Originally Posted by Helbore:
“Apple have some amazing marketing skill. Smartphones had been around for years. I bought my HTC Blue Angel (running Windows Mobile) back in 2003. It was a fantastic phone for its time and everyone I showed it to was in awe. But that was the problem; no-one knew it even existed until I showed it to them. It wasn't available for consumer purchase on any network. You either needed to buy the "XDA" branded version on o2 business or you bought it full-price as an unlocked handset.
Then Apple waltzed in to the market (clearly because they realised the PMP market was in its death-throes and smartphones were going to take their place) and managed to sell the smartphone to the masses. Prior to this, smartphones were business tools generally only owned by the tech-savvy. Apple made them something the average Joe on the street wanted. Consequently, the average Joe sees Apple as the inventor of the smartphone and companies like HTC are "rip-off" copycats, even though they've actually been in the market for years longer.
Apple's biggest advantage was that the smartphone market had stagnated. It wasn't large and the main players were offering minor updates every few years. Apple had an opportunity to enter the market with something new, when others were practically standing still. In their credit, HTC had clearly seen the writing on the wall, as they were trying to develop bolt-on improvements to WinMo in order to keep it fresh.
So in came Apple and they released a phone with an incredible fanfare. It rode in on the back of the iPod's success and convinced the uninformed majority that it was a totally new type of phone. To anyone tech-savvy, it was a joke of a device; a half-arsed effort to create a smartphone. It lacked 3G, it had no third-party app capability, it even lacked simple things like stereo bluetooth support. But then most people were totally unaware there were phones out there that already had these features, so their lack of presence didn't stop most people.
The success of the iPhone is a matter of incredibly shrewd marketing. It took an existing market, added some impressive eye-candy and convinced a new, large section of the population that they just invented a new market.
You've got to give it to Steve Jobs; he knows how to sell technology.”
The fact you state that smartphones existed before the iPhone and back that up by mentioning a product running Windows Mobile clearly illustrates you have a limited understanding of "smartphones" and what Apple brought to the market which was new and refreshing and better than anything else on the market.
For a start most of these so called smartphones were a pain in the ass to use and Windows Mobile is right up there with the biggest offenders. Its just about the shitest OS, shitest UI that ever flashed its way onto a chip, backed up by the year on year fall in people wanting to use such devices.
There were other devices running proprietory software and they were just as bad. Yes they got the job done, but it was like pulling teeth navigating the UI.
I used many of these devices, and frankly iPhone brought alot to the market which was not there before and since that first 2G model they have brought alot more...alot of which has been copied and immitated.
In fact, its probably thanks to Apple, that the smartphone market is what it is today.
