So what was it that the iPhone done that was so revolutionary? Touchscreen phones

AMKC

Already existed so it was not that. What was it?
Just watching a documentary on Steve Jobs and by correcting he was one horrible person the way he treated some people who worked or had worked for him but then decide to do other things.
Maybe it's the operating system but I never got my head around that. Always found it way more awkward compared to a Microsoft or Android operating system.

TheValeyard

Great marketing campaign

Smee_Again

Marketing and styling.

Allinall

Not using a capital "I" was genius.

KevRossi

Allinall wrote: »

Not using a capital "I" was genius.

i always thought that too.

Ubbquittious

I had a Nokia E61 I think at the time of the launch of the first iPhone. Technically it was a better phone, it had Voice over IP built in and could run Talkonaut which provided similar functionality to whatsapp and similar apps



Problem was people didn't like operating system and menu interface and those features were hard to set up for non technical people. When the iPhone came out I found the interface really dumbed down and restricted. I bought a first generation iPhone and quickly sold it on because it lacked features, had no physical keyboard and found it really restrictive to use. But other people loved iPhones because you could press on Safari and ""teh interwebs"" would appear on your phone

biko

Design really. They didn't invent anything of significance.

completedit

Alchemy!

Wibbs

biko wrote: »

Design really. They didn't invent anything of significance.

Apple or the iphone specifically? In the former they certainly developed much of the IT landscape for ordinary people. A laptop today looks like a powerbook of the early 90's and doesn't look like other brands laptops from back then.

On the phone front it was the usual Apple trick - and it's a hard one to pull off - where they took various existing or partially existing tech and features and jammed them together in a useful and cohesive way for most people. Most people don't fiddle about with settings or features and when they do it's at the start and they leave them alone after that. They just want the simple life. They don't see it as restrictive for the most part. Nerds and engineers do. Most IT brands were aimed at and developed for and by nerdy engineers, Apple went the other direction for the most part. We saw similar when MP3 players came along. The Windows based ones were more powerful with more options and features, the ipod was majorly dumbed down by comparison and was laughed at by pundits and techie types and which sold more?

The first Android prototypes were copies of Blackberry.



Well because the Blackberry was all the rage so they copied that. Then the iphone came out and when they saw the writing on the wall they went and built a "homage" to that too. If Apple got it so wrong then Android phones would look like updated Blackberrys and they don't.

To be fair to Microsoft they went a different and more unique direction with their phone OS and GUI and it was a good one IMHO. I liked it anyway.

theguzman

I have been using an iPhone for over a decade now, back between 2009-2014 Android was appallingly bad especially until around 2012-13. iPhones are easy, stylish, desirable and hold huge resale value also. Androids still get viruses. I'm happy to pay the Premium for Apple.

pleasant Co.

Being first with an accurate capacitive multi touch touchscreen matched with an easy to use and functional OS.


Every other phone (bar the LG Prada) that used a touchscreen at the time used resistive, which were only accurate if you used a stylus, quite the pain in the hoop. The aforementioned LG Prada did not use android, had a crap battery and no built in wifi - internet over the 2g/Edge network wasn't very effective.

maccored

gorilla glass and proper touch screen technology.

Gradius

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l4mcNSxnlhc

They cornered the market on fools and money.

Gregor Samsa

Here's one of the early prototypes of the iPhone, known as the "purple prototype". This is from 2005:



This, on the other hand, is what phones looked like in 2005: https://www.mobilegazette.com/2005-review-0512x19.htm

The iPhone concept and design was completely revolutionary for the time. Even in 2007, when the iPhone was actually released, the vast majority of other phones didn't look or act anything like it. There was the LG Prada also released in 2007 which had a full touchscreen interface, but it didn't have any kind of app ecosystem (The iPhone didn't allow third party executable apps at the beginning - the App Store didn't open until 2008 - but it did allow web apps to be installed, and had an SDK to support them from launch.).

