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And the OS.
And the web browser.
And the reduction of carrier control.
And the iTunes integration.
And...

Your second item for me is one of the biggest advantages of iPhone. I love the fact iPhone doesn't have stupid carrier bloatware and we're not dependent on carriers for software upgrades.
 
Honestly this isn't unusual. Developers are expected to provide demos of unfinished products all the time. All they had to do was follow a script that was known to work, and cross their fingers that the radio stayed online. if the radio failed, they could have jumped to a video demo while a fresh device was brought on-stage. I assume they had several devices on stand-by just in case.

hehe, I have done this so many times. One time I had a demo before shareholders. I provided the CEO with a VERY specific path to follow. There was a few features that weren't complete or threw exceptions.

Needless to say, he went off script. Used one of the features that threw an exception.

But in the end it was actually a good thing. The shareholders were under the impression that it was a pre-recorded video. Apparently in the past the company had done this and it was making investors uneasy. They were shocked and happy that the app was real and was making good progress.

I tell ya though ... I panicked when he went off script.
 
Absolutely brilliant!
To do a presentation with that level of risk takes balls the size of church bells. That's what it takes to be great.
 
back then Mac World was apple's big trade show and they had to announce it then.

I believe, back in the day, the FCC certifications would come through in advance showing publicly what was coming (even if they were quiet otherwise) - so they did this to allow themselves to be in control of the announcement.
 
And the OS.
And the web browser.
And the reduction of carrier control.
And the iTunes integration.
And...

The OS was a step down to me from the Microsoft OS at the time - I could create a fully customizable home screen, put apps into tabbed folders, actually load and RUN 3rd party apps, change fonts, colos - everything. No, the initial iPhone OS was NOT revolutionary at the time.

The Web Browser was standard in Microsoft's OS that supported flash and there were many 3rd party Web browser apps that also worked even better. The iPhone web browsing experience was much better though but primarily due to muti-touch. So I think that's more multitouch than web browser per se.

Carrier control is not the phone - so that's not what we are talking about.

The iTunes integration was cool. However, at the time, Apple had proprietary DRM protection on everything, so you could only play music on an Apple device. Music purchased elsewhere was able to play on almost any device. Still most of us had iPods at the time and thus tied to Apple for media, so this was a definite advantage, but certainly not revolutionary.
 
"An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator...are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device. And we are calling it iPhone."

(That still gives me chills)

Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. And here it is..
8IiHKOc.jpg
 
And that Jobs didn't allow software designers to see the hardware prototypes and hardware designers couldn't see the software. :eek:

Yes, which is why it's silly whenever people bring up the old chestnut about how Apple magically integrates software and hardware. Under Jobs they were too secretive to do that, especially with first models.

Why couldn't they just wait a few months until it was more polished?

The official cover story is that they were worried about the FCC. However, Apple didn't apply for FCC approval for another four months, and even then the details could've been kept secret until it went on sale. All that would've been revealed is that Apple was making some kind of phone, news which was widely expected anyway. (People even called it the iPhone before it came out.)

The real reason was obvious to those of us in the handheld business. The yearly Mobile World Congress phone show in Barcelona was coming up a few weeks later, and Jobs was understandably worried that someone else would beat Apple to the punch with a multi-touch capacitive smartphone... since development versions had already been demonstrated or talked about in the months leading up 'til then.

There was no way that Jobs was going to let someone else steal his thunder, even though his own phone wouldn't actually be ready for sale for another six months.

It's like the way that Samsung rushed out their latest smartwatch. It's all about bragging rights as to who is "first".
 
I know some game developers have videos and the presenter pretends to play the game...
 
Still have mine. It's the only one I've kept other than my current phone (a 5). It's in terrific shape, too. It was, at the time I bought it, easily the most impressive technological leap forward I'd ever seen.
 
The OS was a step down to me from the Microsoft OS at the time - I could create a fully customizable home screen, put apps into tabbed folders, actually load and RUN 3rd party apps, change fonts, colos - everything. No, the initial iPhone OS was NOT revolutionary at the time.

The Web Browser was standard in Microsoft's OS that supported flash and there were many 3rd party Web browser apps that also worked even better. The iPhone web browsing experience was much better though but primarily due to muti-touch. So I think that's more multitouch than web browser per se.

Carrier control is not the phone - so that's not what we are talking about.

The iTunes integration was cool. However, at the time, Apple had proprietary DRM protection on everything, so you could only play music on an Apple device. Music purchased elsewhere was able to play on almost any device. Still most of us had iPods at the time and thus tied to Apple for media, so this was a definite advantage, but certainly not revolutionary.

:confused: The OS is not just your pet feature list. The web browser was a generation above anything else on a smartphone at the time. The reduced carrier control is still an advantage of the iPhone 6 years later. And the fact that iPods existed doesn't change the fact that the iPhone revolutionized music on smartphones.

----------

The official cover story is that they were worried about the FCC. However, Apple didn't apply for FCC approval for another four months, and even then the details could've been kept secret until it went on sale. All that would've been revealed is that Apple was making some kind of phone, news which was widely expected anyway. (People even called it the iPhone before it came out.)

The real reason was obvious to those of us in the handheld business. The yearly Mobile World Congress phone show in Barcelona was coming up a few weeks later, and Jobs was understandably worried that someone else would beat Apple to the punch with a multi-touch capacitive smartphone... since development versions had already been demonstrated or talked about in the months leading up 'til then.

There was no way that Jobs was going to let someone else steal his thunder, even though his own phone wouldn't actually be ready for sale for another six months.

It's like the way that Samsung rushed out their latest smartwatch. It's all about bragging rights as to who is "first".

