Yeah, totally... a full touchscreen computer in your pocket with no physical keyboard, pinch-to-zoom magic people thought was CGI, a browser that wasn't a joke, visual voicemail, and an OS so smooth it made every other phone look like it ran on car batteries. Truly underwhelming stuff.
It literally redefined an entire industry, vaporized half the product lines at Nokia/BlackBerry/Palm/Microsoft, and set the blueprint for every smartphone that exists today.
But sure..."unimpressive."
This is the weirdest revisionist history I've ever heard.
If you mean that the iPhone has come a long way and that it was unimpressive relative to the phones we have 18 years later, sure. But unimpressive it was not.
> This is the weirdest revisionist history I've ever heard.
I thought we were supposed to find less abrasive ways to engage each other, around these parts.
In any case, I admit that I could have phrased it better.
What I meant, was that “professionals” laughed at it (and there were a lot of them), but “customers,” did not.
I worked for a company, where they literally laughed in my face, when I told them “This thing will be trouble for us.” A few years later, their own product line was a smoking crater in the ground.
> Don’t forget how unimpressive the iPhone was, when it was first introduced
We have very different recollections, then. People audibly gasped when Steve demoed slide-to-unlock on stage. The first generation was sold out for a long time despite being eye-wateringly expensive compared to competing devices like the BlackBerry.
The VP is cool, but it's still hard to see a future where everyone has one. As soon as I got my original iPhone it was clear that it changed everything going forward. The entire market changed on the spot. The VP has not done that, even if it may ultimately be successful.
Given the VP price, it’s clear that it’s aimed at high-end “fancy toy” buyers; not mainstream users.
I have not used one, but everyone I know, that did test one (and I don’t know anyone that actually brought one), has that “Moses coming off Mount Sinai” look [0]. It’s clear that Apple has done a great job of implementing an AR platform, but the price is far too high to fairly compare to the iPhone I, which was pricey, but not inaccessibly so.
If they are effective in reducing the cost, and improving the comfort, we may see some real success.
Don’t forget how unimpressive the iPhone was, when it was first introduced. It has probably become the most successful product in history.