Few things in life that you consume — including even the arts — are revelations. Even fewer change your life. And then, there’s that rarity of a product or service that changes basically everyone’s life.
For me, the iPhone is one.
(As an aside, I can still recall vividly, many of my colleagues my colleagues pointing and laughing saying, “hey, can that thing make calls?”. Some of them apologized to me years later. Another vivid recollection is, in the first week of July 2007, I had to be in Paris on work. I was staying at the Paris Hilton. There I was, sitting in the lobby and browsing the internet of the iPhone (I’ll admit I was showing off a bit). At one point, there were literally a dozen people surrounding me, wanting to see it and hold it, many exclaiming with genuine excitement, “ee-fun, ee-fun!” Most were simply astonished. I came back home to the US and a $1800 bill, most of which ATT was nice enough to reverse).
Wel at least one person took it seriously, an Apple board member with inside knowledge, Eric Schmidt, Googles Chairman and trusted friend of Steve Jobs. After all Google halted all Blackberry knock off work and switched to stealing Apple's IP on his say so ... well that's just my theory of course.
I understand the following paragraph qualifies this sensational headline, but still, “nobody” is a bit overreaching. I, along with anyone sitting in that keynote knew instantly the iPhone was the future.
of course the competition said it would fail ... they were trying to prevent a mass exodus from their respective platforms. And the pundits just do what pundits do, espcially the ones loyal to Microsoft or then blackberry.
today is a bit different since Apple is virtually competing on the same stage with manufacturers who ripped them off, and wisely jumped on the bandwagon. Google never thought the iPhone would fail — then again most of those same doubters also predicted google would fail. Go figure.
I understand the following paragraph qualifies this sensational headline, but still, “nobody” is a bit overreaching.
Oh, bullshit. Especially since it's a qualified statement made with valid journalistic license, a generalization.
Yeah, you weren't the only one. Some of us not sitting in that Keynote (you must be special) knew Steve and Apple knocked it out of the park. And if we were being absolutely accurate, I bet there were people sitting in that Keynote who thought 'this is just the RDF in full effect. Looks good now, but will never fly.' To say everybody in the keynote knew 'the iPhone was the future' is a bit overreaching. Unless you're making an unqualified generalization.
In the scheme of things, and more importantly in the business world, AI's generalization is accurate, and those who 'knew' it would be awesome were a very small, niche minority.
"The iPhone was the debut of the multi-touch screen, which would soon become standard in the category. Sure, there had been smartphones available from established manufacturers before, but they had physical keyboards and a much smaller screen."
There had been keyboardless touchscreen phones before the iPhone. The Sony Ericsson P900i (which I owned back in 2004) and the Nokia 7710 spring to mind. However, they weren't particularly mainstream. The P900i sold around one million units total.
Let me rephrase that word in the article. Anything else?
"The iPhone was the debut of the touchscreen, which would soon become standard in the category. Sure, there had been smartphones available from established manufacturers before, but they had physical keyboards and a much smaller screen."
There had been keyboardless touchscreen phones before the iPhone. The Sony Ericsson P900i (which I owned back in 2004) and the Nokia 7710 spring to mind. However, they weren't particularly mainstream. The P900i sold around one million units total.
Here a photo of the Alcatel OneCom, released around the year 2000
It had a monochrome touch screen (monochrome was the norm at that time), weighted a ton, was very bulky, and had a battery life of 1 day
It had email app and a WAP 1.0 browser (if anyone remember that standard) . Sending and receiving emails worked pretty well, the WAP browsing was not a great experience
Comments
For me, the iPhone is one.
(As an aside, I can still recall vividly, many of my colleagues my colleagues pointing and laughing saying, “hey, can that thing make calls?”. Some of them apologized to me years later. Another vivid recollection is, in the first week of July 2007, I had to be in Paris on work. I was staying at the Paris Hilton. There I was, sitting in the lobby and browsing the internet of the iPhone (I’ll admit I was showing off a bit). At one point, there were literally a dozen people surrounding me, wanting to see it and hold it, many exclaiming with genuine excitement, “ee-fun, ee-fun!” Most were simply astonished. I came back home to the US and a $1800 bill, most of which ATT was nice enough to reverse).
I understand the following paragraph qualifies this sensational headline, but still, “nobody” is a bit overreaching. I, along with anyone sitting in that keynote knew instantly the iPhone was the future.
of course the competition said it would fail ... they were trying to prevent a mass exodus from their respective platforms. And the pundits just do what pundits do, espcially the ones loyal to Microsoft or then blackberry.
today is a bit different since Apple is virtually competing on the same stage with manufacturers who ripped them off, and wisely jumped on the bandwagon. Google never thought the iPhone would fail — then again most of those same doubters also predicted google would fail. Go figure.
Yeah, you weren't the only one. Some of us not sitting in that Keynote (you must be special) knew Steve and Apple knocked it out of the park. And if we were being absolutely accurate, I bet there were people sitting in that Keynote who thought 'this is just the RDF in full effect. Looks good now, but will never fly.' To say everybody in the keynote knew 'the iPhone was the future' is a bit overreaching. Unless you're making an unqualified generalization.
In the scheme of things, and more importantly in the business world, AI's generalization is accurate, and those who 'knew' it would be awesome were a very small, niche minority.