Saw this on Reddit tonight - a 2007 "iPhone will fail" column

[pandemonium]

The entire article is written completely lacking the correct perspective to gain accuracy. Of course a British columnist will have the wrong viewpoint to see how a defensive product from America could captivate the masses' wallets.

A lot of the points he made were valid, to be honest. He just didn't know the tenacious nature of what one Jobs, fighting cancer and pushing to make his life's work of being a tremendous douchebag, not meaningless by the end of his time.

 

[darkewaffle]

iTunes only looked good seven years ago when the only other options on Windows was "MusicMatch" which was, unbelievably, worse

 

[MrX8503]

I disagree. You can say that BB/Symbian weren't as simple to use as the iphone, but in return they also offered more capabilities. Both sides of the argument were behind in something, whether user experience for the non-techy user, or capabilities for the tech-savvy user.

From what I remember, people lined up in herds for the original iphone launch. It may not have gotten the market share right away, but it was popular enough to get attention.

I don't think anyone said the original iPhone was more capable than BB/Symbian/WinMo, only that iOS was better designed and had user friendly UI. The UI was many years ahead of its time.

What's your theory of those 3 giants for falling to the wayside? The iPhone being popular? That's quite a stretch and the Apple cult isn't large enough to take that kind of marketshare away from MS/RIM/Nokia. If the capabilities and features of those old smarthphones made it an overall superior device, we'd still be using them. Obviously that's not the case and today we have iOS, WP7, and Android.

 

[Munky]

I don't think anyone said the original iPhone was more capable than BB/Symbian/WinMo, only that iOS was better designed and had user friendly UI. The UI was many years ahead of its time.

What's your theory of those 3 giants for falling to the wayside? The iPhone being popular? That's quite a stretch and the Apple cult isn't large enough to take that kind of marketshare away from MS/RIM/Nokia. If the capabilities and features of those old smarthphones made it an overall superior device, we'd still be using them. Obviously that's not the case and today we have iOS, WP7, and Android.

My theory is that the vast majority of people didn't need/want all the capabilities of BB/Symbian, and instead chose the iphone for its ease of use, or because their friends had one, or as a fashion gadget. Same with the car analogy, most people don't buy a car based on how well it accelerates and corners, hence the Camry outsold the RX7, but it doesn't mean the Camry was superior.

 

[Ns1]

My theory is that the vast majority of people didn't need/want all the capabilities of BB/Symbian, and instead chose the iphone for its ease of use, or because their friends had one, or as a fashion gadget. Same with the car analogy, most people don't buy a car based on how well it accelerates and corners, hence the Camry outsold the RX7, but it doesn't mean the Camry was superior.

Well, the Camry is a much more functional vehicle than the RX7.

 

[alent1234]

My theory is that the vast majority of people didn't need/want all the capabilities of BB/Symbian, and instead chose the iphone for its ease of use, or because their friends had one, or as a fashion gadget. Same with the car analogy, most people don't buy a car based on how well it accelerates and corners, hence the Camry outsold the RX7, but it doesn't mean the Camry was superior.

bingo

a lot of the features on older phones like BB's didn't work very well. using GPS anything in my old BB curve was cause to start drinking again. the multi-tasking was crap as well. one time i set up a twitter client on a BB and it was so active that it took 20 minutes to get an email in because ubertwitter took over the radio

people will go for fewer features that work well rather than a long list of features that don't work

 

[Suspicious-Teach8788]

My theory is that the vast majority of people didn't need/want all the capabilities of BB/Symbian, and instead chose the iphone for its ease of use, or because their friends had one, or as a fashion gadget. Same with the car analogy, most people don't buy a car based on how well it accelerates and corners, hence the Camry outsold the RX7, but it doesn't mean the Camry was superior.

Well the iPhone to me was the first with a real good touch interface. Apple has always struck home with a good hip product. The iPod already had like 85% of market dominance. If you look up all the other products it competd with like the Creative Zen, Nomad, Dell DJ, whatever the hell you want to name, all those products gave better battery, or even removable battery, better storage, better pricing..

But none had a good UI. The scroll wheel was still THE BEST way IMHO to navigate through the iPod. DPads, scroll wheels, vertical touch lines... what the hell were people thinking? The iPod had a good form factor and was small enough to carry everywhere easily.

The iPhone did less than many WinMo or Symbian phones. I listed like 20 features I could easily do on my phone that even today many phones lack, but that's not the point. People wanted to try something easy.

In the end I don't think its about features and capabilities. I think it's the reason I got a Mac too. In the end I can summarize 90% of my day as surfing, chatting, social networking, word processing, reading PDF documents, spreadsheet work, ppt editing, and all that can be done on a Mac just as easily as a PC. I could argue that today I want to flash my Crucial M4 SSD and that the easiest way to flash is to use the Windows 7 flash utility and it does it all automatically. But how often would I need to flash my SSD that my Mac presents SUCH a big restriction? Not that often.

