“When Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the wraps off of the iPhone 18 months ago, the wireless establishment offered a smug response. At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, a Nokia executive sniffed that Apple’s new gadget merely validated his company’s strategy, and voiced his surprise to journalists that the iPhone didn’t use the latest 3G networks for fast data connections. ‘Overall, it’s very exciting for us,’ he said, implying the mighty Nokia had nothing to worry about,” Jon Fortt reports or Fortune.
“A year and a half later, as the iPhone 3G arrives, Apple’s rivals look a lot more flummoxed. The little gadget has catalyzed the wireless industry, boosting earnings for Apple and U.S. partner AT&T, and inspiring an avalanche of copycat touchscreen devices. Samsung has the Instinct, a chunkier, less elegant knockoff. Research in Motion is readying the BlackBerry Thunder. LG has the Dare and Nokia the dubiously codenamed ‘Tube’ phone,” Fortt reports.
“But with the competition scrambling to develop an iPhone killer, might they be missing the point? Judging by customer raves, the iPhone’s magic isn’t in the features – not the 2-megapixel camera, or the Safari web browser, or even the music and video capabilities,” Fortt reports. “It’s in Apple’s knack for making all those features easier to locate and use. What’s more, as the iPhone 3G debuts this week, Apple’s trademark simple approach is doing more than setting consumers’ tongues wagging – it’s changing the game in wireless, from phone sales to software development.”
Obviously, Fortt gets it. Full article – recommended – here.
You know, 24 years, 5 months 16 days later, no company has created an operating system as easy to use as mine. So how long will it take for a company to recreate the iPhone experience.
And before everyone says the obvious, you can’t suggest that the BeOS is/was as good, Jean-Louis Gassee still thinks so though. Or that Next built anything good….. ha ha ha, I forgot, we are currently using a NeXT OS. Sorry, so Steve helped to deliver 2 great OS’s/
“18 months ago, the wireless establishment offered a smug response. “
Yeah, you know I haven’t heard any smug responses lately from Motorolla, Nokia or Palm. iChat got their tongue?
I read the full article and highly recommend it. This guy really gets it.
Clueless, part 1: Apple’s competitors were smug when the iPhone was announced. They just didn’t see how an upstart could jump into the phone market and have an impact. What they didn’t realize, or didn’t care to realize, was that Apple wasn’t building a phone – it was building an internet communicator that also was a phone.
Clueless, part 2: Apple’s competitors still don’t even come close to comprehending what they are up against. Having realized that the iPhone was the real deal they think they can compete by providing look alike phones with longer feature sets. As the author says: “But with the competition scrambling to develop an iPhone killer, might they be missing the point? Judging by customer raves, the iPhone’s magic isn’t in the features – not the 2-megapixel camera, or the Safari web browser, or even the music and video capabilities. It’s in Apple’s knack for making all those features easier to locate and use.”
Clueless, part 3: The iPhone is rocking the phone industry to it’s core and Apple hasn’t even released the true killer feature – the App store. No one – not Android, not Symbian, not nobody – is going to be able to copy what Apple has going for it. 1) A superior operating system that runs on both Apple computers and Apple phones; 2) the iTunes distribution system; 3) A distribution model that a) reduces administrative cost; b) eliminates barriers to entry; and c) reaches every iPhone user in existence; and 4) the patented technology of multi-touch that allows the user to actually use the data he receives.
Apple is at least two generations ahead of it’s supposed competitors. I can’t see any of them truly competing with the iPhone in the near future. They need to stop trying to compete with the iPhone head on and start trying to figure out how to leapfrog the iPhone. Otherwise, they’re just roadkill.
The world wireless network will colapse on July 11. Remember this.
I remember in like 1998-99 I lived in Vegas, some satellite was knock out be sun bursts or something. Well this particular satellite happened to be for networks of POS. Couldn’t get gas at the pump, couldn’t charge or debit anything. If you didn’t have cash you were SOL. It sucked, so I really hope no wireless networks go down on Friday.
Maybe if they superglue on a radio tuner. Worked with the iPod, after all.
