Five years ago today Apple changed the world of smartphones and mobile computing forever.

[onehandle]

Steve at his best. Watch this and witness how completely amazed the crowd was.

#!

A smartphone retrospective

This is what high-end smartphones looked like in 2007:



Smartphones were an established consumer-electronics market with devices that people thought were pretty cool, but often frustrating and with serious shortcomings and design flaws.

Then this happened:



http://www.marco.org/2010/08/19/a-smartphone-retrospective

[tledford]

1. Actually...

HTC released the Touch with Windows Mobile 6 on June 5, 2007, over three weeks before the first iPhone was released (June 29).

Beware the Apple kool-aid.

[onehandle]

2. LOL! Windows Mobile 6! Yeah, that's the same.

So funny.

The smart thing that Windows did was dump everything they did then and took their time to weakly catch up, sorta. HTC, Samsung, Google and others are about to pay Apple A LOT of money for simply stealing from Apple to get to market.

[tledford]

8. Facts are SO annoying and get SO much in the way ...

... of what we want reality to be. Just ask the average Fox News viewer.

[LanternWaste]

43. Interpretation of the facts is subjective.

Interpretation of the facts is rather subjective, and may also interfere with our perceptions of reality.

(six of one and half a dozen of the other, you see...)

[still_one]

12. Really, and Apple didn't steal the concept of the MAC interface from Xerox, huh? How about the Treo

that was the first real smart phone. PCs for the masses were because of Bill Gates, who made it affordable for the personal user.

No question that Apple took existing ideas, inovated them, and turned them into more usable interfaces for the masses

However, as far as the development environment goes, at least currently, Microsoft is light years ahead of everyone else with the Visual Studio, their .net languages such as C# and respective tools associated with the development environment, Apple doesn't even come close.

[cliffordu]

15. BZZZT. Wrong answer!! Gates had NOTHING to do with making PC's affordable for the masses.

That would have been the folks manufacturing IBM clones.

Bill just got a little vigorish every time DOS got loaded on one of those machines. Which for years was EVERY time.

[still_one]

26. Technically you are correct about the hardware, but it was the software and development environment

which made it accessable and usable.

Ask any developer today which IDE is better?

[bananas]

49. It was Steve Ciarcia, he wrote articles explaining how to build a PC clone

"Ciarcoa's Circuit Cellar" was a well-known monthly column for electronics hobbyists,
shortly after the IBM PC came out,
he gave detailed instructions on how build a PC clone,
including the BIOS.

When anyone could build it at home, manufacturers had to sell it cheap.

Wozniak sold the Apple I as a DIY kit for hobbyists.

[cliffordu]

88. There you go!

I NEVER would have remembered that guy....

[nadinbrzezinski]

22. You know I cannot buy a windows branded computer even today

at the Windows store (which is a bad copy of a mac one... yup, same mall, five store fronts from each other, funny stuff).

So the people who made those boxes affordable were the MANUFACTURERS who loaded windows on them... and the cost of the OEM licence was the same regardless of who it was.

But you knew this.

[still_one]

27. Yes I did know that, but it was usable software that made it viable /nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

28. And windows, by your argument, came from IBM

Gates borrowed it.

(In reality Gates borrowed this from IBM, while his counterparts at Apple borrowed the Mouse, this is for completeness sake)

In reality both companies did yeoman's work to get the technology into the hands of people, and future historians of Technology will recognize BOTH equally.

Call it a sneaky, but I also doubt those historians will be working on either Mac or Win machine.

[still_one]

89. Actually it was Kendel with CP/M where IBM and MSFT evolved on the PCs. The transformation occurred

when MSFT split from IBM's OS2 and went NT.

I do agree with your assessment completely though

[jmowreader]

31. PCs for the masses were because of Phoenix Technologies

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenix_Technologies

In your computer is a program called the Basic Input/Output System, or BIOS. It is the program that tells your computer's microprocessor it's in a computer rather than a traffic light, a dishwasher or a brake system. And for the first few years of the PC's existence, the only 100-percent IBM-compatible BIOS available was made by IBM. There were a couple of problems with this, one being that real IBM PCs were expensive, the other that real IBM PCs were only available from stores IBM thought good enough to sell their products. You couldn't walk into Kmart or an appliance store and buy an IBM PC. (The flipside is, the stores IBM thought good enough could actually fix the damn thing if something went wrong...not that much COULD have, since a Genuine IBM PC was built like an anvil.)

There were other computers that ran MS-DOS, but those "compatibles" ran only software that was coded very strictly for MS-DOS (which meant it couldn't directly call the hardware, and all the good DOS software does that) or software that was made specifically for your model of computer.

