“Steve Jobs would be proud of this one,” John Brandon writes for Computerworld. “10 years after the iPhone debuted, on June 28 of 2007, the smartphone that started it all is still going strong. From the latest sales figures I’ve seen, the phone has sold well over 1 billion units worldwide.”
“My own fascination with the “Jesus phone” (as it was called) started on launch day,” Brandon writes. “Ror users it was like coming out of a cave compared to those early “smartphones” running Windows Mobile. I still remember testing a Samsung phone from around that period in 2007 where you had to use a stylus on the screen and tap, tap, tap a few times to get anything to open. It was like using a stone tablet.”
MacDailyNews Take: And then they, along with Google, colluded to knockoff Apple’s iPhone. Poorly. IP be damned.
Now, the question to ask is — how long will the iPhone reign?” Brandon writes. “Here’s my official prediction. By the next decade, we won’t be using smartphones as often… Bots with AI will know when we want to know about the weather because the sky gets dark or the thunder sounds. Bots will tell us what we need to know when we need to know it, instead of forcing us to use an app.”
Unfortunately, the knockoffs and copycats have utterly destroyed the iPhone’s market share percentage and stolen the hearts and minds of Wall Street. Apple has no backup solution to the problem so only Apple retains the perception of being doomed. I’m willing to bet if Elon Musk announced he was going to sell a smartphone, Apple’s share price would tank overnight. That’s how weak Apple’s perception has become as an innovative tech company.
Why does your post contain all the weak
-minded analyst’s wet dream buzzwords?
“Market share percentage”
“No backup solution”
“….problem…
“Market perception”
“Elon Musk”
“(weak) innovative tech company”
…you forgot to include ‘one hit wonder’
Are ‘you’ an analyst?
That being the case, we can all rest easy and ignore your whingeing and I can contemplate the very modest investment in Apple stock in 2002 which is now substantially massive, without doing anything except staying a ‘long game’- all the while remembering that Wall St has perpetually undervalued Apple since then with an endless repetition of those same words. I might add, that that investment value has markedly accelerated under Tim Cook.
If Elon Musk ever gets into the smartphone business, I will never support him. His ancestors stole South Africa from the black Africans that were already living there, and oppressed them with the apartheid system. The whites have no business being in Africa and should leave soon before the revolution kills them all. Elon Musk is a phony and I will never understand why anyone resp cuts him.
Wow! Racist anyone??? You are as scary and whacked as the KKK.
For once, I agree with botvinnik.
It isn’t just that encouraging racist violence is worthy of the KKK. The premise isn’t even factually correct. The chances are excellent that Elon Musk’s ancestors arrived in South Africa before (perhaps centuries before) President Zuma’s family. To the extent that any of South Africa’s current peoples pushed another off the land, the Afrikaans-speakers have lost out to the Bantu-speakers, not the other way around.
The original inhabitants of southern Africa were Khoisan-speakers like the San (“Bushmen”) and Khoikhoi (“Hottentots”). They have been marginalized and assimilated by later waves of migration, much like the native peoples of the continental US, but even more so. They were displaced by the movement north of the Dutchmen who became the Boers, but even more so by the movement south of Bantu-speakers like the Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu.
The Boer movement began in the mid-1600s and ended by 1902. Black African migration into South Africa accelerated in the early 1800s and continues to this day, as people from further north move into the country seeking land or work.
Obviously, none of that excuses the apartheid system or the racial oppression that went on for centuries in South Africa. However, it is simply untrue to suggest that Afrikaaners like Musk’s ancestors stole anything from the Bantu-speakers who arrived after they did. Unless virtually the entire South African population decides to leave and give the place back to the Khoisan remnant, South Africa will continue to be a nation of historically recent migrants like the United States.
Apollonia Jackson is from the Klan with a Tan. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it’s true.
Slavery throughout history is not confined EXCLUSIVELY to Afrifican Americans, so don’t feel so self righteously entitled. ALL COLORS throughout history have been enslaved. At one time or another for CENTURIES. Get a grip!
I agree. Steve Jobs would be quite proud of how the iPhone has evolved over the last decade and even proud of its sales and market share.
I doubt Steve would be very happy with the rest of what is going on (or not going on) at Apple. Steve was a very strong proponent of “we are going to build it or we are not”.
If “we’re going to build it, lets do it right and advance the technology at every turn”. (Just think of all the evolutions of the iPod in the first 5-6 years that it existed. And, just think of the evolutions of the iMac during the first dozen years of its existence.)