My observation here is that the iPhone is good for Apple and for everybody else. The iPhone has helped to raise the interest in consumer-level smart phones. All the talk when iPhone was released was how it wasn’t enterprise and, therefore, was limited. This ignored the fact that the consumer smartphone market was largely untapped. Consumers were just waiting for the right device withe the appropriate hype (believe me, I am not saying the iPhone is just hype – but it is clear that they know how to market things) to make them pay attention. It was going to happen at some point, but the iPhone has clearly spurred a series of knockoffs aimed at the consumer market. Many providers and handset makers will benefit.
Sure, the enterprise market is huge and making the iPhone more amenable to such use is what has Wall Street excited. However, Apple has positioned themselves nicely in a market where they can move 10’s of millions of iPhones over the years.
Can someone interview Ballmer again about the iPhone?
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
The world wireless network will collapse on July 11.
And good riddance to it!
I’m tired of listening in on half of loud private conversations in public, of drivers who are more interested in talking or texting than in driving, and all the other antisocial aspects of wireless.
They are Satan’s spawn. There is a reason they are called hellphones.
…and its only taken the writer of the article 18 months to figure out that the iPhone is not just another cell phone.
So how long will it take humans to figure out that:
911 was an inside job
polluting our world will eventually kill everybody
stock markets are casinos
advertising is mostly lies
TV is bad for you
The government wont save you
The conversation just got stupid again.
MDN magic word “you’re “
As in you’re an idiot
Yes. Those hijacked jets did not bring down the world Trade Center. It had to be the Bush administration!
Just out of curiosity, do you follow that evil SOB named Obama bin Laden (no relation to Osama Barrack)?
Wake up!!!!!
You know that Apple is in the lead when everything released is the “iX” killer. Be it iPhone, iPod, iTunes, iMac, Mac OS X killer and on and on.
There are no releases of a Blackberry “killer” or the Zune “killer” or the Nokia which phone is that “killer” or the pick any other product.
Because Apple is the company to beat everyone else is a distant mediocre second hack.
http://loosechange911.com/videos.shtml
The Author does indeed get it.
Apple creates for the consumer, others “create” for engineers-cramming more and more “features’ into everything just because some geek in a lab wants it or thinks it’s cool.
Maybe if the others ever figure this out, we will start getting some truly great stuff.
The complete article is a great read. You ought to read some of the comments at the end also. Here’s one:
Competitors, pundits and analysts, whilst tirelessly writing off Apple, …. will be left thrashing in their wake struggling to make sense of what happened. (Paul Metzler, NJ)
and another:
This is what is happening: An entire industry has just been reduced to less than peripheal participants; (and even there, only temporarily), while Apple pulls off “interconnectivity” right under their noses!.. When all things (your Apple devices) are connected, who needs carriers? Think about it. Welcome to the real “Mac-world” (nuttan-Alb, NM)
iPhone Bitch!!
Ok, since the door got opened, allow me to step in.
But just for a moment
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
Think Billy the Fish really intends to say something like this:
911 is not what we’ve been led to believe – The Official Story is not the entire truth.
Whatever IS the True Story, we may never know, but some curious, and unanswered, questions exist.
And loosechange etc offer some interesting ideas.
Thank You
BC Kelly
Tallahassee Fla
Now, back to the matter at hand
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”grin” style=”border:0;” />
From the “more here” over on page/story about Steve talking with some folks
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/17768/
“… but personally I’m a big-bang guy.” For the first time that day he smiled. “The risk with a fast burn,” he continued, “is that it exposes you to your enemies. You’re going to need a lot of money to fight thieves.”
And boy does he have that patented
What we saw year ago with 1st jPhone
What we’ll see this week with 2nd jComing
Why is good to have $20 Billion in bank
Change the World™
BC
billy the fish,
those videos are incredible. I watched them for hours – late into the night.
I’m shattered and shocked.
Thanks for the link.
Big companies these days rarely want to invest in developing a product. Out of the limelight Apple quietly developed OS X for years and years. Now they are reaping the fruits of that investment. Nokia and RIMM and others were caught flat footed. They will not be able to respond overnight.
Toyota is another example. They spent over a decade developing the technology in the Prius. Now they are in the catbird seat reaping the benefit of that hard work.
I read a business book some years ago called The Attackers Advantage. Two quick points: The newcomer to a market often has a huge advantage as they are bringing in new technology with more future potential while the established players have vested interests in protecting technology with less future potential. The other surprising point is that established players rarely introduce new technology. Historically they are remarkably blind to the danger of the newcomer till it is too late. The comments of the Nokia executive are absolutely classic.