made it look like an odd duck in the sea of computerphones, but what it had was a slick user interface completely designed around the capabilities of capacitive screens, and that took many years for the competition to even get close to. Good user interfaces are truly hard, and Apple has always put it front and center, so it must have made sense for them.
agumonkey 5y ago
I can't find traces of E-95 models, was part of Cassiopeia line ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_Cassiopeia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_Cassiopeia
jaclaz 5y ago
Also, besides the form factor (pda/phone) there was - before the Win-CE - the mis-known Windows for Pen Computing (essentially Windows 3.11), I used to have a Compaq "laptop" that was actually a tablet (with detachable keyboard), the Compaq Concerto that was actually quite usable with the specific pen, whether that is to be seen as a precursor of the iPad/tablet or of the Microsoft Surface or similar, it came well before anything else (and lasted only a very brief time): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Concerto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Concerto

ethbr0 5y ago

From early Windows CE memories, Microsoft's mobile hubris always seemed to start from "desktop Windows is the best OS." Ergo, the closer to desktop Windows they could put on mobile devices, the happier people would be. Blackberry, Palm, and Apple all realized that given hardware and interface limitations, a better solution was to cut the Gordian knot and strike a different balance between desktop and something else. Honestly, any of the three had a shot at being Apple. Palm had Graffiti and really slick for the time OSs. Blackberry had iMessage of their own. But Apple had a more complete package + Apple fans + iTunes.

thrashh 5y ago
I think the issue is that Microsoft only targeted enterprise users and never tried that hard to make their mobile platform for consumers. Because I remember having a Windows Mobile device and it was fairly powerful. You could do more on it than you could on Android or iOS for many years.
Seanambers 5y ago
And then later on Microsoft shipped Windows 8 - which was a touch first interface on millions and millions of desktop computers. I still remember the utter despair when non pro users didn't understand what was happening with the interface. You can't make this sh!t up!
GeekyBear 5y ago
> From early Windows CE memories, Microsoft's mobile hubris always seemed to start from "desktop Windows is the best OS." Ergo, the closer to desktop Windows they could put on mobile devices, the happier people would be. This insanity reached it's peak just before the iPhone introduction with Microsoft's "Ultra Mobile PC" handheld device initiative. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-mobile_PC https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultra-mobile_PC I can remember an implementation of this from ASUS that used a D-Pad to drive a mouse pointer on a handheld device running an unchanged Windows XP UI.
gumby 5y ago
To be fair to Microsoft,* there was customer pull for “desktop everywhere”. I remember asking 20 years ago at a city council meeting why they planned to spend so much on Exchange/Outlook rather than, say, Netscape. The answer was that the Netscape icons looked different from Microsoft’s so lack of training costs would make MS cheaper. Sounds like bullshit but back then there was enormous learned helplessness when it came to anything computerish. Walk to any desk in most companies and there would be a stack of books to explain it all. One of the best things about the iPhone was that it jettisoned all that crap and acknowledged that people aren’t idiots. The stores still offered free “training” for the fearful. * strange, I know, as they were rarely fair to others.

spoonjim 5y ago

The feature parity minimizes how much better the iPhone was, even at launch when it was clearly rough around the edges. It’s like comparing a 1988 Hyundai with a Tesla Model S. The features are all the same: 4 doors, 4 seats, steering wheel, brake and gas pedals. But the experiences couldn’t be more different.

xorcist 5y ago
One thing Apple had was the political ability to iterate on the design. Remember that the original iphone had no apps, and no mobile data. That made it look like an odd duck in the sea of computerphones, but what it had was a slick user interface completely designed around the capabilities of capacitive screens, and that took many years for the competition to even get close to. Good user interfaces are truly hard, and Apple has always put it front and center, so it must have made sense for them.

agumonkey 5y ago

I can't find traces of E-95 models, was part of Cassiopeia line ? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_Cassiopeia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casio_Cassiopeia

jaclaz 5y ago

Also, besides the form factor (pda/phone) there was - before the Win-CE - the mis-known Windows for Pen Computing (essentially Windows 3.11), I used to have a Compaq "laptop" that was actually a tablet (with detachable keyboard), the Compaq Concerto that was actually quite usable with the specific pen, whether that is to be seen as a precursor of the iPad/tablet or of the Microsoft Surface or similar, it came well before anything else (and lasted only a very brief time): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Concerto https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compaq_Concerto