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Yes, this is very different. Yes, it's for everyone. Yes, it's transforming lives. Yes, it's private. Yes, it's all about fostering meaningful relationships. And yes, it's incredibly easy to use.
It’s no different from something else that dramatically changed our lives
The introduction of the iPhone!
Just like the iPhone was a breakthrough that changed everything, this too is a game-changer. And just as the world changed once people started using the iPhone, the same transformation awaits here.
As it turns out, the iphone was a tough sell. On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs unveiled the original iPhone at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco. During his two-hour presentation on stage, Jobs attempted to explain how this new device would completely transform how we all used our phones.
The launch of the iPhone in 2007 was a significant moment in technology history, but it wasn't universally embraced at first. While Apple hailed it as a "revolutionary and magical product," many commentators were skeptical. The initial iPhone featured a touchscreen, a Safari browser, an iPod-like music player, and a 2-megapixel camera, yet some found it underwhelming. Critics pointed to its high price ($499 for the 4GB model), its exclusive availability on Cingular (later AT&T), and its reliance on 2G technology.
At a time when flip phones like Motorola's Razr dominated the market, the iPhone seemed overly ambitious. Some doubted whether it would live up to the hype. However, even amid the skepticism, many recognized the iPhone's potential to transform the industry. Looking back, the mixed reactions highlight how challenging it can be to recognize groundbreaking innovation in its early stages.
This reflects how public perception often lags behind technological advancement, only fully appreciating its impact years later.
THE TECH CEOS
Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft in 2007 : “There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It’s a $500 subsidized item. They may make a lot of money. But if you actually take a look at the 1.3 billion phones that get sold, I’d prefer to have our software in 60% or 70% or 80% of them, than I would to have 2% or 3%, which is what Apple might get.”
Former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein in 2007: “Is there a toaster that also knows how to brew coffee? There is no such combined device, because it would not make anything better than an individual toaster or coffee machine. It works the same way with the iPod, the digital camera, or mobile phone: It is important to have specialized devices.”
RIM’s Jim Balsillie: “It’s kind of one more entrant into an already very busy space with lots of choice for consumers . . . But in terms of a sort of a sea change for BlackBerry, I would think that’s overstating it.”
THE JOURNALISTS
“Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone . . . What Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong. If it’s smart it will call the iPhone a ‘reference design’ and pass it to some suckers to build with someone else’s marketing budget. Then it can wash its hands of any marketplace failures . . . Otherwise I’d advise people to cover their eyes. You are not going to like what you’ll see.” - John C. Dvorak, MarketWatch
“It is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks. In terms of its impact on the industry, the iPhone is less relevant.” - Matthew Lynn, Bloomberg
“The phone is a gamble on a new business for Apple. And even with its success with the iPod and a reborn line of computers, it has not been immune to marketplace failures, like the Macintosh Cube introduced in 2000” . . . [Jobs] said Apple had set the goal of taking 1% of the world market for cell phones by the end of 2008. That may seem small, but with a billion handsets sold last year worldwide, that would mean 10 million iPhones—a healthy supplement to the 39 million iPods that Apple sold last year. - John Markoff, the New York Times
THE PUBLIC
A comment thread on the tech site Engadget, rediscovered a few years ago by a Reddit user, had similar reactions:
“Apparently none of you guys realize how bad of an idea a touchscreen is on a phone. I foresee some pretty obvious and pretty major problems here.”
“I’m not impressed with the iPhone. As a PDA user and a Windows Mobile user, this thing has nothing on my phone.”
“I’ve got touchscreen buttons on my Samsung i730 and it sucks.”
“I mean it looks pretty but it’s not something I foresee being the next iPod for the phone industry.”
One person who did get it right was David Myers, who was the executive chef at Sona Restaurant in Los Angeles, where employees at the time used the Palm Treo. The New York Times asked him to chime in on its original story about the phone, Myers told the paper at the time: “It’s like they read our minds. This is the next step in not accepting poor design any longer.”
And The Rest Is History
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