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Origin of the iPhone
Journal written by rambilly (825222) and posted by
Soulskill
on Fri Jan 11, 2008 01:19 AM
from the contents-under-pressure dept.
from the contents-under-pressure dept.
rambilly brings us a story from Wired about the origin and development of the iPhone. From the article:
"Steve Jobs had tasked about 200 of Apple's top engineers with creating the iPhone. Yet here, in Apple's boardroom, it was clear that the prototype was still a disaster. It wasn't just buggy, it flat-out didn't work. The phone dropped calls constantly, the battery stopped charging before it was full, data and applications routinely became corrupted and unusable. The list of problems seemed endless. At the end of the demo, Jobs fixed the dozen or so people in the room with a level stare and said, 'We don't have a product yet.' The effect was even more terrifying than one of Jobs' trademark tantrums. When the Apple chief screamed at his staff, it was scary but familiar. This time, his relative calm was unnerving. 'It was one of the few times at Apple when I got a chill,' says someone who was in the meeting."
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Dupetastic! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Dupetastic! (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:Dupetastic! (Score:4, Funny)
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Spine Tingling (Score:2, Funny)
The second Windows was successfully put on a mac. 0_0
Compulsory... (Score:5, Funny)
gulp (Score:2, Funny)
Mobile Development (Score:4, Insightful)
TFA describes how Jobs and co. designed a great device, and makes the point that traditional mobile phone handset businesses has been stifled and denied the opportunity to innovate by network operators.
It is nice that Apple is innovating, and computing on telephone platforms is advancing.
But progress may still be limited by network operators for the time being because to deploy software or services, providers have to go through the network operators.
And to consume services, consumers must first access the networks through the network operators.
Round 1 to Apple with the iphone. Round 2 is software and services.
Can innovation in software and services flourish despite network operators trying to gatekeep and tax all revenue opportunities whether they understand them or not?Re:Mobile Development (Score:4, Interesting)
I don't believe this is a risk, at least everywhere except the US. I have a sybian phone, I can install whatever I like on it, without going through the teleco's network. Plenty of applications use web access on the phone just like apps on a regular PC - things like web browsers, chat apps, SSH, youtube, google maps, etc etc. I've even seen a web server for my phone. I've seen VoIP clients for my phone.
The teleco is just an ISP. We stil have network neutrality, and thats not likely to change. Yes, my teleco has their own lame walled garden of websites that you can browse for free, and download wallpapers and ringtones for an outrageous price - but there is nothing stopping customers (except stupidity) from going to a regular website and downloading the ringtones, wallpapers, 3rd party apps and whatever.
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But in the end I got a nokia 6110 navigator. The phenomenal ease of use of the nokia phones, plus a pretty good GPS kept me in the nokia camp.
I could in theory write S60 apps, but thats all C++ which I'm not very familiar with, and I've heard its a bitch of a development environment, compared to VS.
repeating lies (Score:3, Informative)
In fact, several major US carriers (AT&T, Cingular, T-Mobile, probably others) have had GSM systems for years. They work with third party GSM phones, including the fully programmable Palm, Windows Mobile, and Nokia devices. Furthermore, you can get unlimited data for fairly reasonable monthly fees in the US.
The notion that Apple is doing anything to rescue us
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Non-programmable? (Score:3, Interesting)
What, exactly, do you mean my 'non-programmable'? Developing Palm applications is quirky but not particularly hard, and I'm not aware of any Palm phone ever that wouldn't let you load third-party apps. The vast majority of the apps I use each day on my Treo 650 are third-party.
Do you mean the phone functions themselves aren't programmable? Maybe that was true at the introducti
bullshit (Score:3, Insightful)
You're bullshitting. Palm, Symbian, and Windows Mobile have been available unlocked and have not been tied to any carrier for years.
and both at first where also non-programmable (yes they where and anyone who says otherwise is a liar), and only opened up a year or two later.
Again, totally wrong. All three of those systems developed out of programmable PDA platforms. Even if they had been non-programmable a dec
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And my phone came free with my cell phone plan. It holds 8 gbs. Right now, two movies and thousands of songs and hundreds of pictures. It can transfer content very easily to virtually any device that accepts bluetooth, IR, takes a memory stick, or has a USB port. I can put any software on it I like v
Origin of the iPhone? (Score:3, Informative)
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Boom (Score:5, Funny)
FTFA : This 4.8-ounce sliver of glass and aluminum is an explosive device that has forever changed the mobile-phone business
What an appropriate metaphor to refer to the success of a product that is powered by a lithium-ion battery.
Suppose Sony-made batteries explode iPhones (Score:2)
If sony does make batteries for iPhone, and if those batteries explode iPhones, then legally Apple's lawyers have hit the jackpot with a huge lawsuit claiming:
1. Sony competes with Apple on mobile phones.
2. Sony makes batteries for Apple phones.
3. Sony-made batteries explode when used in Apple phones.
Even IF it is all smoke and no fire, am sure Sony lawyers would be very hard-pressed to force the judge to not see a conspiracy.
