Over 5 years, has the iPhone made progress?

[wickerman1893]

Since the iPhones debut in 2007, Apple has uncovered hundreds and hundreds of new features. However, compared to the competition, mainly windows and adroid, has the iPhone really evolved as much as the others from what it first was? This is all based on opinion so please anyone respond.

 

[Apple OC]

are you serious? ... the progress has been fantastic

 

[kfergiez]

Well considering Apple pioneered this type of phone, I should say that they've evolved quite nicely. Most people that look at Windows or android platforms are obsessed with better specs such as screen size, LTE, or cameras. The problem is that all of those are rushed and pretty buggy.
I like the iPhone has taken their sweet time to perfect things.

Maybe you should check out http://www.apple.com to see the iPhone's advancements.

 

[mysterioustko]

Well considering Apple pioneered this type of phone, I should say that they've evolved quite nicely. Most people that look at Windows or android platforms are obsessed with better specs such as screen size, LTE, or cameras. The problem is that all of those are rushed and pretty buggy.
I like the iPhone has taken their sweet time to perfect things.

Maybe you should check out http://www.apple.com to see the iPhone's advancements.

Pioneered? No. Marketed to he masses? Yes. Prior to the iphone, smartphones were not marketed to the general consumer. They were intended for business customers. At the time the iphone launched it was considerably less capable than several other smartphones that had already been on the market for quite some time. I wouldn't say they pioneered anything. What they did was successfully market to a knew target demo.

 

[Calidude]

Made progress? Yes. Made as much progress as it should have? No.

 

[sand_man]

The big difference is the first iPhone may not have had a great deal of functionality but it had the perfect UI.

Functionality has been added over the years where now an out the box the 4s in an incredibly competent piece of kit.

What the opposition has done, in particular Android, is launch an UI packed with functionality but severely lacking in polish. Where they showing "great" progress over the last 2-3 years is in maturing their product so that it no longer resembles the beta it was at launch.

I guess what I'm trying to say is progress is relative to the starting point and Droid started from a low base where iOS was near perfect.

 

[Calidude]

Pioneered? No. Marketed to he masses? Yes. Prior to the iphone, smartphones were not marketed to the general consumer. They were intended for business customers. At the time the iphone launched it was considerably less capable than several other smartphones that had already been on the market for quite some time. I wouldn't say they pioneered anything. What they did was successfully market to a knew target demo.

I criticize Apple all the time here, and while you are completely correct about them having a less capable phone and overall featureset than say, Symbian, Blackberry, etc, it was not just that marketing that made them successful. It was their innovation of a completely new user experience that allowed people to finally have an incredibly easy to use computer in their pocket, no matter how incapable it was/is.

They definitely deserve their sales through the years, even if my old Nokia E Series could do more. Nokia and the rest should have seen this coming.

 

[matttye]

It has progressed a hell of a lot in five years, and I say that as someone who has a lot of criticism for the iPhone

The first iPhone could only run one app at a time, couldn't send picture messages, send messages to more than one person at a time, and it couldn't forward messages either. It was actually crazy how many features it lacked.

 

[Calidude]

It has progressed a hell of a lot in five years, and I say that as someone who has a lot of criticism for the iPhone

The first iPhone could only run one app at a time, couldn't send picture messages, send messages to more than one person at a time, and it couldn't forward messages either. It was actually crazy how many features it lacked.

Yes, artificially lowering the bar that low really adds to the sense of progress.

 

[mrsir2009]

It certainly has! Just take one feature, for example, the camera; The original iPhone's camera couldn't even shoot video But look at the iPhone 4S's camera

Although it should have been able to shoot video in the first place...

 

[boss.king]

Yes, artificially lowering the bar that low really adds to the sense of progress.

Exactly. The iPhone as it's own entity has progressed, but in terms of what phones could do before the iPhone, it hasn't brought a whole hell of a lot to the table. What it has done is change the way people go about doing those things.

 

[Vegastouch]

Well considering Apple pioneered this type of phone, I should say that they've evolved quite nicely. Most people that look at Windows or android platforms are obsessed with better specs such as screen size, LTE, or cameras. The problem is that all of those are rushed and pretty buggy.
I like the iPhone has taken their sweet time to perfect things.

Maybe you should check out http://www.apple.com to see the iPhone's advancements.

LOL...yes, they took their time getting you MMS and copy and paste. Two things that take time to get it right while my flip non smart phone could do it
Took them 4 years to get you notifications which still isnt as good as Androids from their first release. Aw yes, the taking their sweet time approach is working well alright.
And since most want a bigger screen and a better camera, im sure you still dont mind waiting

Cmon man, Apple had a 2 year head start on everybody and Siri is their bragging point? Apple is bringing up the rear trying to catch up.

 

[TM WAZZA]

It has progressed a lot. Things you couldn't do before you could do now. But what's really great is the Jailbreak community and the devs that develop useful apps that Apple would never deliver.

Exactly. The iPhone as it's own entity has progressed, but in terms of what phones could do before the iPhone, it hasn't brought a whole hell of a lot to the table. What it has done is change the way people go about doing those things.

Off topic: isn't the HTC Titan 2 coming out soon?

 

[boss.king]

It has progressed a lot. Things you couldn't do before you could do now. But what's really great is the Jailbreak community and the devs that develop useful apps that Apple would never deliver.

A lot of the things the Jailbreak community developed were simply to add seemingly standard features that Apple didn't include, and then to add things other OSs like Android already had. They have done some unique thongs, but again, that's the community, not really the iPhone itself.

