In response to a post on Shacknews regarding woeful state of so-called competitors to Apple’s iPad, a former Research In Motion employee shed some light into what really went on inside RIM, Microsoft and likely every other cellphone maker on the planet, right after Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced iPhone to the world on January 9, 2007.
All these companies were fighting over what amounts to overgrown PDAs with phones and wireless stacks strapped on. Everyone assumed power density was no where even close to what was needed for general computing, that a full featured browser and heavy duty Internet services were impossible due to bandwidth and latency. Take a look at how our Java expert groups named standards, how people at the time talked about what features smart phones should have, and its clear that no one thought an iPhone was possible. Even Danger, which eventually [led to] Windows Phone 7 and Android, was just working on a better Blackberry.
The iPhone did many amazing things, but what stands out in my mind was how it proved that these assumptions were flat-out wrong beyond any reasonable doubt. Apple pretty gave everyone the finger and said, “Fsck you guys we can build your distant impossible future today.”
I left RIM back in 2006 just months before the IPhone launched and I remember talking to friends from RIM and Microsoft about what their teams thought about it at the time. Everyone was utterly shocked. RIM was even in denial the day after the iPhone was announced with all hands meets claiming all manner of weird things about iPhone: it couldn’t do what they were demonstrating without an insanely power hungry processor, it must have terrible battery life, etc. Imagine their surprise when they disassembled an iPhone for the first time and found that the phone was battery with a tiny logic board strapped to it. It was ridiculous, it was brilliant.
I really don’t think you’re giving Apple enough credit here. They did something amazing that many very prominent people in the industry thought was either impossible or at least a decade away, and they did it in a disgustingly short time frame.
Full post via Shacknews here.
MacDailyNews Take: Unsurprising. As always, anyone who tells you their device is “as good as” an iPhone, iPad, iPod, or Mac are lying and/or in denial. Which reminds us:
[Attribution: Electronista. Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Fred Mertz” for the heads up.]
@G4Dualie
Back in the mid to late nineties Motorola had cell phones that did little more than phone calls going for over $1000. The RAZR before it became ubiquitous was going for $600 before carrier subsidies. The Verizon variant lagged by 2 years because of power hungry CDMA radios. Lets not forget that Compaq , HP, Dell and Palm all tried their hands at Mobile computing and some later added cellular telephony to the package. The devices were heavily restricted on Networks like Verizon and they costs way more than $600 unsubsidized. I had a Motorola Q on Verizon, the way I was treated as a customer was like a cow in the milking stable, apps bought on the Verizon market place were a monthly charge. Apps like Delorme Map driving software on SD flash with a blue tooth GPS antenna cost $250. The mini windows suite was over $100, the camera was lousy. By the time you would outfit this phone to just the capability of the first generation IPhone you’re talking over $800 even with a subsidy for the phone.
No one here is saying Apple invented the Smartphone category just that they redefined it in a way that was useful to the rest of up not a few road warrior and corporate IT geek that either get that stuff paid fro by their businesses or written off on their taxes. Also none of it would have happened without AT&T’s buy in for all the criticism they receive.
The reason everyone flocks to the Windoze stuff is control. Humans don’t like having things out of their hands and in someone elses because they don’t feel in control. Anyone agree.
Dagger… I believe people flock to Windows stuff when they don’t know any better.
I believe the real reason for Apple’s success is we, the Ten-Percenters, who have been supporting Apple since Day One, and who refused to give in to the majority.
We deserve all the credit for keeping Apple afloat through even the worst of times.
We continued to buy products that never should have seen the light of day.
We paid our dues to support our local Apple User Groups.
We subscribed to barely-solvent publications, many of which didn’t survive, just to glean some insight into our culture and its products.
No other tech company in history can boast of the kind of loyalty we Ten-Percenters showed for a company that 80-percent of the computer-using world refused to even acknowledge.
To them Apple was a toymaker and for good reason, computing wasn’t simple, it was a complicated process and those who could harness its power had a gift.
