TIME Names iPhone Most Influential Gadget of All Time

[darthpikachu]

Hmm that list is kind missing a lot of stuff.. the following should definitely be on the list and possibly ahead of iPhone.
1. Birome pens - first decent ballpoint and the reason why we call them biros.
2. seiko astron - first commercial quartz powered watch that changed the world
3. Casio F-19W - Both in terms of ubiquity/popularity and the amount of deaths it contributes to compared to other gadgets.

 

[ArtOfWarfare]

If its been done properly already, how come we all don't have VR headsets at home, or on the train, or out and about?
Mobile phones and tablets have been done properly now and we ALL have them.
I think we'll know when VR is done properly because we will ALL have at least one headset in every household. Until then, its anybody game!

When was the mobile phone first done right? Pretty sure it was either the iPhone or the iPhone 3G. I don't think mobile phones reached the point where it felt like everyone had one until the iPhone 4S, several years later. Even today, I know two people (my mother in law and her boyfriend) who don't have mobile phones.

Give it a few years for people to tell each other about it and I expect that within 3 years, VR headsets will exceed Xbox One and PS4 combined. Give it a few more years beyond that for non-gaming apps to come out, and I expect it'll be as common as a laptop.

 

[maflynn]

Yeah, I can see the iPhone fundamentally changing computing, mobile computing is now killing desktop computer. In large part we are seeing the post pc era and that can be directly related to the iPhone

 

[grkm3]

Not in 2016. The Internet has a much broader use, and people are spending a lot more time on the Internet than watching TV. Maybe at the turn of the century TV was king, but now you can watch anything online.

um don't we look at a "TV screen" on our phones lol

 

[physicsprof]

As far as "gadgets" go - does TV count? Transistor radio? Telephone in general? Cell phones in general? PC? Who can reasonably assign a rank order to these? Plus, "most influential of all time" is depressingly egocentric.

Side note: articles like this help making TIME rank highly on "Least Relevant Publication of All Time." Aren't there things in life that actually matter? Things way beyond gadgets?

 

[admob71]

No surprise. I to remember taking my first iPhone home (3G) and messing with it literally all night, mesmerized by all the things I could do on it!!

Anything a Nokia n95 couldn't do? Just with a touchscreen .. Web, mail, maps, all sorted. It wasn't new at anything, it was just a smoother way of accessing them.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Most influential gadgets... to a Gen Xer.

As a Gen Xer I lived during most of the gadgets (yeah, not quite so old school as the Brownie camera or victrola) and get their contribution to society. But this list IS so historically inaccurate it makes me wonder if the authors believe history started with them or they just never too a course to learn about it. At any rate it's proof how uninfluential TIME has become in the Internet age. Ha.

#1 has to be the radio. Long before social media, it was the first device to connect people with their political leaders. In America it literally changed how citizen's connected with candidates politicians and how campaigns were conducted. It transformed the dissemination of news when alphabet was only the letters of a language.

Time has a transistor radio at #7. But the tube radio was what made radio affordable to the masses in the 20s.

#2 logically then must be TV, radio with pictures. Time got that right, but why a Sony Trinitron, why color? Why not until 1968? The first televised presidential TV address, SOTU, war footage, soap operas, everything was on B&W TV. It's not that the Sony wasn't influence, but it wasn't as influential as the first affordable mass market TVs that let TV get to 1968.

And the Magic Wand at #10? Oh lord. And here I thought these supposed jurnos just jerked off just looking at their name next to a byline or twitter follower #s.

 

[2457282]

Mine could have technically included the iPhone since I have purchased them for my wife and daughter. Never for me though. If Tim follows through with the suggestion that it might one day have the ability to choose default apps... there could be a first.

There is always room for personal growth and maturity. I am sure when you grow up you will make the wise choice.

 

[C DM]

Most influential gadgets... to a Gen Xer.

As a Gen Xer I lived during most of the gadgets (yeah, not quite so old school as the Brownie camera or victrola) and get their contribution to society. But this list IS so historically inaccurate it makes me wonder if the authors believe history started with them or they just never too a course to learn about it. At any rate it's proof how uninfluential TIME has become in the Internet age. Ha.

