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The way Apple introduced the iPhone was as revolutionary as the product itself. No carrier garbage on the phone, no carrier control of the end-user experience,

The way Apple introduced the iPhone was as revolutionary as the product itself. No carrier garbage on the phone, no carrier control of the end-user experience, "open" platform for apps (that came a little bit later), and unlimited data.

Karunamon 15y ago
Not sure why you're at the bottom of the thread here, it's quite true. Up until the iPhone's release, none of those things you mentioned were the norm. Smartphones quite frankly sucked until halfway through 2007. It's been a nice climb ever since, and you can see the effect the iPhone had on other companies designs and policies. Pre 2007 smartphones looked like they were going after the Blackberry crowd.
necubi 15y ago
Apple invented none of that. My first smartphone, the Treo 300 (released in 2003) had no carrier garbage, was a much more open platform than iOS, and at least on Sprint came with an unlimited data plan. Those features were unusual in the dumb-phone dominated industry at that time, but were omnipresent when it came to smartphones.
- barclay 15y ago
  Didn't the 300 from sprint come with a bunch of crap apps (i.e. NFL mobile or whatever) installed on it? I also had a Treo 300 (and a 180, a 600, and 750p)--so I maybe be confusing this with one of the later ones. The apps were easy enough to delete, IIRC, but there were some on there. And, as all crap apps, they were completely useless. That said, sprint did offer unlimited data (and text) for far less than AT&T. I'm still bitter about that.
- dalore 15y ago
  In America the carriers controlled the market and the device manufacturers where beholden to them. In Europe it was the other way around.
  - protolif 15y ago
    This is slightly off-topic, but I remember reading about a European initiative for a standard mobile charger a while back. Did that actually happen?
    - dalore 15y ago
      Yes and no. There is a standard (microUSB) but they don't have to adopt it. The devices makers just have to make sure there is an adaptor to microUSB for their device is available (they don't even have to ship it with their device, just has to have one in the market somewhere). So much for standards I guess.
    - Dylan16807 15y ago
      USB micro?
MrVitaliy 15y ago
While unlimited data leaves something to be desired. I had to flash Galaxy SII with a more recent Android OS without all the AT&T crapware just 20 mins after buying, it was simply unusable. What begs a question, how can cellular phone providers even think, that their team of 12 underpaid code monkeys capable of producing software that's on par with google? AT&T places, map searching apps, etc are utter crap and you can't even get rid of them unless you flash the OS. Unfortunately this problem isn't tied only to cellular phone providers. Network card manufacturers for Windows (yes, I'm looking at you Intel) come with their own crapware utilities who think their monitoring app is better than default windows wifi manager. Similarly, consumer routers that race to offer more and more features DMZ, QoS, etc but have millions of bugs because they're not software shops and still refuse to use DD-WRT or Open-WRT which are clearly better and have been developed, used and supported by thousands of professional.
- RobAtticus 15y ago
  We have very different definitions of "unusable." I don't like the crapware, and I eventually did root my SGS2 and removed the crapware. However, my phone was definitely usable, and the main benefit I got from removing the crapware was that my app drawer was less full, which is nice but not a deal breaker of a feature.
  - makecheck 15y ago
    Well as an example, on a Sprint HTC phone the crapware auto-started itself not only when the phone powered on, but apparently several times a day (despite using an app-killer). This wasn't just 1 or 2 apps, it was like 10. So my idle battery was draining away in part because I couldn't stop this phone from running things I never intended to use. I have never been happier since switching to the iPhone from that broken ecosystem.
    - RobAtticus 15y ago
      I didn't mean to imply that all Android phones are fine; my point was specifically about the SGS2. Even with its crapware, it is in no way unusable out of the box. Having used a Motorola Backflip before this, I certainly know the perils of crappy phones crippled with crapware. I just don't think the SGS2 is one of them.

Karunamon 15y ago

Not sure why you're at the bottom of the thread here, it's quite true. Up until the iPhone's release, none of those things you mentioned were the norm. Smartphones quite frankly sucked until halfway through 2007. It's been a nice climb ever since, and you can see the effect the iPhone had on other companies designs and policies. Pre 2007 smartphones looked like they were going after the Blackberry crowd.

necubi 15y ago

Apple invented none of that. My first smartphone, the Treo 300 (released in 2003) had no carrier garbage, was a much more open platform than iOS, and at least on Sprint came with an unlimited data plan. Those features were unusual in the dumb-phone dominated industry at that time, but were omnipresent when it came to smartphones.

barclay 15y ago
Didn't the 300 from sprint come with a bunch of crap apps (i.e. NFL mobile or whatever) installed on it? I also had a Treo 300 (and a 180, a 600, and 750p)--so I maybe be confusing this with one of the later ones. The apps were easy enough to delete, IIRC, but there were some on there. And, as all crap apps, they were completely useless. That said, sprint did offer unlimited data (and text) for far less than AT&T. I'm still bitter about that.
dalore 15y ago
In America the carriers controlled the market and the device manufacturers where beholden to them. In Europe it was the other way around.
- protolif 15y ago
  This is slightly off-topic, but I remember reading about a European initiative for a standard mobile charger a while back. Did that actually happen?
  - dalore 15y ago
    Yes and no. There is a standard (microUSB) but they don't have to adopt it. The devices makers just have to make sure there is an adaptor to microUSB for their device is available (they don't even have to ship it with their device, just has to have one in the market somewhere). So much for standards I guess.
  - Dylan16807 15y ago
    USB micro?

MrVitaliy 15y ago

While unlimited data leaves something to be desired. I had to flash Galaxy SII with a more recent Android OS without all the AT&T crapware just 20 mins after buying, it was simply unusable. What begs a question, how can cellular phone providers even think, that their team of 12 underpaid code monkeys capable of producing software that's on par with google? AT&T places, map searching apps, etc are utter crap and you can't even get rid of them unless you flash the OS. Unfortunately this problem isn't tied only to cellular phone providers. Network card manufacturers for Windows (yes, I'm looking at you Intel) come with their own crapware utilities who think their monitoring app is better than default windows wifi manager. Similarly, consumer routers that race to offer more and more features DMZ, QoS, etc but have millions of bugs because they're not software shops and still refuse to use DD-WRT or Open-WRT which are clearly better and have been developed, used and supported by thousands of professional.

RobAtticus 15y ago
We have very different definitions of "unusable." I don't like the crapware, and I eventually did root my SGS2 and removed the crapware. However, my phone was definitely usable, and the main benefit I got from removing the crapware was that my app drawer was less full, which is nice but not a deal breaker of a feature.
- makecheck 15y ago
  Well as an example, on a Sprint HTC phone the crapware auto-started itself not only when the phone powered on, but apparently several times a day (despite using an app-killer). This wasn't just 1 or 2 apps, it was like 10. So my idle battery was draining away in part because I couldn't stop this phone from running things I never intended to use. I have never been happier since switching to the iPhone from that broken ecosystem.
  - RobAtticus 15y ago
    I didn't mean to imply that all Android phones are fine; my point was specifically about the SGS2. Even with its crapware, it is in no way unusable out of the box. Having used a Motorola Backflip before this, I certainly know the perils of crappy phones crippled with crapware. I just don't think the SGS2 is one of them.