That same reasoning is applied to every aspect of their lives, including their relationships, financial matters, foreign affairs, health care, you name it, they brace themselves for a fight over everything. They’re just wound too tight.
I don’t acknowledge Steve Jobs as a genius, who is often credited with turning Apple around, because to me, all he did was get Apple back on track after twelve-years of their faking it. The pretenders to the throne probably asked themselves everyday, what would Steve do.
Apple’s manifesto is simple, make an insanely great product, not a great many products. As long as they continue to make products for us Ten-Percenters, there will always be an Apple.
This is 2010 – the moving finger has written and moved on. Yes, the iPhone was very revolutionary, a device that was only possible in part because of the crazy prices you Mac users are willing to spend, the same as the iPad is revolutionary. But now the iPhone is old news – lots of phones now are just like the iphone, have the same features and cost a fraction. 3 years from now the iPad won’t be anything special either.
@ Mr. Reeee,
You nailed it bruh’….that mentality hasn’t changed since Xerox mocked their own invention of the computer GUI and Mouse. These companies only think of the bottom line and not the product, innovation and how to make users truly happy and appreciative of their products.
Apple not only has the company culture of innovation but they also can give other companies a lesson or two in PROPER business strategies in marketing, growth and profit. I’m sheeesh….they are selling their products like crazy RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF A RECESSION!!!!! Talk about market influence….whooop der’ it is!!!!
@Bobchr
Where I make the distinction for Apple’s success is, they were a terrific computer maker first and they simply added telephony to the mix.
Long after the phone stops ringing people are using their iPhones for computing and that is what separates Apple from its competitors.
Before that, people bought cell-phones for telephony. Apple changed the game by introducing a sophisticated hand-held computer that could also make phone calls.
The phone guys have got the telephony part down pat, they just suck at the computer part and that is why Apple has a commanding presence.
Look at Google as an example. They brought in a Linux-variant to develop a UI and coupled it with an existing cell-phone and have been Apple’s only real competition. In other words, Google copied Apple’s recipe of creating a decent “computer” on which to add telephony.
It’s only a matter of time before others figure out people want something more than a phone.
@Bobchr
I had a motorola donkey dick in 1995. My employer made me carry it but I rarely used it.
Ballmer is an idiot; he’s nothing more than a [sugared-water] salesman/ cheerleader.
His tenure will eventually be viewed as the destruction of MS.
May Ballmer remain CEO for as long as it takes… *tink*
That MDN link to source ends up on a page with the words “Bad id”.
That “id” reference took me off on a tangent and wondering whose “id” has gone bad in all this. Then I thought of all those hubris-filled executives at RIM, Palm/HP and of course, Balmy himself.
[In case you’re wondering, according to the dictionary in MacOSX, “id” is “the part of the mind in which innate instinctive impulses and primary processes are manifest.”]
As for the defective link, I guess Shacknews got “leaned” on by some corporate legal department to kill the page with this incredible post…
One of the things that has always impressed me about Apple is their refusal to succumb to the concept of “Design by Committee.” This is, and has been, Microsoft’s Achilles Heel for the last 10 years.
Apple believes in hiring the most talented people in the field, and letting them form groups to do what they do best. Because the standards at Apple have been set high, motivation is built in… build groundbreaking products with beautiful design, attention to detail, and unparalleled functionality that people will fall in love with. As an example, my sister started using a Mac a year ago. She never cared about her PC before. Then she bought an iPhone and was blown away. That led her to a decision that I have been trying to sway her towards for a decade… to buy a MacBook. She LOVES her computer now. Actually enjoys using it. This was new to her, as she had been using Windows since 98.
In some respects it is marketing in it’s purest sense. But instead of trying to determine what to build based on consumer needs, Apple builds what the consumer never knew they could live without.
Ballmer: “(Zune) We have 25% of the high end”…. then seconds later “we have 20%”… Reality: They had less than 2%.
Does he wonder why no-one takes anything he says seriously? Outright lies, “statistics” exaggerating by a factor of 10, long-term, long-standing deception of the market? Really, how can this bozo have kept his job for 5 minutes, let alone many years?