Like it or not, the design and the concept it embodied was unique at the time and has totally dominated smartphone design and engineering since then.

Here's a round-up of phones from 2007. https://www.mobilegazette.com/2007-review-07x12x12.htm

The iPhone is in the "bad" section. And yet here we are, 16 years later, and what do all our phones look and act like?

Ash.J.Williams

Used android since they began but work forced iPhones on me and they are ****ing amazing

wonski

Never had an iPhone, not a huge fan of their stuff and prices, but the first iPhone was something else and it was definitely special.

Now all the phones are pretty much the same and there isn't much left to change in terms of functionality.

Strumms

Never actually owned an Iphone but had one for work for a short time... a few months...they were fine, perfectly functional for what it was needed for but I just always preferred the Android operating system...so much more flexible and the cameras especially in the early models were light years better on android...

Had a personal S2 when I had the first iPhone for work... just couldn’t get my head around the love and obsession with everything iPhone and Apple / Apple geeks ( what are they all about ) when compared to the quality and flexibility of Samsung...

NewbridgeIR

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

Used android since they began but work forced iPhones on me and they are ****ing amazing

Opposite here. Always had an iPhone but my work phone is a Samsung and I don't even I'll ever get used to it. Even answering it is difficult.

Aongus Von Bismarck

Ash.J.Williams wrote: »

Used android since they began but work forced iPhones on me and they are ****ing amazing

I've worked in banking for the past 15 years, and we were forced to use Blackberry until 2014 for accessing corporate email etc in the company . We also had to use a physical token pad to generate one time codes. Dreadful.

There was a move towards the Apple ecosystem for mobile devices. I wasn't a huge fan of iOS at first, but now I love its simplicity, excellent camera, privacy controls, and how it fits into my workflow. I'm not so sure the mobile OS is as important as it once was, as I now spend most of my day accessing Microsoft resources using their apps. An 'over-the-top' play by them.

The Golden Miller

Apple have pioneered pretty much nothing in their history. They were going bankrupt until the success of the iPod. They market their products well, and that's about it. Their quality is often lacking too, compared to other companies.

Sony pretty much controlled the electronic market up to the early 00's, and their huge mistake was pushing their mini-disk player over their mp3 walkman. The mini-disk player flopped and let Apple in with their mp3 player and Sony lost huge ground they never made up. That's where Apple's current success stems from, Sonys mistake.

But Sony were actually a company who pioneered much of the technology we have now

Eat up Martha.

hatrickpatrick

As others have said, it was the ability to combine multiple existing and extremely popular products.

I'd also say that integrating a full internet experience was crucial. Anyone who remember what WAP was like (before Nicki Minaj made it fun again) will know that it was an absolute feckin' nightmare to use. Incredibly slow, most websites couldn't hack it, etc.

The one thing that I always felt would hold the iPhone back was Jobs' public spat with Adobe which led to Flash Player being banned from the App Store. As anyone who was a frequent internet user in the 2000s will know, Flash was absolutely integral to pretty much everything multimedia - for instance, the lack of Flash on the iPhone meant that initially, you couldn't run YouTube, RTE Player, videos on News Websites, etc. It was a major, major missing feature for a device which claimed to replicate the full internet on a phone, but as it turns out, just over a decade later the iPhone is still insanely popular and Flash has just been nuked by Adobe. I'd posit that Jobs won this war and that Flash's demise is a direct consequence of a device which refused to support it becoming the dominant way people communicate over the internet. Sure, Flash had its security flaws like most software, but IMO the primary reason these stopped being patched and it was allowed to fall apart so spectacularly was because Adobe wasn't bothered funding the ongoing maintenance and development of a software platform which was incompatible with devices which were beginning to account for a gigantic chunk of total internet traffic.

Here's a video of Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone for the first time - note the audience reaction to the idea of a combined iPod and phone, the thought had just never occurred to anyone up until this point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnrJzXM7a6o

The Golden Miller

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

As others have said, it was the ability to combine multiple existing and extremely popular products.