#1 has to be the radio. Long before social media, it was the first device to connect people with their political leaders. In America it literally changed how citizen's connected with candidates politicians and how campaigns were conducted. It transformed the dissemination of news when alphabet was only the letters of a language.

Time has a transistor radio at #7. But the tube radio was what made radio affordable to the masses in the 20s.

#2 logically then must be TV, radio with pictures. Time got that right, but why a Sony Trinitron, why color? Why not until 1968? The first televised presidential TV address, SOTU, war footage, soap operas, everything was on B&W TV. It's not that the Sony wasn't influence, but it wasn't as influential as the first affordable mass market TVs that let TV get to 1968.

And the Magic Wand at #10? Oh lord. And here I thought these supposed jurnos just jerked off just looking at their name next to a byline or twitter follower #s.

Seems like it's about particular products rather than geneal concepts/industries/services.

 

[lah]

Most influential gadgets... to a Gen Xer.

As a Gen Xer I lived during most of the gadgets (yeah, not quite so old school as the Brownie camera or victrola) and get their contribution to society. But this list IS so historically inaccurate it makes me wonder if the authors believe history started with them or they just never too a course to learn about it. At any rate it's proof how uninfluential TIME has become in the Internet age. Ha.

#1 has to be the radio. Long before social media, it was the first device to connect people with their political leaders. In America it literally changed how citizen's connected with candidates politicians and how campaigns were conducted. It transformed the dissemination of news when alphabet was only the letters of a language.

Time has a transistor radio at #7. But the tube radio was what made radio affordable to the masses in the 20s.

#2 logically then must be TV, radio with pictures. Time got that right, but why a Sony Trinitron, why color? Why not until 1968? The first televised presidential TV address, SOTU, war footage, soap operas, everything was on B&W TV. It's not that the Sony wasn't influence, but it wasn't as influential as the first affordable mass market TVs that let TV get to 1968.

And the Magic Wand at #10? Oh lord. And here I thought these supposed jurnos just jerked off just looking at their name next to a byline or twitter follower #s.

I'm also a Gen Xer and I have to disagree. I've seen many products come and go, but I can't think of no other product/gadget that has spurred so much innovation than the iPhone. Yes Radio and TV were influential but not as much as the iPhone and the secondary markets it has created. The iPhone which lead to the mainstreaming of the smartphone or in other words, the internet in the palm of your hand has lead to huge changes to the world economy and also political changes by having access to social media so everyone has a voice. (see Arab spring and other political upheavals around the world). People might think I'm overhyping the iPhone but in reality the influence (point of article) it has had on life is pretty stunning.

 

[Dave245]

Yea it doesn't surprise me that the iPhone has won. Go into any bar, university, gym, bus, train, shopping centre and so on, and you will see most people (not all) are using iPhones.

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Seems like it's about particular products rather than geneal concepts/industries/services.

Understood. But there were particular products for the categories I mentioned. There was a first mass market, affordable radio. There was a first mass market affordable TV.

I'm also a Gen Xer and I have to disagree. I've seen many products come and go, but I can't think of no other product/gadget that has spurred so much innovation than the iPhone. Yes Radio and TV were influential but not as much as the iPhone and the secondary markets it has created.

You make my point perfectly. Perfectly. Your riposte is that everything is thing that you have "seen." But there was a history before we Gen Xers came along. Society didn't start with us, it just continued. While the iPhone may be the most influential gadget in OUR lifetime it's not the most influential electric gadget in HISTORY. Radio's transformational effect made the iPhone and more even possible. To suggest radio and TV did not profoundly reframe society forever is to be completely ignorant of history. The iPhone is a fantastic device but it merely build out on the legacy of of radio, TV, and the Internet and its related social media.

 

[jonnysods]

It changed everything!

Such an awesome product. I love mine!

 

[C DM]

Understood. But there were particular products for the categories I mentioned. There was a first mass market, affordable radio. There was a first mass market affordable TV.



You make my point perfectly. Perfectly. Your riposte is that everything is thing that you have "seen." But there was a history before we Gen Xers came along. Society didn't start with us, it just continued. While the iPhone may be the most influential gadget in OUR lifetime it's not the most influential electric gadget in HISTORY. Radio's transformational effect made the iPhone and more even possible. To suggest radio and TV did not profoundly reframe society forever is to be completely ignorant of history. The iPhone is a fantastic device but it merely build out on the legacy of of radio, TV, and the Internet and its related social media.

