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It forced you in a crappy phone provider with unlimited data. Having a better than average phone browser wasn’t such a big deal, having a browser you could use

by Retric 3y ago

It forced you in a crappy phone provider with unlimited data. Having a better than average phone browser wasn’t such a big deal, having a browser you could use without thinking about it was huge.

matwood 3y ago
> having a browser you could use without thinking about it was huge This right here. People forget things like roaming and data charges. $500+ phone bills were not uncommon for business travelers. Data charges made smartphones almost a non-starter for the average person. Apple broke that logjam.
- pjmlp 3y ago
  Hardly in Europe, the contracts with data plans were mostly the same for iPhone, Blackberry, Symbian, Java feature phones, Windows CE/Pocket PC. Worse even, as while the others had pre paid plans, iPhone required a 2 year contract.
myko 3y ago
and they weren't crappy everywhere, though admittedly they were extremely bad in Silicon Valley until iPhone opened up to other providers, so they get that reputation among tech enthusiasts from sites like HN that are SV-centric
- scarface_74 3y ago
  It was 2G. It was crappy everywhere. My dumb phone on Sprint had faster internet speeds
- Exoristos 3y ago
  They worked great in NYC.
- matwood 3y ago
  It was Edge, ie 2.5g. It was very slow everywhere it worked at all. But, as the poster said, internet all the time with a flat rate plan was huge. For me, it really changed how I thought about the internet when I had it always with me with zero cost concerns.
altcognito 3y ago
The browser itself was ground breaking imho. Everything seemed to require a mobile specific browser and those versions of websites looked like garbage. The iPhone was (as far as I know) the first device that really and truly let you have real websites on your phone (even if it was just a tiny version of it) I had been waiting for such a device for a long time, and this was the thing that got me over to Apple in any real sense.
- Hamuko 3y ago
  Yeah, the iPhone was the first phone where it felt like it was actually possible to browse the web on it. The Symbians I had previously didn't feel like usable browsers.
- Retric 3y ago
  There was a wide range of mobile browsers. From what I recall Windows Mobile 5/6 smart phone’s browsers were arguably better than the 1st gen iPhone. Though the phones where overall worse.
  - 0x457 3y ago
    Absolutely not. Even without App store iPhone was significantly better than Windows Mobile 5/6. This is 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile?useskin=vector#/media/File:WM50today.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile?useskin=vector#... this is 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile_6.0?useskin=vector#/media/File:WM6.0_Screenshot.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile_6.0?useskin=vec... Devices were much worse compared to even first gen iPhone. Ironically, it only for worse because the industry decided that using their shitty resistive touchscreen with UI even worse than previous models - menus had large buttons, but apps were built for stylus.
    - Retric 3y ago
      I agree the devices were worse overall, however IE on Windows Mobile in 07 could render more websites well at the time including Flash support etc. The browser’s UI was also worse thus the ambiguity.

by Retric 3y ago

It forced you in a crappy phone provider with unlimited data. Having a better than average phone browser wasn’t such a big deal, having a browser you could use without thinking about it was huge.

matwood 3y ago

> having a browser you could use without thinking about it was huge This right here. People forget things like roaming and data charges. $500+ phone bills were not uncommon for business travelers. Data charges made smartphones almost a non-starter for the average person. Apple broke that logjam.

pjmlp 3y ago
Hardly in Europe, the contracts with data plans were mostly the same for iPhone, Blackberry, Symbian, Java feature phones, Windows CE/Pocket PC. Worse even, as while the others had pre paid plans, iPhone required a 2 year contract.

myko 3y ago

and they weren't crappy everywhere, though admittedly they were extremely bad in Silicon Valley until iPhone opened up to other providers, so they get that reputation among tech enthusiasts from sites like HN that are SV-centric

scarface_74 3y ago
It was 2G. It was crappy everywhere. My dumb phone on Sprint had faster internet speeds
Exoristos 3y ago
They worked great in NYC.
matwood 3y ago
It was Edge, ie 2.5g. It was very slow everywhere it worked at all. But, as the poster said, internet all the time with a flat rate plan was huge. For me, it really changed how I thought about the internet when I had it always with me with zero cost concerns.

altcognito 3y ago

The browser itself was ground breaking imho. Everything seemed to require a mobile specific browser and those versions of websites looked like garbage. The iPhone was (as far as I know) the first device that really and truly let you have real websites on your phone (even if it was just a tiny version of it) I had been waiting for such a device for a long time, and this was the thing that got me over to Apple in any real sense.

Hamuko 3y ago
Yeah, the iPhone was the first phone where it felt like it was actually possible to browse the web on it. The Symbians I had previously didn't feel like usable browsers.
Retric 3y ago
There was a wide range of mobile browsers. From what I recall Windows Mobile 5/6 smart phone’s browsers were arguably better than the 1st gen iPhone. Though the phones where overall worse.
- 0x457 3y ago
  Absolutely not. Even without App store iPhone was significantly better than Windows Mobile 5/6. This is 5: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile?useskin=vector#/media/File:WM50today.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile?useskin=vector#... this is 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile_6.0?useskin=vector#/media/File:WM6.0_Screenshot.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_Mobile_6.0?useskin=vec... Devices were much worse compared to even first gen iPhone. Ironically, it only for worse because the industry decided that using their shitty resistive touchscreen with UI even worse than previous models - menus had large buttons, but apps were built for stylus.
  - Retric 3y ago
    I agree the devices were worse overall, however IE on Windows Mobile in 07 could render more websites well at the time including Flash support etc. The browser’s UI was also worse thus the ambiguity.