3 ms·

It's likely that smartphones would have never escaped the enterprise (Blackberry, Palm, WinPho 6, etc.) if the iPhone hadn't been released. Apple always put mu

• Zak 12y ago
  I don't think so. I was starting to see Palm and Windows smartphones in the hands of consumers without especially advanced tech backgrounds a decade ago as well as the occasional Sidekick. Android was in development at the time as well, and while early prototypes don't seem nearly as consumer-friendly as iPhones, many early production models were similarly unimpressive. It may have taken a bit longer, but I think the mainstream popularity of smartphones was inevitable.
  • dublinben 12y ago
    >I think the mainstream popularity of smartphones was inevitable I don't. I'm not a fan of Apple, but they really transformed our conception of a smartphone and made them a desirable device for the mass market. As I'm sure you know, early versions of Android looked nothing like it did once the iPhone was revealed. Even relatively modern smartphone platforms like WebOS completely failed to resonate with the public.
    • fpgeek 12y ago
      You're forgetting that Nokia (and a few others) managed to sell a few hundred million iPhone-uninfluenced Symbian devices before that platform was flattened by Android. That's plenty of evidence that the mass market already wanted smarter devices iPhone or no iPhone.