Plus suddenly a sony intern dele
Finally! They think about the terrists... (Score:2)
specs: will only explode in a radius of 20 miles; special edition will explode in a radius of 30 miles!
Bullshit! (Score:5, Funny)
Then, hovering in the air, surrounded by a wreath of misty light and cherubim, it received it's first call from God who delivered the three prophecies of Cupertina.
The first was a vision of Hell, which looked like an AT&T service agreement and 900 page bill.
The second was how to save (switch) souls from the clutches of Vista and delivered by the Virgin Mary herself in the guise of Ellen Feiss.
The third is held under tight guard by high ranking members of the Huckabee presidential campaign, and is to be revealed on the first New Moon after the current Pope dies.
So let it be written. So let it be dumb.
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I hate bosses like that (Score:5, Insightful)
The only reason to fear your boss is that your boss can effectively end your livelihood or career. Lauding power over people like that, throwing tantrums, and scaring your employees by staring them down or through false calm just makes me very happy I've never worked for such people. I've had some excellent bosses who've produced some excellent results and none of them have ruled by fear. There's one I remember who got accolades on retiring this year and all anyone could ever say about him was that he was calm and an absolute gentleman under pressure. In contrast when I read about Jobs and Gates I just think "goes to show money won't buy manners".
As for the iPhone can't say I understand what the fuss about this product is. Last time I participated in a discussion about it someone was rabbiting on about hacks to do video, as if video were an advanced feature for a modern phone. Please!
Re:I hate bosses like that (Score:5, Insightful)
This was about the first thing that struck me when I read the article - it really doesn't sound like a good working environment to me.
Also, I suspect working under that kind of pressure is going to significantly increase the number of silly mistakes being made - not great for the stability of the product.
As for the iPhone can't say I understand what the fuss about this product is. Last time I participated in a discussion about it someone was rabbiting on about hacks to do video, as if video were an advanced feature for a modern phone. Please!
I have still to work out what the iPhone's target market is. It isn't a smartphone - it's lacking in too many features that smartphone users expect from their phones (such as being able to run third party software, using the phone to connect their notebook to the internet, etc), yet it is priced up there with the smartphones (more expensive than many too, and most of the smartphones can do 3G).
Sure, the iPhone's UI is supposed to be excellent, but what's the good in a nice UI if the phone is lacking the the features the target market needs?
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first, it's NOT targeting the smart-phone market, it's targeting the consumer market. BIG DIFFERENCE.
not that it matters now anyway. last I heard it had a 30% of the smartphones sold in the US in the last few months, and has out sold ALL win-mobile based phones combined in that time frame. aparantly it's not doing too bad.
it is an open ended device in that it's easly upgradable by apple, at the moment. What's
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sorry, I can't believe that you can consider an iPhone to be targetting what you call the "consumer" market (as if smart-phones weren't aimed at consumers too). Let's see: It is pretty bulky and is really expensive - kind of like a smartphone. Certainly not the same market as "consumer" phones such as the Razr, etc.
not that it matters now anyway. last I heard it had a 30% of the smartphones sold in the
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Smart-phones are marketed to the consumer market, but they're designed for a technical or professional market. The iPhone, on the other hand, is both marketed and designed as a high-end consu
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Sure it does - it is missing many of the features that makes a smartphone a smartphone (no, having to apply un supported 3rd party hacks, or having to wait while Apple decides to allow access to *some* of the features does not count).
As an aside concerning the bulk, it's not a big deal in my experience. The iPhone is comfortable enough to hold up to your head for short periods of time.
Notice I said "bulk" not "weight" - the
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
As for your comment on the iPhone, you don't understand what the fuss is precisely because you think that more features make a better phone. Please!
*Your* MP3 player is crippled. (Score:3, Insightful)
Wait, wait, the iPhone is a phone with the computing power close to my current PC (an old VIA, I can bet the iPhone has a better GPU than my on-board one). Almost its full size is one big screen. Doesn't all this imply that it should be able to run videos easily?
Yes. And?
If I would want a phone with less features, I would bloody not spend 900 euros on it
That's you. I moved from a new P990i to an iPhone. It has a lot less features, but I actually use the features it has, and I'm a lot happier with it.
For example, if I want an MP3 player, I want to be able to mount it like a flash drive and copy music to and from it.
Why?
Okay, I get copying from. That's useful. Fortunately, the iPod actually does allow for this. All your music is stored in an invisible directory which can easily be accessed.
I just don't get the "copy to" thing, though. I hate those dumb players which force you to use the OS to put music on them when I actually use software to manage my M
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It really is the CEO (Score:2, Insightful)
Consider that Jobless made a few hundred million dollars and adoration from legions of fans while the engineers probably got a few tens of thous in bonuses and increased rent on their dumpy Sunnyvale apartments.