If “we’re not going to build it (and not evolve it!) then kill it!” Steve would never have allowed the Airport Express to linger like it has. Under Steve, Apple would either have updated it or killed it. True, Apple TV was a “hobby” to him, but even hobbies, in Steve’s mind, needed to evolve. The Apple TV would not be two years behind the competition under Steve.
I suspect that Steve would not have been happy with the poor evolution of the iPad over the past several years either, but that one is borderline.
Apple’s first product born in a garage propelled the company from day one. Apple killed a lot of products both hardware and software. But the Mac is special status, now and forever …
Did not mean to imply the Mac was born in a garage, the focus is on computers are special to the creation of Apple …
I am not proud. 10 years later my company is still over dependent on a single product? And product cycles in other categories flat out sucks? Get back to work people and stop your political activism… we have to make that dent in the universe a bit wider.
And you think the MacBook belongs atop a building as an timeless statement of Apple architecture? Please. Apple is better represented by the enduring glass structures marking certain Apple Stores. They speak of Apple’s creative & inventive culture without a taste of being trite, or contrived.
The headline should be amended to read “Apple’s iPhone Still Dominates…in the U.S.” iPhones have great market share here, but not so much everywhere else. It’s Mac vs Windows all over again.
Not really. Who’s making all the money? Apple. Who’s driving the technology forward? Apple. Who’s going to be in business 10 years from now? Apple.
The other mobile manufacturers have no choice but to use an inferior knock off operating system because they can’t use Apple’s. They look at the chimera of market share and believe they have a shot at carving out a percentage for themselves. But to do so they are forced to sell at razor thin margins. If you’re not Apple it’s a hell of a business to be in. And I mean that in a bad way.
You need your own OS. Microsoft had a shot but failed to integrate their Windows phone offering sufficiently with their desktop OS. Total management failure, not that anyone was anyone surprised with Monkey Boy at the helm.
Let’s go down memory lane to recall just a handful of technologies Apple has introduced over the last decade. A Series SOCs that rival and more recently exceed the performance of Intel x86, capacitive touchscreens that actually work, 3D Touch, fingerprint ID that actually works, secure enclave… That just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on but I tire.
Now tell me again who’s statement is ridiculous?
You list minor or OK, major improvements.
Colin’s point is nothing revolutionary since 2011. Unless you count the Apple Watch. With super secret sales numbers unreleased we may never know …
I don’t think that was Colin’s point at all. He said it was a ridiculous proposition that Apple was drive technology. Nothing more and nothing less. He’s dead wrong and I listed a handful of examples to back that up.
I agree with Colin’s point it is ridiculous. I read minor enhancements in your post, not major, groundbreaking paradigms of revolutionary products like the iPhone or iPad.
Only the watch could be considered big league and added to the revolutionary column. But since it is the first major product released in the Tim era with SECRET sales figures, hmm, that speaks volumes …
I’m not really sure how to respond to you anymore. With each new post you keep moving the goalposts by either bringing up things that neither Colin nor I mentioned or changing the subject.
The article was about the iPhone. My comment was about the iPhone. I said that Apple was driving the technology forward and I provided solid and undisputed examples. You can choose to dismiss them as minor all you want. But every single mobile phone manufacturer has attempted to copy what Apple has done. They follow! If that is not driving technology forward then your definition of what that would be is lost on me. I’m done.
Colin posted, “To say Apple is driving technology forward is ridiculous.”
I responded to you, “I agree with Colin’s point it is ridiculous. I read minor enhancements in your post (that would be you), not major, groundbreaking paradigms of revolutionary products like the iPhone or iPad.”
I do agree with you Apple advancements relating to the iPhone have been widely copied.
Now, you have to agree with me Apple has been copying Android, as well. Copy/Paste and it looks like the 10th anniversary iPhone will have an edge to edge screen and possibly waterproof. Something Android manufacturers figured out years ago distancing themselves from Clueless Cook.
Now, please post where Colin and I are wrong. That’s HOW you respond … ✌️
iPhone dominates the high end of the market almost everywhere. Apple isn’t interested in competing with glorified flipphones for the sake of market share. That’s why Apple is making bushels of cash while almost everyone else is struggling to pay their suppliers.
That decidedly is NOT Mac v. Windows all over again.
The quantifiable business metric, mac vs. PC, you are using (guessing) is UNIT SALES.
Whether the smartphone is free, two for one, $19 at Walmart or a high-end iPhone — all the SAME in the worldwide count. Fair enough.
From that perspective you are correct. Android global unit sales are much higher.