I'd also say that integrating a full internet experience was crucial. Anyone who remember what WAP was like (before Nicki Minaj made it fun again) will know that it was an absolute feckin' nightmare to use. Incredibly slow, most websites couldn't hack it, etc.

The one thing that I always felt would hold the iPhone back was Jobs' public spat with Adobe which led to Flash Player being banned from the App Store. As anyone who was a frequent internet user in the 2000s will know, Flash was absolutely integral to pretty much everything multimedia - for instance, the lack of Flash on the iPhone meant that initially, you couldn't run YouTube, RTE Player, videos on News Websites, etc. It was a major, major missing feature for a device which claimed to replicate the full internet on a phone, but as it turns out, just over a decade later the iPhone is still insanely popular and Flash has just been nuked by Adobe. I'd posit that Jobs won this war and that Flash's demise is a direct consequence of a device which refused to support it becoming the dominant way people communicate over the internet. Sure, Flash had its security flaws like most software, but IMO the primary reason these stopped being patched and it was allowed to fall apart so spectacularly was because Adobe wasn't bothered funding the ongoing maintenance and development of a software platform which was incompatible with devices which were beginning to account for a gigantic chunk of total internet traffic.

Here's a video of Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone for the first time - note the audience reaction to the idea of a combined iPod and phone, the thought had just never occurred to anyone up until this point.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MnrJzXM7a6o

Sony had merged their walkman music player to their phone years before this. The idea had been thought of. Another case of wrapping up what already existed with nice aesthetic frills

TenLeftFingers

I had a Sony Experia and Samsung S3. I'd gotten used to the various snags with each of them until I gradually realised the my wife's iPhone didn't have any of those issues.

When I finally got one, I missed the ability to customize and run emulators. But it did the basics better and saved me time so I stuck with it.

jmcc

AMKC wrote: »

Already existed so it was not that. What was it?

The interface was instinctive. The web browser was a real web browser rather than a cut down one with limited functionality. It was available (initially in the US) with an Internet access bundle from telcos when accessing the Internet on a mobile device was really expensive.

Marketing was important but people became addicted to their iPhone and it also became a status symbol. Some of the larger mobile phone manufacturers had invested in their own top level domain (.MOBI) and Apple effectively nuked it with the iPhone by making .COM the default option for browsing. The .MOBI was an attempt to impose a kind of mobile web standard but the size and resolution of the iPhone screen combined with a web browser that could work on ordinary website effectively caught all these other players by surprise.

Regards...jmcc

Junkyard Tom

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7s664NsLeFM

Grab All Association

I can remember 2007 when it launched. I’m ashamed to admit I bought one. It spent the remainder of its life in the drawer battery swelled up inside it. Ffs there was no 3G or Video calling, ****e camera etc. I gave them another chance when the iPhone 4 was released. Still wasn’t perfected at that point. The Nokia N8 was a far superior machine that year and I bought one. 16GB storage, 12mp camera, 3G calling, made in Finland! It took other manufacturers years to match those specs. It was until the iPhone 5s was released that I took Apple seriously. It wasn’t long after the Snowden revelations when Apple started taken privacy of its customers seriously. iOS 7 too got rid of those silly 3D graphics for a cleaner flat design. Build quality improved significantly. Since then I’ve stuck with them because 99% of all my work is done on a laptop. I want a HMD Nokia 8.3 but can’t seem to find them in stock unlocked.

Wanderer78

Bring together a whole pile of technology, in which a significant proportion of it was invented by public sector institutions and/or with public money, and made a handful of people extremely wealthy, nice job!

hatrickpatrick

The Golden Miller wrote: »

Sony had merged their walkman music player to their phone years before this. The idea had been thought of. Another case of wrapping up what already existed with nice aesthetic frills

Have you got a link to the aforementioned Sony device? Specifically, did it have a whole-device touchscreen or one of those annoying plastic keyboards, and did it support multiple touches? Because anyone who used touch screen devices prior to the iPhone will remember that the idea of using them day to day for anything complicated like typing or texting would have put most people off - they tended to be slow and glitchy, and as Jobs mentions in his presentation, requiring the use of a stylus. Texting at the kind of light-speed you can do on an iPhone would have been totally impractical.

Of course, it's possible that Sony solved all of these issues before Apple, but I've googled a bit and can't find any specific products that Sony put out there with this functionality, just articles about how Apple may have stolen Sony's ideas.

Grab All Association

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Have you got a link to the aforementioned Sony device? Specifically, did it have a whole-device touchscreen or one of those annoying plastic keyboards, and did it support multiple touches? Because anyone who used touch screen devices prior to the iPhone will remember that the idea of using them day to day for anything complicated like typing or texting would have put most people off - they tended to be slow and glitchy, and as Jobs mentions in his presentation, requiring the use of a stylus. Texting at the kind of light-speed you can do on an iPhone would have been totally impractical.

Of course, it's possible that Sony solved all of these issues before Apple, but I've googled a bit and can't find any specific products that Sony put out there with this functionality, just articles about how Apple may have stolen Sony's ideas.

Note that they were called Sony Ericsson Walkman. Candy bar devices. I have a number of old Sony Ericsson phones here in my museum from the period I can show you later.

Gregor Samsa

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Have you got a link to the aforementioned Sony device? Specifically, did it have a whole-device touchscreen or one of those annoying plastic keyboards, and did it support multiple touches?

I think the poster is just talking about the idea of combining a phone with a music player. Sony Ericsson had been using the Walkman branding since the W800 Walkman in 2005, which was very much a candybar phone. But it looked or acted or functioned nothing like an iPhone. Sony Ericsson didn't release a full-device touchscreen phone until the Satio in 2009, although the Sony Ericsson Xperia X1 from 2008 had a large touchscreen that had a physical qwerty keyboard hidden behind it that could slide out.

People will rightly point out that X did such and such first, and Y had this or that previously. Apple very clearly originated the entire "package" of a smart phone, and the entire industry has been following that for the past 15 years or so. Apple certainly overplays it's hand in what it claims to be novel features, but their detractors also overplay theirs in denying the importance of their vision and execution.

Facebook wasn't the first social network. Google wasn't the first search engine. Amazon wasn't the first eCommerce store. Windows wasn't the first GUI operating system. Success and influence doesn't depend on being the first. It depends on having the right idea, at the right time, with the right execution. Either harnessing or creating the zeitgeist. Apple have proven to be very, very successful at that on multiple fronts - and that's not just down to clever marketing.

Ash.J.Williams

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXq9NTjEdTo

Gregor Samsa

The Golden Miller wrote: »

Apple have pioneered pretty much nothing in their history. They were going bankrupt until the success of the iPod.

This is not the case. Here's Apple's financial results for the quarter just before the iPod was announced in October 2001. $66 million in profit for that quarter alone. Apple was indeed nearly bankrupt in the mid '90s, but by 1998 they were back in the black - long before their iPhones, iPods, iPads and subscription services. Remember how popular the original iMacs were?

Homelander

I resisted switching to touch screen phones for a long time. Absolutely loved the Nokia Symbian phones, had most of them right from the original 7650, last one I had was the N96. Amazing phones, and the OS was way ahead of its time compared to other phones of the era. Infinite third party apps and games, emulators, ports of stuff like Doom/Quake, etc.

I paid an extortionate amount of money for the 7650 but it had a VGA camera, video recording, and could run games including a cut down version of Doom 2 and emulators, back when a lot of people were still using black and white phones. That phone blew my mind, ended up buying a mountain of successive Symbian devices, think I had the N96 until about 2010 when I begrudgingly made the switch to touchscreen.