Re:It really is the CEO (Score:5, Insightful)
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News? (Score:2, Insightful)
Some boss has a tantrum in the past when a product is behind schedule.
Might have been news if it was reported AT THE TIME, before the iphone was released,
but now?
Nope..
If only other phone makers cared so much (Score:2)
iPhone is just another word for vendor lock-in (Score:4, Insightful)
I hate vendor lock-in. I hate being told how I can use something I bought. It's mine. I paid for it. I've earned the right to control it.
If a vendor wants my business, he needs to EARN it.
Another Friday... (Score:2, Funny)
Move along. Nothing to see here. Unless you're in the elitist minority.
The article is good, it just fails to mention (Score:4, Informative)
THE COMPETITION
When the article talks about all the things they needed to work out how the phone connects to networks and how the brain gets microwaved (or not) it fails to mention, that this is only news to Apple, not all the other mobile phone manufacturers of the world. Especially when the article talks about the phone being light years ahead it completely resolves into pure Apple fanboy talk.
Those are just three examples of phones that you could compare to the Iphone:
http://www.lge.com/products/model/detail/ke850.jhtml [lge.com]
http://www.htc.com/product/03-product_htctouch.htm [htc.com]
http://uk.samsungmobile.com/mobile/SGH-F700 [samsungmobile.com]
I have one just like the last Samsung model. Mine also has WLan and, like the Samsung, it has a full sized keyboard. Nokia is not even on that list. All of the phone makers have a wide variaty of phones to fit every customers preferred style. Candy bar being the best liked. Many have important features that the Iphone is lacking. Like UMTS support to get decent speed for surfing whe web. Opera build a decent web browser complete with a proxy that "refits" webpages so they look good on a small screen years ago. It is written in Java and works on many phones.
The mobile phone market has enough players that the competition actually works (not like the OS market for PCs). Of those three phones up the all of them use a different OS for example. The HTC model even uses Microsoft Mobile, an OS that sucks less and less with each version, because they face a steep competition by Symbian. And Google just joined.
There are just two things that were new with the IPhone. First was the touchscreen that you can operate on with more than one finger. A feature that is pretty cool and was therefore swiftly copied by everyone else.
The second thing is the Apple marketing. The only thing right now that makes Apple stand out. That and their tie in with Itunes. Itunes has such a large market share, it almost became a monopoly. And now they try to extend that power to other products and markets. Sounds familiar? Another reason why the IPod-ITunes connection works so good.
And that brings us to the last little thing which the article good completely right. Back in 2002 (I would say even earlier, but the article says that was when Jobs woke up to that fact) it became clear that phones will aquire more and more memory and computing power, just like the regular PC. Some people prefer to have funtions seperate on different devices. They like their music player, phone and PDA, or just one of them. Other people like to have everything in one device. And Jobs/Apple wanted to sell Ipods to those people as well. So the Ipod needed to become a phone and a PDA.
And it did. Ipod touch is a PDA and the Iphone is a smartphone.
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Re:dupe (Score:5, Funny)
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Re:"Dupe", my arse!! (Score:4, Interesting)
Obviously, it's more reasonable to believe that the editors remain in their jobs despite being so mentally incompetent that their keyboards should have short-circuited through filling up with drool, and that Slashdot keeps itself afloat financially through the generosity of the Magical Website Fairies...
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It has NONE of the hallmarks of a traditional smartphone.
"Most devices considered smartphones today use an identifiable operating system, often with the ability to add applications (e.g. for enhanced data processing, connectivity or entertainment) - in contrast to regular phones which only support sandboxed applications[citation needed]. These smartphone applications may be developed by the manufacturer of the device, by the network oper
So? (Score:2)
Which is all fine and good, but the iPhone is NOT A SMARTPHONE. At ALL.
Does it matter? What do people use their smart phones for? Personally, I mainly used my Palms and P**s for their calendars. The iPhone does that. It also has a working browser and an acceptable mailer, so it actually does more for me than the smartphones I've owned. And in february, there'll be an SDK, too.
Is the iPhone a smart phone? Depends ony our definition. Will it replace people's current smart phones? Hell yeah.
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Every phone runs an OS, so that by itself does not make a device a smartphone.
It has some sophisticated features, but it's lacking some basic features, like 3g, mms, non-purchased ringtones, java mobile, video recording,
And finally, 3rd party applications are N
Re:06-12-17 status of mobile os market share (Score:4, Insightful)
The reception of the IPhone in the European key markets (UK, Germany, France) has been lukewarm at best. I'm not saying that Apple may not be a threat to Symbian in Europe in the future, but for the time being they're far from it.
I'd wager that this is due to a fact of the abyssimal state of the US handset market. It isn't helped by the carriers who bolt down and cripple the handsets to borderline useless.
Apple will have a much more difficult time in Europe (let alone Japan) with the iPhone for a variety of reasons.
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Probably not the only error (Score:2)