Right, but were those specific first market items as popular and ubiquitous and themselves in particular influential (rather than being first essentially) as many things that people simply know by name because they have had such an impact and are so known?

 

[Chupa Chupa]

Right, but were those specific first market items as popular and ubiquitous and themselves in particular influential (rather than being first essentially) as many things that people simply know by name because they have had such an impact and are so known?

Obviously if it launched industries as big as radio and TV. RCA became a household name.

 

[C DM]

Obviously if it launched industries as big as radio and TV. RCA became a household name.

Well, perhaps a particular RCA product line should be there.

 

[AFEPPL]

Mac and the iPhone - who wrote the list?

 

[sudo1996]

Sorry Time but Tv had a much greater impact than an iPhone and still is, remove the TV from our lives, see what your life will be like!

The thing is, this list is naming specific branded products, and there's no one TV brand/model that was especially influential.

 

[MacBH928]

This is very wrong, isn't blackberry/pda is the basic idea of an iphone? What about Apple Newton? Sure iphone is the first successful implementation (let us not forget it didn't even have App Store at the beginning, just a phone with internet access), but its not the thing that cause the transformation.

How about the altair 8800 or the first Apple? It was the first to introduce the idea that a computer is not a business machine and can be used at home.

 

[WigWag Workshop]

I don't pay attention to "top-lists", especially after a certain magazine put Kurt Cobain has one of the "best" guitar players of all time.

 

[C DM]

Mac and the iPhone - who wrote the list?

What's the issue again?
[doublepost=1462387968][/doublepost]

This is very wrong, isn't blackberry/pda is the basic idea of an iphone? What about Apple Newton? Sure iphone is the first successful implementation (let us not forget it didn't even have App Store at the beginning, just a phone with internet access), but its not the thing that cause the transformation.

How about the altair 8800 or the first Apple? It was the first to introduce the idea that a computer is not a business machine and can be used at home.

Well, that's the thing, it's not really about the first, it's about a particular brand/product that influenced things to shift in some fashion and had a recognizable impact (even to the common populace).

 

[I7guy]

Understood. But there were particular products for the categories I mentioned. There was a first mass market, affordable radio. There was a first mass market affordable TV.



You make my point perfectly. Perfectly. Your riposte is that everything is thing that you have "seen." But there was a history before we Gen Xers came along. Society didn't start with us, it just continued. While the iPhone may be the most influential gadget in OUR lifetime it's not the most influential electric gadget in HISTORY. Radio's transformational effect made the iPhone and more even possible. To suggest radio and TV did not profoundly reframe society forever is to be completely ignorant of history. The iPhone is a fantastic device but it merely build out on the legacy of of radio, TV, and the Internet and its related social media.

For fundementally changing our lives the industrial revolution is a great place to start.

 

[Gasu E.]

Sorry Time but Tv had a much greater impact than an iPhone and still is, remove the TV from our lives, see what your life will be like!

Time is counting branded products individually. The Sony Trinitron is #2. Possibly the invention of the TV overall was more impactful then the smartphone overall, but iPhone had more impact than any single TV branded product.

Also, we have not really seen the full impact of the pocket computer/networked device on humanity yet. The category and technology is not yet fully mature.

 

[AFEPPL]

What's the issue again?

That neither device is worthy of inclusion in the list in anyway... iPod sure.

 

[Gasu E.]

The list seems to be branded devices, not products generally (e.g., Trinitron TV)

That makes little sense.

It makes as much sense as anything. It's their list to define as they please. And you are correct, "branded device" is apparently an attribute of what they mane by "gadget."
[doublepost=1462389095][/doublepost]

Are you aware of the definition of infancy?

The category of products of which the iPhone is a prototype is still in its infancy. We don't even know what to call the category yet-- we are calling them "smartphones", focusing on only one of its many functions (and in fact referencing a specific earlier instantiation of that function, the telephone). Clearly these things are much more than phones. In 2060 the category will have an entirely different name.