So I guess its the same with the iPhone. If you surf, text, read your emails a lot at that time, the iPhone was enough. You could accomplish most of what you do on any other smartphone but do it in a NEW manner...touchscreen. I think that was enough to sell a good chunk of the crowd.

I on the other hand stood far away simply because I wanted to hold onto my features. How often did I tether? How often did I need my Xenon flash? Those are things I could live without and not really regret it honestly.

 

[Munky]

bingo

a lot of the features on older phones like BB's didn't work very well. using GPS anything in my old BB curve was cause to start drinking again. the multi-tasking was crap as well. one time i set up a twitter client on a BB and it was so active that it took 20 minutes to get an email in because ubertwitter took over the radio

people will go for fewer features that work well rather than a long list of features that don't work

Maybe they didn't work well in your case, but the original iphone had no GPS or multitasking to speak of, while some other phones had them functioning just fine.

For example, back when people were flashing their shiny iphone in 2008, I was using a Nokia e71, and despite constantly hearing from tech-noobs how Symbian was such and such stone age tech, it had rock-steady multitasking, spot-on GPS, full Bluetooth implementation, a still/video camera with LED flash, and came loaded with features like office document editing, expandable storage, and a physical QWERTY keyboard on which I could type faster than any virtual keypad.

Best of all, I was not locked into any proprietary ecosystem. I wasn't limited to Apple-approved apps, DRM-infested music downloads, or having to use my phone only with approved carriers, and only in one country. That's one of the reasons I continue to buy unlocked phones, and will not sign any 2-year service contract.

 

[Eug]

I on the other hand stood far away simply because I wanted to hold onto my features. How often did I tether?

Interestingly, tethering was included on stock iPhones on the Canadian iPhone plans, as long as you had a plan that the carriers considered sufficient in size. No need to jailbreak

For my carrier, you need a minimum of 1 GB to qualify for tethering, but at the time (after people complained about the otherwise crappy data plans), the carriers offered 6 GB plans for $30/month. I initially had that, but currently I'm on a 1 GB data plan for $20/month.

 

[Dulanic]

LOL this thread is so productive discussing 5 year old things...

 

[MrX8503]

For example, back when people were flashing their shiny iphone in 2008, I was using a Nokia e71, and despite constantly hearing from tech-noobs how Symbian was such and such stone age tech, it had rock-steady multitasking, spot-on GPS, full Bluetooth implementation, a still/video camera with LED flash, and came loaded with features like office document editing, expandable storage, and a physical QWERTY keyboard on which I could type faster than any virtual keypad.

....Which NONE of those features mattered because the UI experience was horrible. Why aren't you still using a Nokia Symbian device? Or WinMO/BBOS? Those phones have more capabilities than any iPhone or Android device.

 

[zerocool84]

....Which NONE of those features mattered because the UI experience was horrible. Why aren't you still using a Nokia Symbian device? Or WinMO/BBOS? Those phones have more capabilities than any iPhone or Android device.

Seriously, the UI was terrible. I had a Symbian phone. Not a good smartphone OS. There's a reason why Windows Mobile and Symbian are not being put in new phones.

 

[pandemonium]

....Which NONE of those features mattered because the UI experience was horrible. Why aren't you still using a Nokia Symbian device? Or WinMO/BBOS? Those phones have more capabilities than any iPhone or Android device.

Awfully presumptuous of you to say.

Seriously, the UI was terrible. I had a Symbian phone. Not a good smartphone OS. There's a reason why Windows Mobile and Symbian are not being put in new phones.

Was it, really? It took me 1/2 a day to learn everything inside and out of Anna (not using any manuals or guides online), and about the same for Belle. I think it took me all of 2-3 days to get completely used to S60v3. What UI doesn't take at least a few hours to get comfortable with? It all depends on what you're coming from and how open you are to the way things work. If you start using something with certain expectations and are immediately let down, giving up isn't the first thing I think of. Or whining about how horrible an experience it was.

If the Lumia 900 isn't a "new" phone, then I'd love to hear how you define new. Which, by the way, is in short supply due to demand.

 

[Munky]

....Which NONE of those features mattered because the UI experience was horrible. Why aren't you still using a Nokia Symbian device? Or WinMO/BBOS? Those phones have more capabilities than any iPhone or Android device.

If it was horrible I wouldn't have been using it, and neither would other Nokia users. Either all Nokia users are masochistic deviants who like to torture themselves and like their PC's running DOS... or you're perpetuating rumors spread by misinformed noobs.

Edit: And btw I still use Symbian Belle. Also have an Android tablet, and the two UI's are more similar than rumors would have you believe. Doesn't require a PhD in English to use it, and still has all the benefits of an unlocked, feature-loaded system.