Today Marks 15 Years Since Steve Jobs Unveiled the Original iPhone

[webkit]

On the flipside, over time there's been less and less competition for smartphone operating systems, as Windows Phone and now Blackberry bit the dust.

WP and BBOS bit the dust but Android and its variants/forks (Oxygen, One UI, etc.) still provide a reasonable degree of choice and competition.

 

[Bodhitree]

It’s a massive hit of nostalgia, that original webcast with Steve Jobs. He really was a visionary and a great product designer, knowing what people would want before they knew it themselves.

And the iPhone did reinvent the mobile phone, it deserves to have made Apple into a 3 trillion dollar company, it was the right product at the right time.

 

[SactoGuy18]

The landscape has changed dramatically since then. And yep, apple reinvented the cell phone.

I wouldn't say "Apple reinvented the cell phone," but it certainly made it a lot easier to use. Not having to deal with a toothpick-like pointing device like what you needed with the Palm Treo or Windows Mobile was a huge plus.

 

[CrispyApple54]

I wouldn't necessarily call them "absolutely laughable" as it really depended on what one wanted/needed. Various competitors still saw strong sales growth in the years following the launch of iPhone. It wasn't really until after 2010 or 2011 when things started to decline for the likes of BB, Nokia, Palm. I think Android was responsible for this decline as much or more than iPhone/iOS. To remain competitive during these earlier years, Apple also had to cut iPhone prices fairly significantly.

They were laughable and it took a couple years for the masses to understand what many of us already knew. The iPhone was 5 years ahead. Even if I came out with the best product ever (I’d argue the iPhone probably is), it would take time for people to reset their minds.

 

[CrispyApple54]

Ballmer turned out to be right about that.

If Apple/AT&T hadn't dropped prices a few months after launch, and further dropped prices in the coming years, it may have been a different story for the iPhone.

No he wasn’t. That was the model. People pay way more for phones now and they are still underpriced. iPhone would have been successful no matter what. It was too good to fail.

 

[Scoob Redux]

This sums how much (Or lack there of) knowledge you must have understanding the roles of business/commerce, or even the sheer intelligence-level of education of what it takes to coordinate-operate a $3 trillion company.

I understand it’s all-to-easy to be very critical anonymously on a random discussion tech-board, but your above sentence that I’m quoting, ultimately; I would be embarrassed to post what you said.

I don't fault you for your perception. Corporations have worked tirelessly to promote the propaganda of the idealized savant corporate leader. They must maintain this fantasy of the "intelligence-level of education" (?) as you say, required to succeed in business. How else can they justify the obscene wealth transferred to corporate talking heads? It's all part of the plan.

 

[webkit]

No he wasn’t. That was the model. People pay way more for phones now and they are still underpriced. iPhone would have been successful no matter what. It was too good to fail.

Again, Ballmer's reaction to the high prices ended up being correct as Apple fairly quickly dropped iPhone prices significantly. When else has Apple dropped retail prices 33% to 40% barely two months after a launch? When else has Apple had to offer store credits to ticked-off early buyers because they dropped prices that much that quickly? And, prices continued to be lowered in the coming years.

People may pay more for upper end phones that have better cameras, more features, etc. (and not just iPhones) but there are iPhone versions today which are better yet still cheaper than the original; after factoring in the required 2-year AT&T agreement and inflation.

My point was not that the iPhone wouldn't have still been "successful" but rather that it may not have been as successful without those early years price cuts.

 

[DeepIn2U]

Smartphones at the time relied on limited display area, hardware-based keyboards, and styluses for screen interaction, but the iPhone stood apart because it a limited number of physical buttons and instead relied on a multi-touch display, which was more intimate and interactive.

Article Link: Today Marks 15 Years Since Steve Jobs Unveiled the Original iPhone

FALSE!

Many smartphones available across the globe in 2007 abs before did NOt rely on stylus’

Although many smartphones from Nokias S60 lineup were not touch screen or hardware key based thus having smaller screens didn’t ship with styli. 2 of the limited & unsuccessful prototype platform (available for sale in Europe) debuted a year prior, S90 (Symbian based), May have shipped with a stylus it didn’t rely on a stylus for use or navigation nor data entry. Same with the progenitor of Symbian, EPOCH on Ericssons R386 5yrs prior didn’t ship with a stylus.

Will update with links but this article is not fully factual as I’ve quoted above.


Keyboard based: (aka BlackBerry fighters/pretenders/killers whatever)


Samsung
i607 BlackJack Released December 2006 running MS Windows Mobile 5.0 Smartphone.


Touch Screen or Non-Touch Screen (NO Stylus):
Nokia N800 Released Q2 2007 (Announced January 2007, remember iPhone didn't release for months later too) was a re-iteration of the

Nokia 7710 Released Q4 2004, running Symbian 7.0, Series 90 UI. Yes it shipped with a stylus yet not needed for input, navigation or daily use. Not multi-touch no that is Apple's patent.

Nokia 7700 - unfortunately cancelled but get's mentioned (featured in videos from Missy Elliot and many others).

Samsung D720 Released 2005 Q1 running Symbian OS 7.0, Nokia's S60 UI licensed.
Honourable mention (released after iPhone OG announcement) - due to the technology that went into this phone setup Samsung as a leader supplier for: OLED, RAM, and Camera image processing: Samsung i8510 INNOV8 running Symbian 9.3 with Nokia's S60 v3.2 UI having 8/16GB Storage, 128MB RAM in Sept 2008!!

FYI the first mobile phone to use a Webkit browser (full HTML browser that Steve talked about on stage) was the Nokia N80, and the same browser that Nokia and Apple worked on was used on the Nokia E61 featured on screen during the iPhone original WWDC announcement.

Still this keynote gives me goosebumps all over ... even today! It was an epic presentation, Jobs went worlds beyond his standard reality-distortion-field cosmos aura.

I'm glad Apple took on the mantle of responsibility for perfecting technology in real world use in the hands. Microsoft, where are you now! (smartphone world lol).

 

[MartyvH]

I don’t think iPhone will ever be replaced. It is the ultimate money-making machine for Apple. I doubt AR/VR will be a revolutionary product from Apple.

Learn it from iPhone and never forget: to be open to new product categories.

Nokia's phones were the ultimate money-making machine in 2007. Blown to smithereens.

 

[RodThePlod]

The last 40 years or so have been interesting, from the rise of PCs to cell phones, laptops, PDAs, tablets, smartphones, etc. Each decade during this time seem to have its own new thing or two.

Indeed. I guess the next big thing is AR/VR, then. Will be fascinating to see how Apple address some of the basic challenges in these areas. For example, I wear glasses - together with a large percentage of the population - and I wonder how Apple will offer Augmented Reality for people like us? Maybe they'll allow us to add our eye prescriptions during checkout - so the Apple Glass (or whatever it's called) that we get will have prescription lenses specifically for us. That would be awesome.