“Apple is notorious for not looking back. When an anniversary of a big product approaches, the company routinely bounces requests to reminisce. (‘I don’t think about that,’ was Jobs’s response to me, on the 25th anniversary of Macintosh in 2008),” Steven Levy reports for BackChannel. “In this case, Apple made an exception: last week I sat down with its senior vp of world wide marketing, Phil Schiller, who joined the company’s leadership team in April 1997, coincident with Steve Jobs’s return. Schiller had been deeply involved in the iPhone’s development and launch.”
“Schiller pushed back when I suggested that the iPhone’s great moment came when Apple threw open the gates to developers and we learned that for every imaginable activity, as well as some previously unimaginable ones, there was ‘an app for that,” Levy reports. “‘That undervalues how earth-shattering the iPhone was when it first came to market, and we all first got them and fell in love with them,’ he says. ‘iPhone made the idea of a smartphone real. It really was a computer in your pocket. The idea of real internet, real web browser, MultiTouch. There were so many things that are core to what is the smartphone today, that created a product that customers fell in love with, that then also demanded more stuff on them, more apps.'”
“During the gestation period of the iPhone, Apple hosted a spirited internal debate,” Levy reports. “Some advocated that the device be an open system, like the Macintosh, and others advised a more closed system, like the iPod. The argument was put on hold when the engineers realized that even if the open-system adherents won the debate, it would be impossible to implement in time for the launch. Steve Jobs shut down the discussion, Schiller recalls. ‘He said ‘We don’t have to keep debating this because we can’t have [an open system] right now. Maybe we’ll change our mind afterwards, or maybe we won’t, but for now there isn’t one so let’s envision this world where we solve the problem with great built-in apps and a way for developers to make web apps.””
“Can Apple ever top the iPhone — create a product that creates a category that changes the way we live the way this one has in the last ten years?” Levy asks. “Schiller hopes that 50 years people will look back at this point and say, ‘Wow, they didn’t realize how much was to come — in fact, others missed it because they were busy running around looking for other things. Everyone has their opinions at this point, but it could be that we’re only in the first minutes of the first quarter of the game,’ he says. ‘I believe this product is so great that it has many years of innovation ahead.'”
Much more in the full interview here.
MacDailyNews Take: How did we first see Apple’s iPhone the day it was unveiled?
Like this:
The only thing really wrong with Apple’s iPhone is its name
By SteveJack, January 9, 2007
Apple really only botched one thing with the iPhone – its name.
Oh sure, you can argue that the top model’s 8GB of storage is too small, but with 6 months to go that spec (and others) can and probably will change; Apple isn’t even taking pre-orders on the device, yet. So things can change. One thing’s for sure, Apple has frozen a nice chunk of the smartphone market, not to mention some of the iPod market, too.
Back to the naming issue: Apple’s “iPhone” isn’t really a phone at all. It’s really a small touchscreen Mac OS X computer, a Mac nano tablet, if you will. Here’s how misnamed the iPhone is: Some people are complaining that Jobs didn’t spend enough time on the Mac in his keynote! Folks, iPhone is not only a Mac, it’s the most radical new Mac in years! What’s to stop Apple from making a 12-inch model (and larger, and smaller) one of these days (use the headset for the phone, please) and calling it a Mac tablet?
It has an iPod built in, yes, so it can be used solely as a “true video widescreen iPod,” if that’s what you want. And even using it just like that, the price is about right. It also has a smartphone built in, too; except this smartphone’s UI actually makes sense and is usable. Even if you just use it as a smartphone, the price is right, too.
But, the main thing about the “iPhone” is that it’s really a pocket Mac. It has email, SMS, full-featured Web browsing, and much more. But, beyond that, it is a platform that’s just sitting there waiting for Apple to sell software for it. Just imagine games with the large multi-touch display and the built-in accelerometer!
Imagine all of the other software possibilities, too. Given Apple’s history with the iPod (closed to third-party developers), today I’d have to guess that they’ll keep the iPhone under tight control, too. Maybe that will change in the future, maybe not. Still, Apple could do a lot with the platform all by themselves. What about ringtones sold via Apple’s iTunes Store? With Wi-Fi onboard these things could beam data between each other like crazy. The possibilities are endless.
No matter how you look at it, for all that it can do even now, the device is very well priced and should fly off the shelves regardless of its name.
Maybe Apple named it iPhone because of all of the free publicity and buzz that name has already garnered. Maybe they want this trojan horse to slip into the market first under the guise of being the best smartphone available and they’ll exploit its capabilities as a full-fledged platform later. Perhaps it’s easier to explain and sell as a phone first. It probably would have been even easier to just have called it iPod (6G) and listed “iPhone” as a new iPod feature – that’s how they sold video, right?
