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Calling the iPhone an iteration is pure nonsense. Mobile phones had tiny utility compared to smartphones. A phone on the go didn’t fundamentally alter anything

Calling the iPhone an iteration is pure nonsense. Mobile phones had tiny utility compared to smartphones. A phone on the go didn’t fundamentally alter anything except for making coordination while traveling easier. I went through both the cell phone adoption curve and the smartphone curve. The latter was the massive impact that brought computing to the remaining 85% of the planet and upended targeting desktop operating systems for consumers by default. Calling smartphones an iteration on cellphones is like calling ChatGPT an iteration on the neural networks we had 10 years ago.

throwup238 2y ago
> Mobile phones had tiny utility compared to smartphones They had tiny utility compared to modern smartphones but the first iPhone was a glorified iPod with a touchscreen and a cellular radio. It didn’t have an app store and the only thing it really did better than other mobile phones was web browsing, thanks to the touchscreen keyboard. It wasn’t as revolutionary as hindsight now makes it seem. It was just an iteration on PalmPilots and Blackberries.
- throwaway2037 2y ago
  Another thing that is forgotten about the first iPhone: I think Apple negotiated with AT&T (?) to change the voice mail system so you could select from your iPhone (voicemail app?) which message you wanted to listen. Prior, you always needed to call the mobile provider voice mail system, then listen the messages in order (or skip them). That was a huge early selling point for the iPhone. I know -- no one cares about voice mail in 2024, but it used to be very important.
- kortilla 2y ago
  I remember getting it. Having a real browser was revolutionary. And having the maps app (backed by google maps at the time) was a huge deal. I had a blackberry before and it was just a glorified email and texting device. It was immediately obvious how revolutionary the iPhone was. That’s why Android immediately pivoted hard to replicate the experience.

throwup238 2y ago

> Mobile phones had tiny utility compared to smartphones They had tiny utility compared to modern smartphones but the first iPhone was a glorified iPod with a touchscreen and a cellular radio. It didn’t have an app store and the only thing it really did better than other mobile phones was web browsing, thanks to the touchscreen keyboard. It wasn’t as revolutionary as hindsight now makes it seem. It was just an iteration on PalmPilots and Blackberries.

throwaway2037 2y ago
Another thing that is forgotten about the first iPhone: I think Apple negotiated with AT&T (?) to change the voice mail system so you could select from your iPhone (voicemail app?) which message you wanted to listen. Prior, you always needed to call the mobile provider voice mail system, then listen the messages in order (or skip them). That was a huge early selling point for the iPhone. I know -- no one cares about voice mail in 2024, but it used to be very important.
kortilla 2y ago
I remember getting it. Having a real browser was revolutionary. And having the maps app (backed by google maps at the time) was a huge deal. I had a blackberry before and it was just a glorified email and texting device. It was immediately obvious how revolutionary the iPhone was. That’s why Android immediately pivoted hard to replicate the experience.