Phoenix Technologies decided to make a version of the BIOS that wouldn't infringe on IBM's copyright. They formed two teams of engineers: one had access to the IBM programming manuals for the PC, and they wrote specifications for each thing the BIOS does. They handed these specifications to the other team, who were chosen because they'd never read the IBM documentation. The second team wrote the BIOS.

Without this software, no PC clones could have been made and without it Windows wouldn't have been successful--anyone who could afford a $5000 piece of equipment could also run it from the command line.

[nadinbrzezinski]

32. I do remember the Phoenix BIOS in my sister's AT, 286

that thing was still close to 3K... and stats wise, anybody wants to laugh?

It even ran a Word Processor (from the floppy, kids should go ask what those were), that no longer exist.

Irony moment, I was so afraid of breaking it. These days I am the tech, and she is afraid of breaking them.

[jayfish]

45. LOL! iOS is rip-off of PalmOS.

...an OS developed in 1996. WTG Apple!!!

[onehandle]

46. If that was true, then Palm should have sued Apple...

...instead of circling the drain.

And btw, I loved Palm. There are still aspects of the system I remember with fondness.

My Handspring Visor Edge sits on a shelf in my office in a place of high respect. I can still feel the metal beauty in my hand.

[MattBaggins]

52. What are you talking about?

Apples frivolous lawsuits instead of competing?

Which dumbass claim are we talking about?
That Samsung should have made it's phones triangles since apple invented the rectangle?

Rounded and beveled corners that are well known engineering structural design?

Making the area surrounding screens black so as not to distract from the screen? A concept predating anything Apple thought up?

Apple's lawsuits are a petty childish ploy.

[REP]

3. I remember that phone!

Oh wait. I don't. Because I got one that works. (It STILL works).

[nadinbrzezinski]

11. While I was a fan of Windows mobile, all the way to Windows CE

(For the record that little HP device WORKED very well, would not mind... oh never mind, the IPAD does the same better), most people did not flock to Win 6.0 or later devices.

There were two points they COULD HAVE done that. For example when they released devices about the size of a small netbook running WIN 4.0 I think, but the marketing was never there, and yes I WANTED ONE, just could not find it. Which was the other problem, distribution.

If I had to buy a smart phone right now... I'd get an Iphone, not a windows device. No, not hype, My IPOD, not a phone, still works.

[still_one]

14. There is also an Android phone which is NOT a windows device, and a viable alternative /nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

18. Yeah but I know enough apps that run on apple

that just work for my needs, including fiction writing apps, one of which is pretty sophisticated.

I don't feel like chasing for apps.

[still_one]

24. understood /nt

[MattBaggins]

54. They may be more perception than reality

Apple has more android apps because they have 20 tic tac toe apps as opposed to Androids 5.

[nadinbrzezinski]

93. No, there are no creative writing apps on the android

and nothing like the one I use...

They are that specialized.

[Canuckistanian]

84. Ah yes, Windows CE

Once known as "WinCE" to developers who hated it.

[cliffordu]

13. Can you get me one of those?

I'd really like one!!

A new one!! Upgraded!!!

[Snake Alchemist]

4. If I told you the guy who invented the refrigerator died, how would you react?

A salient Twitter post I saw.

[REP]

5. "He's on ice now"

[LadyHawkAZ]

21. BWAHAHA! +1 n/t

[bigwillq]

57. LOL

[we can do it]

6. Very Nice

he looks so healthy (compare it to the ipad intro video)

[marmar]

7. Apple thanks you for the free ad time.

[Nye Bevan]

9. YES. Because after reading this post I am going to buy an iPhone.

And I never would have thought to buy one otherwise.

[Heywood J]

10. Five years ago? Is that when Apple banned the first app they didn't approve of?

Was that when they decided you shouldn't have the choice to use Flash? Or was that when the phone stopped working when you held it in your hand? Or is that when the first Chinese worker committed suicide rather than make them under slave-labor conditions?

[cliffordu]

16. self delete

Can't get it up to argue.

[onehandle]

17. Flash? Five years ago, Steve Jobs that Flash was a 'bag of hurt' for mobile.

It took Adobe that long to conclude that their ancient technology was indeed, bad for mobile and ended its development.

LOL!

Oh and Foxconn makes tech for everybody. All phones and computers are made by slave labor in China.

Feel free to abandon whatever box you are on.

Lastly, Android and Microsoft are banning apps and developers.

[Heywood J]

19. You mean the one whose parts I picked because they were made outside the PRC?

And how you didn't address the rest of the points, such as the censorship? Although, I guess with such a witty repartee as "Flash is ancient", I shouldn't be surprised.