I also have to wonder what will happen to Safari’s market share after the iPhone starts shipping. All of those iPhones hitting sites with their Safari browsers are going to have an impact if they’re counted properly. What about Mac OS X market share? Each iPhone is technically a Mac, right? If so, Apple will at least double their Mac shipments in the first year alone. Let’s hope IDC and Gartner count them all!
So, yeah, it can be a phone, even the very best smartphone, but it’s so much more and holds so much promise that the name “iPhone” hardly does it justice.
SteveJack is a long-time Macintosh user, web designer, multimedia producer and a regular contributor to the MacDailyNews Opinion section.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s iPhone celebrates 10 years – January 9, 2017
Is Apple building ‘The Device?’ [revisited] – January 9, 2007
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 9, 2007
Is Apple building ‘The Device?’ – December 10, 2002
Phil Schiller: “The best is yet to come”
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Tim Cook: “The pipeline is full”
You have a few choices…
You can gripe and gripe on this forum, achieving nothing in all likelihood.
You can gripe directly to Apple, or even join or form a user group to put some strength behind your concerns. That has a better chance of getting some kind of response.
You can leave the Mac ecosystem and start buying Android and Windows-based devices and services. That is called voting with your dollar, but it will only work if enough people agree with you to materially impact marketshare and profits.
While I agree that Apple could and should have executed better over the last few years, I was raised with a strong streak of loyalty and respect for prior accomplishments and sustained superior performance. Apple was incredibly productive and successful from 1998 through 2012 and it is not surprising that the company has hit a bit of a lull. That is not justification for trashing the company and its leadership. Some of the people on this forum have less patience than a 2 year old child. This immediate gratification disorder needs to be addressed.
Well put sir. I would respectfully add that it is a lull only compared the the incredible rise that preceded it. I think more accurately it should be compared to that moment when the main engines cut off and the vehicle coasts into orbit. Though Apple seems to have lost control of the narrative, I share your stated values, and have no doubt there is a lot more in store. Project Titan? Reading the hilariously wrong quotes from industry and press 10 years ago, I can easily see something similar on the horizon–“We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent [car]. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.” – hahahahaha 🙂
I’ve been on this forum since I don’t know when, 2004ish, and agree with you about the lack of maturity, btw. Thanks for your thoughtful post 🙂
KingMel,
“Apple was incredibly productive and successful from 1998 through 2012 and it is not surprising that the company has hit a bit of a lull.”
If you amended the first date to be 1998 and the second to be 2010 rather than what you have I’d strongly agree. The period 2010 through 2013 was marginal. The period after 2013 (with the possible exception of the 5K iMac) has been abysmal.
Having recently hit my limit with patience with Apple because of a 3-5 year lag in real innovation and the abandoning of several product areas that once made Apple Apple does not make me a 2 year old. (I’ll leave that to those who want a new iPhone every year, want a new Apple Watch every year, and want new Siri “innovations” every year.)
Phil granting an interview about the past 10 years of iPhone is a *PERFECT* example of what has changed at Apple in the last few years. Steve was 100% focused on the now and the future. He did not give a damn about history. He didn’t give a damn about what Apple did 10 years ago.
And, he didn’t give completely nebulous predictions of great things to come without something to back it up. So far, for the past couple of years, I’ve seen nothing to backup Phil’s assertions that great things are coming.
So yes, after 28 years of being an Apple supporter (and even an Evangelist [still have the shirt] during the dark days) I’ve become quite disillusioned.
I miss the days when SteveJack’s opinion pieces appeared more frequently. The MDN team and forum participants were more of a team then. Unfortunately, the forum has degenerated into a cesspool of political baiting, Cook haters, and general griping.
MDN was started by people who loved the Mac and the potential of the entire Apple ecosystem, and we enjoyed the honeymoon years of Apple rebirth with OS X and the iPod and iTunes and the iPhone and the fantastic new Apple laptops. The peak was reached around the time of the iPad release. During the past few years, it appears that the MDN marketing and financial people have taken over – advertisements, political clickbait, and controversy designed to increase revenues. Before you cast more stones at Apple and “pipeline” Timmy, MDN should take stock of its own house. What have you done for us lately, MDN?