Anytime I try to use an Apple product I'm just baffled at how it's designed. But then I realise that if I didn't already know about computers then the Apple way would actually make sense.
Specifically on phone OSes I had a friend's old Nokia Lumia a few years ago to tide me over. Windows phone was so fast, silky smooth, great battery life and logical that if it could have gained a foothold I think it could have been the most popular OS, it was so much better than I'd expected and it was on an old, outdated handset.

The Golden Miller

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Have you got a link to the aforementioned Sony device? Specifically, did it have a whole-device touchscreen or one of those annoying plastic keyboards, and did it support multiple touches? Because anyone who used touch screen devices prior to the iPhone will remember that the idea of using them day to day for anything complicated like typing or texting would have put most people off - they tended to be slow and glitchy, and as Jobs mentions in his presentation, requiring the use of a stylus. Texting at the kind of light-speed you can do on an iPhone would have been totally impractical.

Of course, it's possible that Sony solved all of these issues before Apple, but I've googled a bit and can't find any specific products that Sony put out there with this functionality, just articles about how Apple may have stolen Sony's ideas.

The Xperia x1 I think. As someone else said, had the option of keyboard if you didn't like the touchscreen. I suppose Sony always accommodated people when they moved technology forward, not forced them to move like removing headphone jack, keyboard etc.

You say it sarcastically like Sony couldn't have done it first. Sony have always done it first, across the board. They were marker leader for 40 odd years, and pioneered from the front. Most of what they've done has been outright copied. I'd say if you got an iPhone today, much of the hardware like cameras is Sony too

iMage.

The Golden Miller

Gregor Samsa wrote: »

This is not the case. Here's Apple's financial results for the quarter just before the iPod was announced in October 2001. $66 million in profit for that quarter alone. Apple was indeed nearly bankrupt in the mid '90s, but by 1998 they were back in the black - long before their iPhones, iPods, iPads and subscription services. Remember how popular the original iMacs were?

Fair enough, I don't have the ins and outs of financial quarters. They simply weren't the giant they are now, or even close. The smartphone market and development of the iPhone directly stems from the iPods success which changed the company. And their success stems directly from Sony pushing the wrong technology, even though they had invented the mp3 player.

It was a costly mistake on Sonys part to ignore their mp3 walkman for the mini disc player and Apple got in. Sony also compounded matters with buggy software when they did push their mp3, whereas Apples iTunes was seemless. That was the end of Sony as market leader. No one could have enviosionged how important that market was to come. Sony had one of the biggest falls from graces we've ever seen since. People forget, Sony were what Apple are now, but they actually invented.

Tech market will be a far worse off place if Sony ever go under. As I said, your Samsung's and Apples still go to them for hardware advances. Quality wise, their hardware is still the best at what they do

hatrickpatrick

The Golden Miller wrote: »

The Xperia x1 I think. As someone else said, had the option of keyboard if you didn't like the touchscreen. I suppose Sony always accommodated people when they moved technology forward, not forced them to move like removing headphone jack, keyboard etc.

You say it sarcastically that Sony couldn't have done it first. Sony have always done it first, across the board. They were marker leader for 40 odd years, and pioneered from the front. Most of what they've done has been outright copied. I'd say if you got an iPhone today, much of the hardware like cameras is Sony too

Wasn't being sarcastic at all, genuinely went digging around and couldn't find anything on it. The Xperia x1 was announced in 2008 by the way, whereas the iPhone was unveiled in early-2007.

The closest thing to an iPhone-era smartphone I can find before the iPhone was announced is the LG Prada, which was announced about a month before the iPhone. As for why this didn't become the dominant smartphone instead of the iPhone, one could point to Apple's branding and marketing, or as others have mentioned, the iphone's advancements in touchscreen technology. A few articles comparing the two note that the LG Prada's touchscreen operated like a classic stylus-based touchscreen without a stylus, so no multi-touch, few swipe gestures, etc. Based on the keynote announcing the iPhone, apple were really relying on the advanced touchscreen technology from the iPhone as the primary selling point apart from the integration of iPod and phone.