[MattBaggins]

59. All phones and computers are made by slave labor in China.

not a true statement

[MattBaggins]

71. So you agree that they are not all made in China

[MattBaggins]

81. More than aware

[nadinbrzezinski]

20. two points

1.- Is flash under active development any longer?

2.- Feel free to stop using your box right now, whatever you are typing on. Yes slavery is an issue but it is not Apple Specific. As the joke goes, the morning shift produces your iphone, the afternoon shift your samsumg.

Oh and censorship... there is a reason I don't have to worry about viruses on Apple... and they are pretty much going to publish almost anything. Yes, I know a few devs who were on the Android is best bandwagon until they ran into the issues of an open garden. They now grumble around but develop for Apple.

[Puzzler]

33. FYI: the plural of "virus" is "viruses" ...

... even if the plural ended with an "i" it would only be one "i" and not "ii". (If it were to have two "i's" the singular would be "virius" like "radius&quot .

[MattBaggins]

69. It is not virii

it is viruses and has been for a while when the word was used by biologists.

Virus from the ancient latin was both a mass noun and an irregular one. It is a natural plural word that was borrowed.

You say campuses and anuses or campi and ani?

[SidDithers]

23. K&R...

Never really liked working on a Mac, but I love my iPhone.

Sid

[Major Hogwash]

25. Good thread.

It is an amazing phone. No doubt about it.

[downwardly_mobile]

29. All hail the Great and Powerful Jobs!

Honestly, this kind of stuff is puke-worthy.

Forget the fact that Jobs was a deadbeat dad, that he exploited Wozniak, that he ripped off his first big idea from Xerox, or that the factories in China that make the iCrap had to put up suicide nets. What really gets my goat is not the man himself, but the Jobs-worship.

And make no mistake, what Apple has been for the past decade, what makes its products so "special" is nothing more than the blindingly obvious fact that these products are nothing more and nothing less than class markers for the contemporary American upper-middle class.

They can drive Priuses, they can join CSAs and pay premium prices for their ramps and arugula, they can afford to subsidise their post-collegiate children for at least a few staycationing hipster years in Williamsburg or Silver Lake, but nothing is quite so talismanic as the latest, most expensive Apple product: is it the iPhone 4S at this point? It's so hard to keep up.

[REP]

34. Actually, I drive a Nissan 350Z and I don't have kids

The rest of your post is equally on target.

[Joe the Revelator]

36. So you have a Blackberry, huh?

[closeupready]

42. +1000.

nt

[bullwinkle428]

91. I bought arugula at Wal-Mart earlier this evening...just saying.

[downwardly_mobile]

92. See, that's the problem right there -- arugula used to be a good upper-middle-class marker --

But now it's gotten so common that you can buy it all Wal-Mart! That's why the UMC are all members of CSAs now -- so they can ostentatiously overpay for their arugula.

It's like with Starbucks. In the 90s, Starbucks was great for the UMC. Now though, all these wannabe little cubicle rats pick up a latte on the way the cubicle farm. So now the UMC has to look down on Starbucks, and all their coffee has to be Moose Jaw or Stumpytown or something.

That's what's so great about Apple -- they keep updating! So now they have the "4S" phone -- Siri, the voice of the top 10%!

[stevenleser]

30. I think the Treo was the big leap, 5 years before the iPhone

The idea of having a decent internet browser, PDA, phone and lots of useable apps was done in 2002.

iPhone took advantage of faster mobile internet speeds, faster processors and miniaturization of graphics, but the underlying idea was 5 years old by the time iPhone came out.

[REP]

62. Yup.

[stevenleser]

85. You cant point to failed products as great leaps forward

The Treo was first and Palm sold a ton of them 5 years before iPhone appeared.

Treo was the first combination phone, PDA, music player, mobile internet browsing platform and touchscreen with tons of apps.

iPhone wasn't the great leap forward, it had already been done successfully.

[stevenleser]

87. No, I never asserted that. I said that the great leap forward was the Treo nt

[eShirl]

35. great marketing

[bowens43]

37. with aid of Chinese child labor.....

Apple is almost as evil as Microsoft

[JCMach1]

38. My Samsung Blackjack was working just fine at that time...

They only thing iPhone did was popularize touch screens.

And for the most part, Samsung is still better than the iBrand...

[onehandle]

39. iPhone satisfaction at 75%; closest competitor (Samsung) at 47%

The word isn't 'popularize,' it's 'revolutionize.' Samsung is about to lose their pants to Apple for infringement.



http://www.loopinsight.com/2012/01/09/iphone-satisfaction-at-75-closest-competitor-at-47

[JCMach1]

40. Samsung can take care of itself

Apple will have to post a mammoth number of iPhone sales for the holiday quarter to regain its position as the world's largest smartphone maker.

