“When Steve Jobs introduced the Mac back in 1984, I was seated in the second row at a packed Flint Center Theatre. I remember sitting there waiting for Jobs to take the stage and unveil what he had promised would change the world of computing. Indeed, as he lifted the white sheet off the little Mac and its computer voice said ‘hello’ to the audience, the crowd went crazy. That day Apple shook the computing world with its Mac and the famous ‘1984’ Orwellian ad, and the company introduced us to event marketing,” Tim Bajarin writes for PC Magazine.
Steve Jobs introduces the Apple Macintosh in 1984:
Bajarin continues, “[Jobs] redefined what a computer should look like with the candy-colored iMacs and the all-in-one flat Macs, and then came the wildly successful iPod and iTunes. It’s not an understatement to say that Apple’s impact on the PC and music player markets has been significant, and if history is a guide, today’s announcements should go down as equally important and in some ways could be viewed again as industry game changers.”
Bajarin writes, “One such game changer is the new Apple TV… which will work on a Mac or a PC, has many of the consumer electronics and PC folks quite concerned that Apple could do an iPod on them. That means that they could deliver a solution that is so easy to use and works so well around an Apple based eco-system that even though there will be other solutions on the market that do something similar, Apple could end up with the lions share of this business. More importantly, they could use this to edge many of the CE and PC vendors out of what will be a very lucrative market over time. My personal opinion is that the CE and PC guys have something serious to worry about… Apple could become the leader in this space almost overnight.”
“A similar thing could be happening with the intro of the [iPhone] … In typical Apple fashion, the Apple folks have now created a radical new finger-driven UI and given this device the famous Apple ease of use and applied it to what is not only a smart phone, but should be branded in a new category all by itself called brilliant phones… Apple’s new iPhone, like the iPod, will be an industry game changer and define a whole new generation of how cell phones should perform and look like in the near future. As Steve Jobs said in his keynote ‘Apple has reinvented the cell phone’ and at first glance, this appears to be a very true statement.”
Full article here.
Beyond being seriously worried, the CE and PC guys should be embarrassed to boot.
Related articles:
Apple premieres Apple TV: movies, TV shows, music & photos on your big screen TV – January 09, 2007
Time: ‘iPhone could crush cell phone market pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority’ – January 09, 2007
Analyst: Apple iPhone should be given its own category – ‘brilliantphone’ – January 09, 2007
Cingular to use Synchronoss Technologies’ platform for Apple iPhone – January 09, 2007
Is Apple building ‘The Device?’ [revisited] – January 09, 2007
iPhone photos from Apple’s Macworld Expo booth – January 09, 2007
Enderle: Apple’s iPhone is going to do very well – January 09, 2007
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 09, 2007
The Register’s Ray: Apple ‘iPhone’ will fail – December 26, 2006
Analyst: Apple iPhone economics aren’t that compelling – December 08, 2006
CNET editor Kanellos: ‘Apple iPhone will largely fail’ – December 07, 2006
Palm CEO laughs off Apple ‘iPhone’ threat – November 20, 2006
The only thing wrong with the iPhone is that you have to have Cingular. Customer Service is absolutly horrible.
I’m speechless. I’m in awe. I want one now! We mussst have it…our preciousss.
Yea, it seems to be the only real downfall to this product. You should be able to choose whichever network you want imo. You can do that here in Ireland. I still can’t get over how cool it is though, has to be the best thing I’ve ever seen.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
This is still bigger than anyone realizes.
And it hasn’t even gotten BIG yet.
hahahaha…
What a great day.
I’ve been with Cingular for 3 years and had some difficulties in the beginning that were handled straight up. I’ve had no problems (except a few dropped calls) in the last 2 3/4 years. All past cell phones are terrible. I am going to get a new one in June and have no problem that the carrier is Cingular. No, I do not work for them.
