Apple's iPhone… 5 Years Later

Back in the days when the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) and Macworld overlapped, with Apple actually participating in their namesake convention, news out of San Francisco derailed the events in Vegas January 9th, 2007. While an iPhone announcement wasn’t entirely a surprise, given years of speculation and rumor, the elegant simplicity of both its hardware and software was unlike anything we’d ever before encountered… or even imagined was possible in the mobile space. So despite launching at $500 – $600 without wireless carrier subsidies, as we’re accustomed to in the US , here’s what I concluded:

If the iPhone works as advertised, they’re going to sell a ton and really bring “smart phones” to the masses

Indeed, the iPhone has revolutionized the mobile industry. And then some. But I’ve never been part of the technological masses, dwelling more on the bleeding edge. Which is why, while the iPhone’s sex appeal tempted and I closely monitored its launch, I was something of a late adopter. Steve Jobs proclamation that Apple was five years ahead of the competition didn’t move me as I couldn’t see comfortably downgrading from 3G speeds to 2G EDGE and giving up Exchange synchronization or third party apps, like SlingPlayer Mobile. Not to mention the reservations I had in using a completely virtual keyboard and forgoing my trusty stylus. Of course, at some point I could no longer combat the allure and augmented my phone collection with a first gen iPhone. But it wasn’t actually until 2010 that I declared Apple’s mobile operating system feature complete and, along with GPS nav and improved camera optics, made the iPhone my primary mobile companion.

In regards to what comes next… The iPhone app ecosystem is massive and something many of us have come to rely upon – making it difficult to completely abandon Apple at this point. Yet, Siri doesn’t wow me and I pine for better notifications, widgets, and a larger screen. I assume Apple’s cooking up new solutions which will once again inspire and amaze me, but we seem to have returned to a place in time where I’ll take on additional handsets for gadget lust fulfillment.

5 thoughts on “Apple's iPhone… 5 Years Later”

  1. I think your experience is somewhat similar to mine, I had a lot of trouble with earlier missing features of the iPhone, I actually wound up buying one and returning it… it just didn’t meet my needs. I’ve joked to a few people that with iOS 5, they finally took iOS out of beta. You can finally change colors of calendars and use it independent of a PC, were my criteria.

    In the end, I wound up with an Android phone, which I love, and I haven’t looked back since. You can’t dispute how some of those new ideas in the first iPhone changed everything… the biggest one being that touch would be the only user input… and it had to work on everything… they keyboard and zooming included.

  2. You know, no matter how hard I tried to look for a smartphone that has a better looking than the iPhone 4, the final finding is always impossible. That’s why I love Apple’s product so much. It’s gadgets, if I have to put them into a sentence is ‘beyond imagination’. It just looks right.

    I don’t know about its durability or whatsoever but in terms of looking, it is right

  3. I remember trying an iPhone out shortly after it came out… and I was seriously underwhelmed by everything about it except for the general, high-quality physical feel of it.

    To this day, I have never quite understood the appeal of it, but I am clearly in the minority. Then again, I don’t even own any kind of smart phone, because I haven’t liked any other that I’ve tried either, so maybe I’m just a curmudgeon.

  4. I have owned an iPhone since the day it came out, and I still love it. It has completely changed what I expect from my “phone”. This morning I needed to find te phone number for a business – I brought up google maps, searched and found the business, checked how long it would take to get there from my home, called them, then sent an email to my work to tell them I wouldn’t be in today. All on my iPhone.

    My wife and I have found that our laptop computers are getting less and less use as more and more of our daily activities our done on the iPhone.

    And all without any carrier installed crap apps. Remember how bad it was before the iPhone with all the VCast apps, and stupid Java stores, and crappy mini browsers, and locked in carrier only stores and ring tones? Apple busted that wide open with the iPhone!

  5. I converted with the 3GS, after sticking with a company supplied Motorola Q for a long time. Company supplied Exchange Email access was great. The crappy experience, battery life etc eventually drove me to give up and pay for my own phone. Never looked back.

    Perfectly happy to live inside the Apple ecosystem myself. Also fine if Android supplies the needed push to keep Apple on their toes though.

    I too wish for a larger device. Played with a Motorola Droid RAZR today and I think at 4.3″, though with a relatively wide bezel, its a bit bigger than I’d be comfortable with, nevermind the 4.65-inch Nexus etc. I guess I just want something a LITTLE bigger, something I hope Apple will recognize in a coming generation. 3.9″ 4.0″ Don’t know. Hope its out there.

    Agree that the iPhone is a bit stagnant. Personally I think the notification system is fine now though. I would like to see a bit of change to the UI though. Not sure what–widgets, live icons, better/easier app/folder organization (tab naming? more apps per folder? easier app/folder management than one app at a time wiggle/drag to new page).

    Personally I think Siri is very interesting, thought it needs to evolve. I use it for reminders all the time now. Disappointed at the constant outages though. Needs 3rd party integration though, and constant evolution to understanding new requirements.

    Tired of installing anti-glare films! Fix it Apple!

    The glass back is STUPID. Aluminum? The rumored ceramic material?

    A quicker way to toggle Wi-Fi on and off or just less need to do so (seriously, as I’m driving the f away from my house why can’t you just give up and switch to 3G already before whatever I’m doing fails).

    More background tasks–I shouldn’t have to manually nurse my podcatcher through refreshing before I can let it return to the background while downloading. That’s stupid.

    Etc.

    All that said, I’m not going anywhere. Too much invested in the Apple ecosystem now to switch really.

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