Samsung reported earnings today, and according to Reuters it is "forecasted" to have shipped 35 million smartphones for Q4. Bloomberg has an estimate of 32 million smartphones sold in the quarter.

Samsung doesn't release exact stats on its smartphone sales.

Regardless, if Apple wants to be crowned the world's biggest smartphone seller for Q4, it's going to have to ship 35 million iPhones.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/samsung-smartphone-sales-2012-1#ixzz1j4JBUDnt


My current phone is a Motorola Defy because I need a heavy duty phone... I am rough on them. I am also an Apple hater from way back. The number of times the old Apple IIe's crashed taught me a valuable lesson about Apple that still holds true: OVERRATED

[onehandle]

41. Apple's business plan is not market share, but profit share.

And they dominate there capturing two thirds of profit in smartphones. Pretty good for a company with only 3 models, one of which is almost four years old.

Apple (an American company) was #1 in market capitol last year. Samsung (a Korean Company) was #36.

Just wait until Apple starts getting checks from Samsung, HTC, Google etc. Analysts have been advising Apple to go for a settlement of ten dollars or more for each phone sold by infringing competitors.

Let them sell as many as they want. KA-CHING!

[JCMach1]

44. Share price... I know which one I would buy!

It has yet to be seen how Apple plays out over time with Jobs gone.

If you love Apple, diety bless you and your overpriced product. Enjoy.

Me, I am sticking with whatever is the most open and affordable product that will do the job.

[onehandle]

48. Whoops. NPD: iPhone surged, Android slipped in Oct. and Nov.

Apple's getting all market share-y again.



http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/01/09/npd-iphone-surged-android-slipped-in-oct-and-nov

[MattBaggins]

68. How about worlwide sales

Oh that's right iPhone users aren't aware of a world outside of themselves much less America.

I'm sorry Apple. I actually like your products and innovations. It's your users that make me hate you.

[MattBaggins]

67. Just wait for Samsung to tell Apple to piss off

and remove their chips from iPhones

[onehandle]

90. Apple is a major client, so unlikely. nt

[Dreamer Tatum]

47. Oh brother

You mean Apple finally came out with a phone for its fanboys and legions of tweens.

Wow.

Most Android phones leave Apple in the dust. Enjoy downloading exactly what your masters
approve of.

[tledford]

61. Traded my iPhone for a Motorola Atrix (Android) and never looked back.

Does EXCELLENT VR and TTS and did it for months before the 4S and Siri.

[ddeclue]

55. Yawn... give me back a phone that actually works as a PHONE Steve...

All the "smart" phones today really aren't very much "phone" which doesn't make them very "smart" either.

If I am in a car accident I don't want to have to wait for my stupid smartphone to first hang instead of placing the call and then force me to pull the battery to restart it. I've actually had this with two versions of Blackberry and now an Android phone where the phone hangs and I'm forced to restart it or pull the battery.

I still keep my old 2008 vintage phone phone around because guess what:

1) The battery lasts for days at a time, not 8 hours at a time and it is rarely dead though my droid phone often is when I need it.
2) The phone WORKS without hesitating, it dials the number and places the call.

I have a computer.

I have a camera.

I need my phone to be a PHONE.

[ddeclue]

63. you mean the iPhones where if I hold them funny they lose the signal?

or the ones with the batteries built in so that you cannot remove them and have to pay someone 100 to change out an old and weak battery? or the ones with the 4 hour battery life?

iPhones don't impress me.. over priced status symbols and really no better for all that money.

[REP]

64. When someone ran a red light into my car, I was able to call 911 on my iPhone

Plowed into my front end, doing $9K in damage to my car. Bluetooth and phone worked, though

[ddeclue]

65. you are lucky..

[REP]

75. Yes. I came close to being killed by an idiot who can't see red (lights or my car)

With my iPhones? No luck there - all three have been problem-free.

[ddeclue]

80. that's the definition of lucky having a working iPhone..

[REP]

83. No - walking away from Buick Lucerne vs Nissan 350Z is!

I'm the 350Z ... so I'm double lucky

[ddeclue]

74. I have close friends who unfortunately do...

and hey my phone doesn't ever lose its signal with or without a case...

I'm planning to leave the smart phone world and just have a phone.

[REP]

76. I have a close friend who was molested by her Blackberry.

It's true.

[ddeclue]

78. don't particularly like them either. I've had a Storm I and a Storm II.

Right now I have a Droid X2 and a Motorola World Phone. I like the World Phone much better than any smart phone because it is a RELIABLE phone not a poor phone combined with a weak computer.

[REP]

82. I'm just teasing you. I am glad you have something you like (for real)

[Norrin Radd]

66. Oh, yeah?!

[MattBaggins]

72. Can you play angry brids on that?

pffttt