Off topic: isn't the HTC Titan 2 coming out soon?

Yes it is, but only on AT&T, and the only benefits are LTE (which NZ won't have for years) and a 16MP camera (which I don't need, the 3MP camera on my 3GS pretty much fills my needs already). On the downside it is thicker, and grey, not black, which I think looks worse.

 

[ixodes]

Apple has definitely made good progress with the iPhone.

Going forward, their biggest liability is the loss of their master pitchman. In lieu of such a highly skilled salesman, the presentation of future phones will never be the same.

Able to whip people into a frenzy, driving demand through the roof, was one of Apples Hallmarks. Able to convince others that life without their products was hollow, Apple owes much of it's success to the image maker.

While the halo effect will carry them for some time, it's hard to imagine what the loss of one skilled pitchman will have on the company.

 

[Rampant.A.I.]

Wirelessly posted (iPhone 4s: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 4_3_3 like Mac OS X; en) AppleWebKit/533.17.9 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/5.0.2 Mobile/8J2 Safari/6533.18.5)

I miss the Apple that delivered a solid product instead of a repackaged one with better sales. Incidentally, that used to be my major gripe about Microsoft.

Things like adjusting screen brightness and choosing which background apps to leave running can be clunky on the Android, but at least they allow developers to make apps to deal with interface customization. Which, let's face it, beyond moving some icons around and setting a background, just isn't available to iPhone users.

 

[bandofbrothers]

heres my 2 cents.

As a previous Nokia user for over 20 years and losing faith in them and deciding to buy an iPhone 4 a year ago, this phone and iOS did and still continues to amaze me.

And as a windows user for the approx same amount of years and then getting a macbook air I'm in the same frame of mind.

Im not a fan boy in any way its just that apples hardware and platforms and customer service is second to none.

 

[iBlue]

Sure it has! Even as a long-time mac user I wasn't interested in the first iPhones because the cost didn't justify what I considered a lack of functionality. I had android phones until eventually Apple released an iPhone that appealed enough to me to buy it. It was the 4s that hooked me.

 

[felixgun]

I've owned every single iPhone since the 2G and I personally think it's progressed.... SLOWLY. All the features it has added has been added way later than most smartphones. The reason I still keep buying them every year is because of the ease of being able to sync my new iphone (from the previous years model) with one click in iTunes... it's like I still have my original iPhone's content from 2007 on my 4S... music, photos, contacts... everything. I love how easy and non-cluttered everything is.

 

[Yumunum]

In a way... It caused smartphones to become a integral part of many many many people's daily lives. Millions of apps sold. A billion helpful ways to use our phones.

But when comparing to Android and claiming Google moved faster than Apple... I don't know if I'd agree with that. All of these operating systems have big flaws. For example, Android STILL isn't as smooth as the iPhone, bookmark syncing wash't added until ICS which basically no devices actually have, no devices get updates, battery life has been horrible...

Then we have the iPhone - bad notifications until iOS 5, small screen, still very restricted and still not as close to a normal computer as it should be.

Idk, the whole smartphone era is pretty nice. Flawed and slow, but I'd rather have it than not.

 

[matttye]

Yes, artificially lowering the bar that low really adds to the sense of progress.

Whether the bar was artificially set that low or not (for the record it probably was) is irrelevant, it has still progressed a lot, and still has a lot of progress to make before it catches up to rival mobile OSes. In fact I don't think it will ever match the rivals because the simplicity that apple places so much importance on seriously hampers progress.

 

[matttye]

In a way... It caused smartphones to become a integral part of many many many people's daily lives. Millions of apps sold. A billion helpful ways to use our phones.

But when comparing to Android and claiming Google moved faster than Apple... I don't know if I'd agree with that. All of these operating systems have big flaws. For example, Android STILL isn't as smooth as the iPhone, bookmark syncing wash't added until ICS which basically no devices actually have, no devices get updates, battery life has been horrible...

Then we have the iPhone - bad notifications until iOS 5, small screen, still very restricted and still not as close to a normal computer as it should be.

Idk, the whole smartphone era is pretty nice. Flawed and slow, but I'd rather have it than not.

The galaxy s2 is just as smooth as the iPhone. In fact, safari on my iPad crashes about five times a day but my browser never crashes on android.

Neg repping me for this? Such fanboys around this place...

 

[MonkeySee....]

The iPhone is making good progress in terms of the iPhone. I don't really care what the others are doing. Its not my concern. As long as my iPhone is making progress that's all I worry about.

 

[kolax]

Apple tends to take longer to do things because they spend more time to the smaller details. We could have had an iPhone 5 last summer, but there was clearly a problem. Had it been another manufacture, they might've slimmed down the feature(s) that was causing the problem and release it anyway.

Whether or not you believe there was an iPhone 5 ready for release is irrelevant, the point is Apple takes time on doing it their way (or what they like to call the 'right' way).

Sure, we could have an iPhone 6 right now that was packed with all these features, sensors etc, but it wouldn't work very well. I'd rather Apple takes its time and gets the features right..

 

[maflynn]

Android and wp7 phones have an advantage. The use of multiple designers and manufacturers so with so many people creating new phones trying to one up the competition those phones have produced some new designs.

Add in the openness of android, HTC, Samsung, and the like have the ability to push the envelope further. This is less of an advantage in wp7 since MS keeps the design pretty locked down

I think apple has improved and made progress, but the interface while very intuitive is sagging under the ability of a modern phone. I think with much more powerful phones the UI needs to be updated, but thats just me