Yeah, I don’t like the idea of being locked into a contract for 2 years. Cingular sucks that way. In fact, they all suck that way. We should be able to upgrade our phones whenever we want and not have to pay a fee. What if, and he will, Steve decides to introduce the iPhone Nano, or iPhone HD? Why can’t I just buy it, put in my SIM card, and use it?
erg. I’m getting one regardless. iPhone makes my Treo look like it’s from the 50s.
I’m getting the 8 gig model iPhone cause I can load it with more porn and then squirt all day.
Ignoring the war that’s about to start: Cingular defending vs Cingular bashing….
The iPhone makes every other smartphone device look like a 1980s joke. The point isn’t the carrier, and I believe the device does everything so insanely well, that service from CW will be downplayed by users. It won’t matter. It simply won’t matter. The iPhone as a device is so badass on its own, it’ll be given forgiveness on carrier-specific issues.
Now, that said… on to the carrier issue:
When you’re the biggest (see: Cingular) you have a doubled-edged sword. Largest network, yes. Largest customer base, yes. Biggest customer service hassle, yes. But, who else would they pick? Certainly not Verizon, or Nexsprintel… they developed a technology that nobody else in the world uses. CDMA has no Europe or Japanese counterpart. GSM/GPRS does. Now t-mobile is a great choice, customer experience-wise, but they dont have the data network like CW, and they’re just too small here. They made the correct choice, like them or not.
“I skate to where the puck is going to be, not where it has been” – Wayne Gretzky
“If you build the product customers want, by the time you get it to market, they’ve changed their mind.” – Steve Jobs
Game. Changing. Product.
MDN MW: forward. As in, always forward thinking.
wow, great video clip! Thanks for finding that, MDN.
There is also the point that in order to have what Steve called Random Access Voice Mail, somethign has to be done from the carrier side, so if it were a MVNO that wouldn’t work. And you know Steve wants all of his ideas to be put in place
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”smile” style=”border:0;” />
That said I am switching to Cingular (my family is on it anyway) come june/july whenever my contract with alltel runs out. So I can get the coolest phone+ ever.
I try not to buy 1st generation anything, but I am making an exception for this. 😀
MW= Strong; My will power isn’t strong enough to resist the iPhone.
The only one feature that was not mentioned that I really, really want is T9, or predictive text for email, txting, etc. QWERTY is great but T9 is often faster. Should be easy to implement for those of us who would want to use that.
For me, one of the biggest things is that the iPhone foreshadows what should be expected for a future iPod / Breakthrough Internet Device, once there are enough 802.11n hot-spots around the world. In other words, it would just lose the phone part.
The Cingular agreement is at least 2 years (thus, “multi-year”) although I’m not sure I heard the combo “exclusive multi-year”. So possibly, by 2008, when it goes European and Asian, we could get unlocked phones, though in the US, using it on t-mobile won’t be great since they don’t have a high-speed data service.
Finally, when the iPhone reaches a 2nd gen with 3G networks, and more flash, the current iPhone could still be sold at a lower price.
Personally I am glad it’s Cingular, if only because it’s the carrier I am currently using at work (Google) who provides me with a BlackBerry and pays for the services. I can’t wait to put in a request for one of these. I wouldn’t even mind shelling out the cash and swapping the SIM card. Luckily Google is very Mac compatible. Everyone has a choice of Mac or PC, and MANY choose Apple. Their 24 hr Tech Stop staff are amazing and very Mac-knowledgable. It’s a glimpse at how the world will be like when more people use Macs. I’m feeling lucky.
In tears for the second time today, seeing that Macintosh video again. Yeah, I’m a sap. But yes, I’m also a sucker for brilliant design and passion and innovation and yes, a sense of play as well as elegance as well as practicality . . . and that little Macintosh had all that, and the iPhone has all that and more.
Apple is using the “Blue Ocean” strategy (if anyone have read that book) where it creates a whole new market to play with while others compete to death in its own little “red ocean”. Apple has been doing this since iPod with a hardware and software design that nobody in the industry can match. Now it looks like Apple is doing it again with iPhone and probably Apple TV.
