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That’s not my memory of it at all. I remember it feeling like something from the future. The massive screen, the accelerometer, the light and proximity sensors

by padjo 4y ago

That’s not my memory of it at all. I remember it feeling like something from the future. The massive screen, the accelerometer, the light and proximity sensors and the overall slickness of the UI were really clearly a step change. I didn’t quite realise at the time that it was a whole new device category that would essentially eliminate all other personal electronics but I remember it being clear that this was more than just another gadget, definitely not a joke!

seba_dos1 4y ago
These kinds of sensors were the norm on smartphones already. Even Openmoko phones had them (and Neo1973 was announced before the first iPhone was), those were touchscreen-only too. Nothing the first iPhone did was revolutionary, you couldn't even use those sensors yourself as you couldn't develop apps for it (and there were Symbian games that used accelerometers already). It had some exquisite marketing which tried to place it as a somewhat accessible yet luxury item and they succeeded. Then they pushed with their app store walled garden, and the rest is sad history.
- _glass 4y ago
  I remember perceiving those phones as a new class of device, OpenMoko and the iPhone. My cousin's laptop broke, and he used his Nokia N810 instead. This last device was the most fascinating for me, doing everything in such a small size. In the same way that even now I feel that my iPhone is more of a laptop substitute than a phone. I remember for my first job interviews opening up my Macbook in Zurich to find the place, with the ubiquitous wifi at that time. Now you would use your phone.
  - laumars 4y ago
    I was doing that years before the iPhone on my PDA. I also used GPS navigation with Google Maps on my feature phone years before the iPhone was released. I’m not dismissing the iPhone as a bad device (I have an iPhone and other Apple hardware) but it certainly wasn’t first to market on any of this stuff. If anything, I’d describe it as a device that popularised the emerging trend rather than defining it.
    - padjo 4y ago
      Sure there were lots of devices doing subsets of the features of iPhone but the feature set and execution of the iPhone was in a completely different class. The fact that the same fundamental design still dominates 15 years later shows how remarkable a feat of product design it really was.
      - laumars 4y ago
        I didn’t say subset of features (because it literally wasn’t a subset of features). And the modern iPhone is very different from the originally released device. This is exactly the kind of revisionist history I was on about.
  - seba_dos1 4y ago
    Fun fact - Nokia N810 (announced in 2007) was initially supposed to be a smartphone already, but ended up being just a tablet because of infighting with Symbian team, effectively postponing the release of Maemo-based phone until Nokia N900.

by padjo 4y ago

seba_dos1 4y ago

These kinds of sensors were the norm on smartphones already. Even Openmoko phones had them (and Neo1973 was announced before the first iPhone was), those were touchscreen-only too. Nothing the first iPhone did was revolutionary, you couldn't even use those sensors yourself as you couldn't develop apps for it (and there were Symbian games that used accelerometers already). It had some exquisite marketing which tried to place it as a somewhat accessible yet luxury item and they succeeded. Then they pushed with their app store walled garden, and the rest is sad history.

_glass 4y ago
I remember perceiving those phones as a new class of device, OpenMoko and the iPhone. My cousin's laptop broke, and he used his Nokia N810 instead. This last device was the most fascinating for me, doing everything in such a small size. In the same way that even now I feel that my iPhone is more of a laptop substitute than a phone. I remember for my first job interviews opening up my Macbook in Zurich to find the place, with the ubiquitous wifi at that time. Now you would use your phone.
- laumars 4y ago
  I was doing that years before the iPhone on my PDA. I also used GPS navigation with Google Maps on my feature phone years before the iPhone was released. I’m not dismissing the iPhone as a bad device (I have an iPhone and other Apple hardware) but it certainly wasn’t first to market on any of this stuff. If anything, I’d describe it as a device that popularised the emerging trend rather than defining it.
  - padjo 4y ago
    Sure there were lots of devices doing subsets of the features of iPhone but the feature set and execution of the iPhone was in a completely different class. The fact that the same fundamental design still dominates 15 years later shows how remarkable a feat of product design it really was.
    - laumars 4y ago
      I didn’t say subset of features (because it literally wasn’t a subset of features). And the modern iPhone is very different from the originally released device. This is exactly the kind of revisionist history I was on about.
- seba_dos1 4y ago
  Fun fact - Nokia N810 (announced in 2007) was initially supposed to be a smartphone already, but ended up being just a tablet because of infighting with Symbian team, effectively postponing the release of Maemo-based phone until Nokia N900.