:rolleyes: Or... Macworld was their biggest event at the time.
 
:confused: The OS is not just your pet feature list. The web browser was a generation above anything else on a smartphone at the time. The reduced carrier control is still an advantage of the iPhone 6 years later. And the fact that iPods existed doesn't change the fact that the iPhone revolutionized music on smartphones.

It's a disservice to say Web Browsers on Smartphones before the iPhone was already available, hence relegating the iPhone Web Browser as nothing new. I never can understand the reasoning from people who continually make those statements. From all the devices I have owned, Newton, Palm, Handspring to Treo...no browser was anything close to what the iPhone 1997 did for web browsing.
 
The OS was a step down to me from the Microsoft OS at the time - I could create a fully customizable home screen, put apps into tabbed folders, actually load and RUN 3rd party apps, change fonts, colos - everything. No, the initial iPhone OS was NOT revolutionary at the time.

The Web Browser was standard in Microsoft's OS that supported flash and there were many 3rd party Web browser apps that also worked even better. The iPhone web browsing experience was much better though but primarily due to muti-touch. So I think that's more multitouch than web browser per se.

Carrier control is not the phone - so that's not what we are talking about.

The iTunes integration was cool. However, at the time, Apple had proprietary DRM protection on everything, so you could only play music on an Apple device. Music purchased elsewhere was able to play on almost any device. Still most of us had iPods at the time and thus tied to Apple for media, so this was a definite advantage, but certainly not revolutionary.

OMG. You do not have a clue what revolutionary is.

You know how complex an airplane cockpit is, with all the instruments and buttons and levers? What if all this was replaced with just a steering wheel that could be pushed and pulled? That's it. And anyone could fly it who simply knew how to drive a car? THAT WOULD BE REVOLUTIONARY, even though no new 'technologies' were created.

The iPhone was revolutionary pretty much the same way. You're talking all about technical details which are nonsense. Microsoft's phone OS at the time was a joke. It used the Windows UI on a smartphone. Too complicated and backwards. Carrier control was HUGE. All this bloatware and certain ways to access the internet was annoying as all get out back then. And the browser was annoying to scroll, and hard to zoom in. Multi-touch improved on it exponentially.
 
If it weren't for Original iPhone we'd still be carrying flip phones. Say what you will but iPhone is the one that started.

The iPhone was a big step forward but to say that we'd still be using flip phones is an exaggeration.

My guess is that a lot of us will be carrying BlackBerries or some type of Windows-based touchscreen smartphone. Many of the business-types were already using those before the iPhone was announced, they'd only have gotten more popular as the UI and hardware improved.
 
:confused: The OS is not just your pet feature list. The web browser was a generation above anything else on a smartphone at the time.

----------


OK - Challenge. Explain specifically HOW, outside of multi-touch? I did explain what other OS's had at the time. Your turn to tell me of the revolutionary OS features now. :)
 
The iPhone was a big step forward but to say that we'd still be using flip phones is an exaggeration.

My guess is that a lot of us will be carrying BlackBerries or some type of Windows-based touchscreen smartphone.

I doubt that 100% touchscreen phones would have been so popular so quickly. Most phones would still have physical keyboards - Apple was the first to have the guts to go 100% touchscreen. I remember all the articles for the next year how business people would 'never' use a phone without a physical keyboard. Look where we are now.

Without Apple, it's hard to say any executives would have the balls to put their jobs on the lines to come out with a 100% touchscreen phone.
 
The OS was a step down to me from the Microsoft OS at the time - I could create a fully customizable home screen, put apps into tabbed folders, actually load and RUN 3rd party apps, change fonts, colos - everything. No, the initial iPhone OS was NOT revolutionary at the time.

The Web Browser was standard in Microsoft's OS that supported flash and there were many 3rd party Web browser apps that also worked even better. The iPhone web browsing experience was much better though but primarily due to muti-touch. So I think that's more multitouch than web browser per se.

Carrier control is not the phone - so that's not what we are talking about.

The iTunes integration was cool. However, at the time, Apple had proprietary DRM protection on everything, so you could only play music on an Apple device. Music purchased elsewhere was able to play on almost any device. Still most of us had iPods at the time and thus tied to Apple for media, so this was a definite advantage, but certainly not revolutionary.

As someone who went through 4 Windows Mobile Professional phones prior to the iPhone, I can tell you that Windows Mobile Professional doesn't sniff iOSs jock.

Pocket Internet Explorer with WAP! :rolleyes:
 
OK - Challenge. Explain specifically HOW, outside of multi-touch? I did explain what other OS's had at the time. Your turn to tell me of the revolutionary OS features now. :)

Ease-of-use.

Nobody had a clue back then how to conference calls. It could be done, just impossible to figure out without an instruction booklet and menu after menu.

Visual Voicemail. You could see who called you, touch a button and listen to the calls. Before this, you had to dial some strange number like *1, type in your phone number and password, then go through each message one by one, skipping and deleting them by pressing buttons.

Music. Hard interface to get to music. Sounded horrible. Hard to put it songs on your phone, most songs not available.

I could go on and on.... but clearly, ease-of-use is not something you understand to be revolutionary.
 
I doubt that 100% touchscreen phones would have been so popular so quickly. Most phones would still have physical keyboards - Apple was the first to have the guts to go 100% touchscreen. I remember all the articles for the next year how business people would 'never' use a phone without a physical keyboard. Look where we are now.

Without Apple, it's hard to say any executives would have the balls to put their jobs on the lines to come out with a 100% touchscreen phone.

There were 100% touchscreen before the iPhone. I am almost positive. I'm going to look it up now. :)
 
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