The Golden Miller

hatrickpatrick wrote: »

Wasn't being sarcastic at all, genuinely went digging around and couldn't find anything on it. The Xperia x1 was announced in 2008 by the way, whereas the iPhone was unveiled in early-2007.

The closest thing to an iPhone-era smartphone I can find before the iPhone was announced is the LG Prada, which was announced about a month before the iPhone. As for why this didn't become the dominant smartphone instead of the iPhone, one could point to Apple's branding and marketing, or as others have mentioned, the iphone's advancements in touchscreen technology. A few articles comparing the two note that the LG Prada's touchscreen operated like a classic stylus-based touchscreen without a stylus, so no multi-touch, few swipe gestures, etc. Based on the keynote announcing the iPhone, apple were really relying on the advanced touchscreen technology from the iPhone as the primary selling point apart from the integration of iPod and phone.

Fair enough, I'm just recalling from memory how I remembered things changing at the time. So I looked it up just now, Sony had a touchscreen phone as far back as 04, the p910. It wasn't a touchscreen only phone as you say, but a precursor I suppose. They had the technology but the difference between both companies is perspective I suppose.

Sony like to incorporate old and new technology in one, like the combined VCR/DVD players. Apple want an in-house eco system of Apple only products. They ditch previous technology and force you to adapt, whereas Sony incorporate old and new and then phase out technology. But if you think Apple "got there first" in this market, then I really don't think so. Similarly, having the idea to amalgamate the music player to phone, Sony did it first. As with most home entertainment.

Apple's opportunistic success, has aligned with Sony's downfall which is a shame. The latter brings much more to the table, in forward thinking and quality

Schindlers Pissed

I always liked Nokia phones up until iPhone was launched, that last one I had was the N95 which I liked. A buddy of mine liked to jailbreak his iPhone so he could install third party apps and free stuff, it never bothered me. I just like things that work, and are easy to use. I think they really brought touchscreen to a new level, before that you were stabbing a screen to try activate a function.....also, internet on WAP or whatever was a disaster....remember trying to download a ringtone??

My first iPhone was the iPhone 3G and I've been with apple ever since.

I'll tell you what apple are good at: entrapment! I'm now in the apple fly trap....I use iPhone, my photos are in iCloud, I have an Apple Watch since they were launched, and I use a MacBook at home and I have Apple TV. Oh, and I use an iPad Mini with my drone.....but I don't really mind, because everything talks to each other and I don't mind paying for ease of use. I suppose if I was a true Techie I'd like Android more, but I have a Android as my work phone and I don't like it at all.....

Junkyard Tom

Always thought iPhones were a bit camp.

Leftwaffe

Up to 18 months ago I was completely anti-Apple. I owned a budget Chinese phone. I resisted Apple because of the sandboxing of iOS. I wanted to pirate apps on android, download my own music etc. I felt the prices were extortionate for what you’re getting.

Today I own a iPhone 12 Pro Max, iPad Pro, Apple Watch, Airpods, an M1 MacBook Pro and 2 HomePod minis. What changed? Well I started using iOS for work and realised how good it was. I also found that I can do almost everything on iOS that I could on Android and more. The build quality is absolutely amazing and everything just works. Syncing of all apps and files. My former budget phone feels like a plastic kids toy compared to my current one.

I still feel the prices are too high but if you’re in to tech, Apple is where it’s at IMO.

Grab All Association

What really saved Apple were a number of things. The USA v Microsoft antitrust lawsuit. Despite the marketing Gates and Jobs had worked together in the past and propping up Apple made Microsoft look less like a monopoly. Don’t forget the very successful iMac G3 and iBook g3 released 1998/9. Manufacturing of PCBs had shifted from the USA and Ireland to Asia around that period. Apple were back on their feet when the iPod launched

Last of their notebooks made in Ireland was the PowerBook G3 (Wall Street) in 1997. I bought one second hand a decade ago, it’s still running great, a testament to the build quality here in Ireland.