Apple shareholders must be supremely grateful to him.
The worrying thing for Google’s future is that Eric Schmidt is in the same mold.
Another major “Think Different” strategy is that Apple is completely willing to piss off their end-users with major changes to the OS – Windows is waaaaaay more unwilling to do the same because they are frightened of killing their “golden business goose” that keeps on a-layin’ and a-layin’ and will continue to lay the most golden of eggs for the foreseeable future…
(Keyword: foreseeable…)
Thanks for your comments, a great read.
For me it looks like this
Apple are the ones with all the big ideas, Apple has the vision and knows how to execute it. Apple has the foresight and everyone else just follows and copies. How can copiers be the winners in this game?
Copiers are always the winners, because they reduce the price.
Het Steve….. EPIC FAIL!!!!!!!!
Hey Steve……… EPIC FAIL !!!!!!!!!
(Sorry I was typing so fast the first time, I fudged it up)
@ g4 Dualie
You nailed it. I am a grey haired battle hardened veteran ‘early adopter’ of the original Windows/ Apple wars. I can now smile every time I walk by an Apple store, or see a Ipad or macbook in use in public. Kind of valditing for me because I bought my first Apple product in 1985 – an apple IIC Being a grad student, Icouldn’t afford a mac), and haven’t looked back since. In 26 years I have only had to own – 7 different models. I just kept upgrading the OS until they couldn’t be upgraded anymore, or it wasn’t financially feasible to repair. In fact I still have the original Imac that I watch DVD’s on and a 2006 macbook on it’s last legs (been saying that for about a two years now- hope it breaks soon so I can rationalize the purchase of a new Air or Ipad- can’t quite decide). So yes many of us have been with Apple for a long time. I haven’t liked all the products Apple has made, but enough for me to stay keep buying Apple over any other computer year after year after year. I just wish I had bought Apple Stock back then $35. a share.
BRAVO @G4Dualie ! ! !
It’s great to have a simple summary of what it’s like to be an Apple ‘fanboi’ every once in a while.
“I believe the real reason for Apple’s success is we, the Ten-Percenters, who have been supporting Apple since Day One, and who refused to give in to the majority.”
When the majority = mediocrity, there will always be those of us who refuse to settle for boring and ‘good enough’. We will always kick the can down the road another few feet, annoying the sheeple along the way.
I’m just so waiting for Apple to deliver a knockout punch to staggering Windows. There just has to be some tipping point that’s going to be coming soon and it could be the iPad 2 with total cloud connectivity. There are going to be so many relatively new iOS devices around and Apple just needs to tie them together and consumers are going to toss their Windows computers by the wayside. Maybe it’s just wishful thinking but I can feel it in my bones. iPad 2 sales may end up being limited by how many Apple can produce a month. It’s an awesome prospect.
I use a first gen iPhone. I only bought it about six months ago, used but in excellent condition, for about $100. It’s an amazing piece of tech, even three+ years after it was released, and almost four years after it was announced. It does everything I need, without benefit of iOS 4, which would just bog it down (it runs 3.1.3). I think iPhone 4 looks better, but the first gen iPhone was better looking compared to iPhone 3G and 3GS; I would never put an ugly case over it.
I may get a used 3GS when they start to go “off-contract” next summer, and those owners begin replacing them with “iPhone 5” (or whatever it’s called). But then again, I’m pretty happy with my ol’ 4GB iPhone “2G” (I use it as an iPod touch that can make phone calls). Even the battery is still in decent shape.
The original Shacknews post by Kentor has been pulled. Somebody pls post a link to it in Google cache or elsewhere.
Thanks
That particular Ballmer-the-loser video never gets old. I laugh at it every time I watch it. Anyone want to place a bet on how long Ballmer-the-loser will stay on as MSFT’s CEO?!
Here’s the link to the comment. Still trying to find the original post.
http://www.shacknews.com/laryn.x?id=24858119
@iCupertino
I feel the same way. We knew that Ballmer was full of it when he said it and it is funny over and over again, like one of the three Stooges catching it in the nuts.