But who has the higher units of global dollars to count? Put it another way: would you rather sell more units of Tilapia at a lower price or less units of premium cold water lobster at a higher price?
The Number One meme only counts in sports, movies, book and song sales. Bottom line: Bragging unit numbers pale in comparison to bragging bucks …
Knockoffs & copycats need not apply or be acknowledged in any way except all bad.
Unfortunately, the knockoffs and copycats have utterly destroyed the iPhone’s market share percentage and stolen the hearts and minds of Wall Street. Apple has no backup solution to the problem so only Apple retains the perception of being doomed. I’m willing to bet if Elon Musk announced he was going to sell a smartphone, Apple’s share price would tank overnight. That’s how weak Apple’s perception has become as an innovative tech company.
Why does your post contain all the weak
-minded analyst’s wet dream buzzwords?
“Market share percentage”
“No backup solution”
“….problem…
“Market perception”
“Elon Musk”
“(weak) innovative tech company”
…you forgot to include ‘one hit wonder’
Are ‘you’ an analyst?
That being the case, we can all rest easy and ignore your whingeing and I can contemplate the very modest investment in Apple stock in 2002 which is now substantially massive, without doing anything except staying a ‘long game’- all the while remembering that Wall St has perpetually undervalued Apple since then with an endless repetition of those same words. I might add, that that investment value has markedly accelerated under Tim Cook.
If Elon Musk ever gets into the smartphone business, I will never support him. His ancestors stole South Africa from the black Africans that were already living there, and oppressed them with the apartheid system. The whites have no business being in Africa and should leave soon before the revolution kills them all. Elon Musk is a phony and I will never understand why anyone resp cuts him.
you’re nutso.
Wow! Racist anyone??? You are as scary and whacked as the KKK.
For once, I agree with botvinnik.
It isn’t just that encouraging racist violence is worthy of the KKK. The premise isn’t even factually correct. The chances are excellent that Elon Musk’s ancestors arrived in South Africa before (perhaps centuries before) President Zuma’s family. To the extent that any of South Africa’s current peoples pushed another off the land, the Afrikaans-speakers have lost out to the Bantu-speakers, not the other way around.
The original inhabitants of southern Africa were Khoisan-speakers like the San (“Bushmen”) and Khoikhoi (“Hottentots”). They have been marginalized and assimilated by later waves of migration, much like the native peoples of the continental US, but even more so. They were displaced by the movement north of the Dutchmen who became the Boers, but even more so by the movement south of Bantu-speakers like the Xhosa, Sotho, and Zulu.
The Boer movement began in the mid-1600s and ended by 1902. Black African migration into South Africa accelerated in the early 1800s and continues to this day, as people from further north move into the country seeking land or work.
Obviously, none of that excuses the apartheid system or the racial oppression that went on for centuries in South Africa. However, it is simply untrue to suggest that Afrikaaners like Musk’s ancestors stole anything from the Bantu-speakers who arrived after they did. Unless virtually the entire South African population decides to leave and give the place back to the Khoisan remnant, South Africa will continue to be a nation of historically recent migrants like the United States.
Apollonia Jackson is from the Klan with a Tan. Sorry if that sounds harsh, but it’s true.
Slavery throughout history is not confined EXCLUSIVELY to Afrifican Americans, so don’t feel so self righteously entitled. ALL COLORS throughout history have been enslaved. At one time or another for CENTURIES. Get a grip!
“African” Americans, sorry. Hmmm, wonder why spell check missed it … 🤔
I agree. Steve Jobs would be quite proud of how the iPhone has evolved over the last decade and even proud of its sales and market share.
I doubt Steve would be very happy with the rest of what is going on (or not going on) at Apple. Steve was a very strong proponent of “we are going to build it or we are not”.
If “we’re going to build it, lets do it right and advance the technology at every turn”. (Just think of all the evolutions of the iPod in the first 5-6 years that it existed. And, just think of the evolutions of the iMac during the first dozen years of its existence.)
If “we’re not going to build it (and not evolve it!) then kill it!” Steve would never have allowed the Airport Express to linger like it has. Under Steve, Apple would either have updated it or killed it. True, Apple TV was a “hobby” to him, but even hobbies, in Steve’s mind, needed to evolve. The Apple TV would not be two years behind the competition under Steve.
I suspect that Steve would not have been happy with the poor evolution of the iPad over the past several years either, but that one is borderline.
As you well know and have long advocated, Steve would go absolute nuclear batsh*t over the MacPro neglect …
Are you sure about that? Steve killed off the server.
