In what aspect? There were mobile devices with installable applications. And Samsung already had a phone with that form factor.
Comment on What DID Apple innovate?
Quaternions@lemmy.world 6 months ago
The iPhone. It was revolutionary when it came out.
MeanEYE@lemmy.world 6 months ago
thecrotch@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
And who bought them before iPhone came out? There were tablets before the iPad. Nobody bought them either.
MeanEYE@lemmy.world 6 months ago
A lot of people. If you went with idea they sold previously business oriented devices to regular users, I’d give you that. But it’s not like Apple invented that format or form. I advise everyone watch documentary on Springboard, which was really really ahead of its time. When everyone was messing around with dumb phones, Springboard was working on unified device with camera built-in, connectivity, etc. In fact they were too early with their product, ten years before first iPhone. More to the point, Jobs visited Springboard, said their product was shit, and went on to produce the exact same device with better polish, which was a dick move in my opinion, but that’s business. But saying Apple invented smartphones or refined them. No. It’s an iterative process like everything else.
thecrotch@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Apple doesnt create products. Apple creates markets. Nobody bought modern phones before the iPhone. They existed, nobody bought them. Nobody bought tablets before the iPad. They existed, nobody bought them. Nobody bought mp3 players before the iPod. They existed, nobody bought them. Everyone bought them after, and not just from Apple.
toofpic@lemmy.world 6 months ago
This is the phone I had as my own and sold to my customers. It came out a year before iPhone among many others. It was a mature product. It was quite shitty in terms of performance, but it had all connectivity and gps stuff, and many apps to work with it all.
Windows’ shitty interface could be improved by cool touch-oriented interfaces (Spb Mobile Shell being one of them), there were 3rd party keyboards as well. m.gsmarena.com/htc_p3600-1694.php
JaymesRS@literature.cafe 6 months ago
No wireless. Less space than a Nomad. Lame.
thecrotch@sh.itjust.works 6 months ago
Maybe so, but the fact remains that nobody bought mp3 players before the iPod, and everyone bought one after.
DJDarren@thelemmy.club 6 months ago
I had several Symbian/WinMob phones prior to getting my first iPhone, and I never, ever want to return to those days. Sure, they were fine for the time, but using iOS for the first time was a revelation.
toofpic@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Nope, there was a lot of Windows Mobile smartphones before iPhones and Androud devices. WiFi, Bluetooth, GPS, phone, thousands of apps, “full browser” (I don’t know what a commenter meant by that, but I could use internet normally)
When iPhone appeared, it was sooo limited. A couple of my regular customers (I was selling qtek/htc smartphones) bought them, but then came back to me: “uhhh, this thing doesn’t allow attachments in emails”, “uhhh, do you have normal maps app for that? can’t drive with that”rottingleaf@lemmy.zip 6 months ago
These comments are from people who wouldn’t care about PDAs before iPhone.
I have big clumsy sweaty fingers and struggle even with today’s big smartphones.
I was a kid back then, but those PDAs would have normal keyboards and a stylus and an OS with a UI not feeling as if it were made for asylum patients.
But that’s not important, why would one even defend against really functional systems something the main features of which were “look how I can zoom pictures with two fingers on that thing”, “look how cute it looks, shiny” and “look, nice icons, you’ll wanna lick 'em”.
BoastfulDaedra@lemmynsfw.com 6 months ago
I miss my old Nokia.
You could write custom apps and load them onto it over Bluetooth.
masterspace@lemmy.ca 6 months ago
Them building a smartphone around a capacitive touchscreen with a software keyboard was the primary innovation of the iPhone.
A full browser that rendered webpages is not an innovation, that’s a result of increased processing power letting them port more browser code over. Pinch to zoom interfacing on a browser might be an innovation, but a web browser on a mobile phone was not innovative, just iterative.
specseaweed@lemmy.world 6 months ago
All the browsers were complete shit though. That was iterative but it felt huge.
Imma let y’all finish but the Palm Pre was the GOAT
AVincentInSpace@pawb.social 6 months ago
I miss webOS dearly. I still have my HP TouchPad. It could put apps in the background and pick up like nothing happened from a recents screen in 2009. IIRC iOS wouldn’t follow suit until 4 years later.
PeachMan@lemmy.world 6 months ago
It literally created the modern smartphone market. The Palm Pilots and Blackberries of the day couldn’t compare: the iPhone had a FULL BROWSER. It was insane. The team developing Android saw the iPhone and had a real “holy shit” moment, they had to go back to the drawing board and completely start over in order to compete.
gdog05@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Full browser might be an overstatement. It was still a web full of Flash at that time. And it caused a pretty major limitation on the browser. If there wasn’t an app available, you were often SOL. I do think it sped up the demise of Flash on the web considerably.
ISometimesAdmin@the.coolest.zone 6 months ago
That's unironically an innovation right there
rottingleaf@lemmy.zip 6 months ago
Why? It was a decent technology.
PeachMan@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Sure, a browser minus Flash, but it was still a real browser. Most of the web functioned without Flash. And none of the competition even had anything close. It was such a revolutionary product that the iPhone didn’t even HAVE competition until Android got its shit together, which took a couple years.
zurohki@aussie.zone 6 months ago
This. Being able to actually open all those sites that used Flash was a big advantage of Android back then.
PeachMan@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Yeah, Android had that advantage LATER, when they got their shit together. But when the iPhone initially released, it changed the game.