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.