Apple’s first product born in a garage propelled the company from day one. Apple killed a lot of products both hardware and software. But the Mac is special status, now and forever …
Did not mean to imply the Mac was born in a garage, the focus is on computers are special to the creation of Apple …
I am not proud. 10 years later my company is still over dependent on a single product? And product cycles in other categories flat out sucks? Get back to work people and stop your political activism… we have to make that dent in the universe a bit wider.
– Steve
And you think the MacBook belongs atop a building as an timeless statement of Apple architecture? Please. Apple is better represented by the enduring glass structures marking certain Apple Stores. They speak of Apple’s creative & inventive culture without a taste of being trite, or contrived.
You have not skipped a beat as usual. Spot on …
The headline should be amended to read “Apple’s iPhone Still Dominates…in the U.S.” iPhones have great market share here, but not so much everywhere else. It’s Mac vs Windows all over again.
Not really. Who’s making all the money? Apple. Who’s driving the technology forward? Apple. Who’s going to be in business 10 years from now? Apple.
The other mobile manufacturers have no choice but to use an inferior knock off operating system because they can’t use Apple’s. They look at the chimera of market share and believe they have a shot at carving out a percentage for themselves. But to do so they are forced to sell at razor thin margins. If you’re not Apple it’s a hell of a business to be in. And I mean that in a bad way.
You need your own OS. Microsoft had a shot but failed to integrate their Windows phone offering sufficiently with their desktop OS. Total management failure, not that anyone was anyone surprised with Monkey Boy at the helm.
To say Apple is driving technology forward is ridiculous.
Let’s go down memory lane to recall just a handful of technologies Apple has introduced over the last decade. A Series SOCs that rival and more recently exceed the performance of Intel x86, capacitive touchscreens that actually work, 3D Touch, fingerprint ID that actually works, secure enclave… That just the tip of the iceberg. I could go on and on but I tire.
Now tell me again who’s statement is ridiculous?
You list minor or OK, major improvements.
Colin’s point is nothing revolutionary since 2011. Unless you count the Apple Watch. With super secret sales numbers unreleased we may never know …
I don’t think that was Colin’s point at all. He said it was a ridiculous proposition that Apple was drive technology. Nothing more and nothing less. He’s dead wrong and I listed a handful of examples to back that up.
I agree with Colin’s point it is ridiculous. I read minor enhancements in your post, not major, groundbreaking paradigms of revolutionary products like the iPhone or iPad.
Only the watch could be considered big league and added to the revolutionary column. But since it is the first major product released in the Tim era with SECRET sales figures, hmm, that speaks volumes …
I’m not really sure how to respond to you anymore. With each new post you keep moving the goalposts by either bringing up things that neither Colin nor I mentioned or changing the subject.
The article was about the iPhone. My comment was about the iPhone. I said that Apple was driving the technology forward and I provided solid and undisputed examples. You can choose to dismiss them as minor all you want. But every single mobile phone manufacturer has attempted to copy what Apple has done. They follow! If that is not driving technology forward then your definition of what that would be is lost on me. I’m done.
Colin posted, “To say Apple is driving technology forward is ridiculous.”
I responded to you, “I agree with Colin’s point it is ridiculous. I read minor enhancements in your post (that would be you), not major, groundbreaking paradigms of revolutionary products like the iPhone or iPad.”
I do agree with you Apple advancements relating to the iPhone have been widely copied.
Now, you have to agree with me Apple has been copying Android, as well. Copy/Paste and it looks like the 10th anniversary iPhone will have an edge to edge screen and possibly waterproof. Something Android manufacturers figured out years ago distancing themselves from Clueless Cook.
Now, please post where Colin and I are wrong. That’s HOW you respond … ✌️
iPhone dominates the high end of the market almost everywhere. Apple isn’t interested in competing with glorified flipphones for the sake of market share. That’s why Apple is making bushels of cash while almost everyone else is struggling to pay their suppliers.
That decidedly is NOT Mac v. Windows all over again.
The quantifiable business metric, mac vs. PC, you are using (guessing) is UNIT SALES.
Whether the smartphone is free, two for one, $19 at Walmart or a high-end iPhone — all the SAME in the worldwide count. Fair enough.
From that perspective you are correct. Android global unit sales are much higher.
But who has the higher units of global dollars to count? Put it another way: would you rather sell more units of Tilapia at a lower price or less units of premium cold water lobster at a higher price?
The Number One meme only counts in sports, movies, book and song sales. Bottom line: Bragging unit numbers pale in comparison to bragging bucks …