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The best approach here is to keep an open mind. Yes it's hard to imagine this being a must have device, but it was hard to understand what Apple was onto with

The best approach here is to keep an open mind. Yes it's hard to imagine this being a must have device, but it was hard to understand what Apple was onto with the iPhone until you held it in your hand and lived with it. Significantly new/different products or services often surprise once they are actually used and can easily be better, or worse, that what they seem on paper. I have been running Watch apps in the simulator and still don't feel enough of the experience to form a final opinion.

tsunamifury 12y ago
No it was obvious the iPhone would be useful, just questions about price and network bandwidth. Blackberry had already validated the significant use case of being able to send emails and browse the web on your phone.
aetherson 12y ago
It absolutely was not hard to understand the iPhone until you held it in your hand. I mean, obviously you didn't get the full experience until you... got the full experience. But my experience was that everyone I met was like, "Oh, yeah, obviously that would be a great phone to have." They may have followed up with, "But I can't cope with AT&T," or "But it's too expensive for me," or "But I want a physical keyboard," but nobody doubted that there was a fundamental value proposition there.
- mercer 12y ago
  Much as this is also just anecdotal, my experience was the opposite. Most people thought the iPhone looked 'kinda cool' but 1) thought it was too expensive, and 2) didn't see any reason to switch away from their dumb- or feature phone. I even remember being a bit embarrassed pulling out my iPhone (which was already the 3GS at that point) in public because it felt a bit 'geeky'. And then over night everyone was using them in public.
- WhitneyLand 12y ago
  I can think of a fair number of execs who did not understand the implications. One of the classics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U

tsunamifury 12y ago

No it was obvious the iPhone would be useful, just questions about price and network bandwidth. Blackberry had already validated the significant use case of being able to send emails and browse the web on your phone.

aetherson 12y ago

It absolutely was not hard to understand the iPhone until you held it in your hand. I mean, obviously you didn't get the full experience until you... got the full experience. But my experience was that everyone I met was like, "Oh, yeah, obviously that would be a great phone to have." They may have followed up with, "But I can't cope with AT&T," or "But it's too expensive for me," or "But I want a physical keyboard," but nobody doubted that there was a fundamental value proposition there.

mercer 12y ago
Much as this is also just anecdotal, my experience was the opposite. Most people thought the iPhone looked 'kinda cool' but 1) thought it was too expensive, and 2) didn't see any reason to switch away from their dumb- or feature phone. I even remember being a bit embarrassed pulling out my iPhone (which was already the 3GS at that point) in public because it felt a bit 'geeky'. And then over night everyone was using them in public.
WhitneyLand 12y ago
I can think of a fair number of execs who did not understand the implications. One of the classics: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eywi0h_Y5_U