“Think back to the mobile phone you owned before 2007,” Lisa Eadicicco writes for TIME Magazine. “It probably looked something like this: A silver clamshell device with numeric keys on the bottom and a low-resolution screen on the top. It probably had a simple camera, a calendar, and was capable of running a few basic games, but you used it primarily for voice calls and texting.”
“But in 2007 the cellphone industry was sundered,” Eadicicco writes. “In hindsight, there is only before and after the iPhone.”
“The original iPhone, which went on sale 10 years ago on June 29, laid the foundation for the modern smartphone, forever changing the way we access the world’s information. It introduced two very important concepts that would remain at the core of mobile computers for years to come: the touch screen and the App Store,” Eadicicco writes. “With a dynamic touch-friendly interface and a central repository for discovering new applications, the iPhone was unlike any other mobile device. But the influence of the App Store… can’t be overstated. It’s the reason we can summon taxis without speaking a word, dispatch magically disappearing photos and transfer digital payments with the press of a button. The Ubers, Snapchats and Venmos of the world wouldn’t exist without smartphones, and the iPhone was and remains the category’s foundation.”
“After the iPhone’s launch, smartphones quickly adopted slick, candy-bar shaped frames with touch screens. Google famously rebuilt its first Android phone from the ground up after Apple’s keynote. ‘Holy crap, I guess we’re not going to ship that phone,’ said Android creator Andy Rubin after watching the presentation,” Eadicicco writes. “10 years ago, Apple changed the world with the iPhone. Now, it’s using the iPhone to kickstart its next big gambit, augmented reality…”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: How ignorant or spitefully self-defeating do you have to be to buy a pretend iPhone instead of the real thing?
Andy Rubin is nothing more than a reactionary mimic, and not a very good one at that. – MacDailyNews, October 31, 2014
Here’s what Google’s Android looked like before and after Apple’s iPhone:
Here’s what cellphones looked like before and after Apple’s iPhone:
SEE ALSO:
Former Android head Andy Rubin leaving Google – October 31, 2014
Why Google really, truly, deeply hates Apple – May 30, 2014
Prior to Steve Jobs unveiling of Apple’s iPhone, Google’s Android didn’t support touchscreen input – April 14, 2014
Before iPhone, Google’s plan was a Java button phone, Android docs reveal – April 14, 2014
How Google reacted when Steve Jobs revealed the revolutionary iPhone – December 19, 2013
Apple to ITC: Android started at Apple while Andy Rubin worked for us – September 2, 2011
I am thankful that iPhone killed off the atrocious Nokia N-Gage. They tried to pull off gaming and phone capabilities into one package…but the final result was a taco-shaped monstrosity. Now they are stuck with making iPhone rip-offs that run M$ Windoze. Karma, anyone?
except when she does not respond as hoped!
I have a quibble with that statement. The original iPhone did *not* introduce the App Store along the same lines that the original iPod did not introduce iTunes. In both cases, the product was released first and the additional functionality arrived later.
It’s a lie to say that “After the iPhone’s launch, smartphones quickly adopted slick, candy-bar shaped frames with touch screens,” because it was a theft of Apple’s IP.
It’s not even just touch. The iPhone could have had a keyboard and a smaller screen and it still would have been massively better than everything else because it had such high quality to it. Everything basically worked smoothly and was useful.
A the time, just the thought of syncing your cell-phone contacts, music, calendar, and photos to your own personal computer without intervention from the telcos was fantastically revolutionary.