Well… Cook is a knob IMO. Many Pro users want and demand a proper headless Mac. Apple doesn’t seem to give a flying fuck about pro/prosumer users anymore. :/
My comment was targeted at MDN. But I understand and sympathize with the concerns of the Mac community. I, too, am ready to purchase a new desktop Mac and I am waiting for something compelling to be released.
The pro community has valid and substantial gripes with respect to the Mac Pro. I am a strong supporter of the pro community – I like seeing the Mac used for scientific and creative endeavors…activities that change the world for the better. I also believe that pro users help to expand the Mac platform to a broader consumer base. You patience has been sorely tested, but I am still hopeful that the answer to (most) of your desires will be released soon. Some resentment may linger afterwards but, hopefully, much will be forgiven and fences will be largely mended.
The fault is not MDN’s entirely for the cesspool of comments here. We have to look at the world at large to see the degradation of civility and morality. In just over a week, we will see President Pussy Grabber in office, we see the world’s richest man / oligarch in Russia, we see the almost worship of Putin who was a communist by Trump and his ilk, we see other dictatorships taking root around the world, we see the further rise of the 1% and the fall of the middle class, we see the rise and fall of China (another communist country revered by the US).
The best strategy to follow in my opinion, is to personally rise above it and strive for civility and virtuosity as an example to others. I believe that the world will be clamouring for people of quality in the near future and we all have it in us to be those people.
“…we see the almost worship of Putin who was a communist by Trump and his ilk, we see other dictatorships taking root…”
We see the almost worship of Castro (past tense) by Obama and his ilk.
We see the almost worship of Xi Jinping by Cook and his ilk.
There, I fixed it for you. Remember, it works both ways … 🤖
KingMel,
To some extent you are right in this context.
As I complained a few times starting a few short years ago MDN was becoming more about Apple Stock News than about Apple’s products or the Mac/iPod/iPhone/iPad ecosystem. MDN was a willing participant on making people believe that the stock health (and by proxy the immediate cash returns at Apple) was the most important thing.
MDN should have (but didn’t) complain that Apple’s real focus should have been great products. Apple as a company comes second, because great products that customers love to buy and love to use creates a great company. It is NOT the other way around.
Both Apple and MDN lost sight of that.
Schiller’s famous last words.
So Apple is going to coast for 50 years? Not good!
Still impressive if you consider the Apple II was release less than 40 years ago.
“Apple has lost control of the narrative.” I don’t know. Reviews of its recent releases are overwhelmingly positive. Their adverts are quirky, endearing, and upbeat. High-end product placement in visual media keeps the Apple logo in the public eye and mind. Customer satisfaction is stellar, insuring loyalty repurchasing, and the brand is aspirational, eroding competitor market share.
The narrative that Apple is doomed (and its myriad subplots) may seem the dominant story overheard in roadhouse bragging contests over cheap ale and peanut shells. There are always secluded alleys where dread hangs in the air like stiffening laundry.
The narrative is a patchwork of FUD, busted expectations, bile, and stock price manipulation—a grubby blanket that tries to smother the truth: that Apple is golden.
But, one may protest, the narrative is supported by Facts! I say, Facts point the finger; statistics show the full hand.
Apple is most definitely NOT doomed. Even if Apple didn’t come out with another innovative product and, further, only did minor update to its various products, Apple would survive for another 10 – 15 years.
Could Apple become the next IBM or Nokia (both shadows of their former selves)? Yes. But it will take quite a while. In that period Apple has many, many chances to become THE start of this industry once again.
Your first-paragraph scenario is itself one of the “Apple is doomed” story variants: their feebleness dooms them to a slow decline into irrelevance.
All the doom scenarios fit one of two types. Today’s missteps prove that Apple is declining — or — today’s triumphs mark a peak, and it’s all downhill from here. The first type has been getting the most ink lately, but the second type is sure to proliferate in the 2017 cycle.
Mark my words.
Geez ‘o man. I’m in my best grizzled attire straddling a roadhouse barstool in search of cheap ale, and what, I forgot to talk about an Apple narrative with the working class Knights slaying the eight ball?
I’ll just have another round, please … 🍺
I think that —to some extend— Steve predicted the full success of the iPhone in 2007.
In Stanford’s speach en 2005 he said: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.”
He ‘knew’ that he could’t knew the results!
“Back to the naming issue: Apple’s “iPhone” isn’t really a phone at all. It’s really a small touchscreen Mac OS X computer, a Mac nano
tablet, if you will. ”
The modern name for a small palm sized computer is a “phone”.
With voice assistants starting to gain more mindshare and the phone functionality becoming a smaller percentage of total use, I wouldn’t be surprised if the modern name moved back to PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants).