Quote:
Originally Posted by Peregrine
Pfft. I had a Motorola Q.
I'm old.,..
|
I just remembered something about that Motorola Q. Had to look for that quote.
Back in 2007, the year the iPhone was introduced, Steve Ballmer, former CEO of Microsoft said:
"You can get a Motorola Q for $99. [...] [Apple] will have the most expensive phone, by far, in the marketplace. There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance!"
More from the same article:
"The vast majority of smartphones back in 2007 had hardware keyboards and, if they touch screens at all, those screens were almost all resistive and came with a stylus pen to aid in usability. Mobile apps were inconsistent and the mobile web was pretty much limited to WAP browsers.
While the iPhone certainly wasn't universally adored, the entrenched incumbents in the smartphone space were some of its harshest critics. That was, after all, their jobs."
Ed Coligan, former CEO of Palm:
"We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."
Mike Lazaridis, former CEO of RIM (now BlackBerry):
"Talk -- all I'm [hearing] is talk about [the iPhone's chances in Enterprise]. I think it's important that we put this thing in perspective. [...] Apple's design-centric approach [will] ultimately limit its appeal by sacrificing needed enterprise functionality. I think over-focus on one blinds you to the value of the other. [...] Apple's approach produced devices that inevitably sacrificed advanced features for aesthetics."
......
It was a very different world in 2007. Phone were just beginning to hit usable data speeds but bandwidth was still limited and expensive. The appeal of smartphones was also limited primarily to early adopters and enterprise, and hadn't yet approached mainstream adoption.
Palm and BlackBerry were both wrong. Smartphones would give way to pocket computers and "PC guys"—if they worked for Apple—were absolutely the ones to figure it out. And for consumers, the interface is the feature, so by tackling interface Apple was beginning to make those pocket computers accessible to everyone.
Microsoft, however, was at least half right. The iPhone was too expensive. That was, however, something Apple could and would change.
Google, an original iPhone launch partner, was both more perceptive, and more agile. They'd already bought Danger, the next generation phone platform created by Sidekick mastermind — and former Apple employee — Andy Rubin. They'd originally focused on making a Windows Mobile/BlackBerry-style competitor, determined to make sure Microsoft could never dominate the market and cut them out of the mobile future they so clearly recognized would be the next big thing.
Google's then-CEO, Eric Schmidt was on Apple's Board of Director's—and on stage for the iPhone event. He hadn't told Rubin what Apple was doing, however, or that Google would be giving the iPhone Maps and YouTube. Rubin was shocked. Collectively they realized Microsoft might not dominate mobile at all. Apple might. So, much to their credit, they spun around and refocused Android at the iPhone.
History repeating itself - Kind of eerie that Google was a partner of Apple in the early smart phone days, fighting off the dominance of Microsoft. Much like Microsoft was a partner of Apple in the early PC days, fighting off the dominance of IBM in computers. And they both screwed Apple to get in on the business.
More on this article here:
https://www.imore.com/history-iphone-original
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
(Like being older than dirt is now cool.)
