4 ms·
1-8 these apply to the US only. 9. Mobile devices were phones first and last, not usable handheld computers Pocketpc and Palm phones were fully fledged handh
by dejb 17y ago
1-8
these apply to the US only.
9. Mobile devices were phones first and last, not usable handheld computers
Pocketpc and Palm phones were fully fledged handheld computers for years before. If you don't believe me check the list of apps at
http://www.smartphonemag.com/awards/winners_ppc_2005.html http://www.smartphonemag.com/awards/winners_ppc_2005.html
10. Even the smartest phones didn’t have seamless WiFi integration
Maybe not seemless but functional. A search for 'wifi switching iphone' shows everything isn't perfect yet.
11. Without Visual Voice Mail, messages couldn’t be managed non-linearly
Don't know. Not really my thing.
12. There were no manufacturer owned and operated on-the-phone application stores as the sole source
True the app store is an innovation. It's a great idea apart from the compulsory part.
13. An on-the-phone store having 65,000 apps downloaded nearly 2 billion times was not on anyone’s radar screen
This is a repeat of 12. However it should be noted that there would have been 1000s of pocket pc apps available in 2006.
14-16
These are all basically about the app store. Pretty much repeating 12 and 13.
17. Buttons, keys, joysticks, sliders…anything but the screen was the focus of phones
There where popular touch screen which had only a few buttons. My recently retired HTC Magician (not Magic) was one of these.
18. Phones didn’t come with huge 3.5″ touch screens
Many Did. Some had bigger screens.
19. Pervasive multitouch, gesture-based UI was science fiction
Apple did bring many of these to market for the first time. I'm not sure if anyone had developed a phone intended to be used by hand as opposed to stylus. that said the stylus is pretty powerful in it's own right.
20. Actually usable, multi-language, multitouch virtual keyboards on phones didn’t exist
Deliberate repeat of multitouch. Apart from that many virtual keyboard existed
21. Integrated sensors like accelerometers and proximity detectors had no place in phones
'The first phone from the company to feature an accelerometer was the Sony Ericsson W910 and the Sony Ericsson K850.'
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerometer http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerometer
22. Phones could never compete in 3D/gaming with dedicated portable consoles
I had quake running on my HTC Magicician in 2006. There seemed to be a lot of other games available.
23. iPod-class audio/video players on mobiles didn’t exist
Many phones had popular music players.
24. No phone had ever offered a desktop-like web browser experience
Opera
25. Sophisticated SDKs and phones were strangers to each other
No. Wrong.
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so what are we left with
1. helped in the process of freeing US users from bad carrier slavery
2. The app store
3. A user interface designed to be used with fingers including multitouch and swipe.
Good achievements but they didn't 'invent' the genre. If you take away 1. You are left with an evolutionary not revolutionary contribution.
- Keyframe 17y agoApp store is also an evolutionary step (imo in a good way). Here, in Europe, most of the big carriers had (most still have) their own app stores which you could buy games and applications from with your bill or prepaid credit.
- rimantas 17y agoYou dismiss many of the point on the ground "existed, but maybe not as usable". That's exactly why iPhone became popular: because it made many of nice features actually usable for the John S. User, not only for John Geek.
- dejb 17y agoI can only count one. Can you point the others out?
- alain94040 17y agoAccelerometers for instance: when I dial using the keypad, then move the phone to my ear, the accelerometer detects this movement and switches off the keypad, so my ears don't dial extra numbers on my behalf. I don't know, but did the phone you mention (first to have accelerometer) make good use of them?
- avinashv 17y agoIt's not an accelerometer that does this, it's a proximity sensor. It's a little preposterous to imagine the phone can account for every possible way I take my phone to my ear. The iPhone uses the accelerometer primarily to rotate the screen. There's not a whole lot more (apart from some niche applications) that any phone manufacturer does besides that.
- gcanyon 17y ago"niche applications?" Have you seen Pocket Universe? http://www.craicdesign.com/ http://www.craicdesign.com/ The first time you look up at the night sky, see a star, hold your iPhone (3gs for best experience) up in front of that star and see the display show exactly the same view, with labels, you _know_ the compass and accelerometer have a purpose -- nay, a holy calling.