This blows the ZUNE ‘social’ out of the water. No wonder the Steve is not worried and showed the Zune logo on fire. Funny, I didn’t even know that there was a Zune logo to burn. LOL
I watched the whole keynote and am concerned only by the lack demo of voice commands on the iPhone. For hands-free ops, you have to have voice command dialing. The iPhone probably has it, but Steve pointed at all the numbers he dialed.
“No wonder the Steve is not worried and showed the Zune logo on fire”
Apple edited that from the QT keynote. At least I didn’t see it. I was looking for it having read about it. Did anybody else see it?
I looked for the Zune reference also and could not find it. They took it out.
@Chris C: Watch the keynote video again. The iPhone does have predective text entry. 😀
MW: corps, as in, now that Apple has dropped ‘computer’, will Apple Corps sue them again?
Well I did see some Beatles tracks in that there keynote. Was that supposed to be a hint ‘er somethin’?
I just can’t help thinking that Zune is really taking it up the ass today.
What is their big feature to kill the iPod….
The screen?
I mean.. it’s mean to pick on MS who, sucks at this stuff, but, it’s HUMILIATING
Just imagine where we would be if Apple didn’t build this stuff!
PS>Robbie Bach: “Zune will be in a leadership position within years.”
There’s an anal sex joke in there somewhere.
At least one.
-c
MW: ‘hard’ (seriously)
Apple should team up with O2 in the UK.
O2 are the biggest carrier there.
I WANT AN IPHONE NOW!!!!
Bah. What is this thingy? Now, watch Microsoft as they innovate and bring you the Zune Phone in 2011!
When Steve Jobs showed the slide with the “smart phones” lined up, those phones that looked so cool one hour earlier, now looked absolutely lame. Steve Jobs is a master presenter. I think RIM, Palm, and the rest are in serious trouble. There will be a sizeable group of customers who will hold off purchase to let their contracts expire, and get a the iPhone.
Having a six-month delay is actually pretty smart, because the hype will build and (assuming most contracts are two-years), about one quarter of mobile phone users will have expired contracts during those six months. Another one-quarter will have contracts expiring during the first six months of iPhone release. Now, most mobile phone users will not be able to afford $500-$600 on a phone. However, the number should be much higher than the 1% marketshare Apple stated as its goal for 2008.
Petey,
As much as I would prefer the iPhone on O2 in the UK, Vodafone has more subscribers.
The Mac was the Lisa we could all afford. Let’s not forget what came first. MW: “Less” – is More!
Petey,
Since the iPhone isn’t a 3G device, but rather GSM with EDGE (a technology sometimes described as 2.75G) then if my research is correct Apple are unlikely to offer the iPhone through O2, since O2 doesn’t have an EDGE network.
The only EDGE network in the UK that I’m aware of is run by Orange.
Shame it’s not a 3G UMTS device.
Can you replace the iPhone battery yourself, or do you need to send it back to Apple?
So much for that idiot Kevin Finch from Digg who thought he had the inside track.. he was a million miles away.
What about VoIP? Since the Iphone has full web functionality, does this mean you can use Skype or Jajah when your are under WiFi coverage? I really hope so.
@Less is More
Speaking of “what came first”, it has been refreshing to see media outlets getting it right by acknowledging that Apple was the first create many things including the first mass market GUI called Macintosh in stories regarding the iPhone.
Yes, I’m one of those bitter old timers when it comes to using Apple products, but it is amazing how much undue credit goes to other companies who have survived on mediocre copies of Apple’s design successes.
I should be grateful some truth comes through in reporting these days. This is a great period for Apple.
What about VoIP? Since the Iphone has full web functionality, does this mean you can use Skype or Jajah when your are under WiFi coverage? I really hope so.
—
YES! If you watched the pres, you’d know that! And it switches back and forth automatically, if it detects a network..
Just watch the video
Yes please.
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”cool smile” style=”border:0;” />