[af_vet_rr]

This is going to be bigger than the introduction of the Macintosh. Apple has vertically integrated the music business, and this device should make them one of the biggest phone hardware and service providers in the years to come.

The funny thing is - Nokia, Palm, Sony, HTC, LG, etc., all could have done this phone before now. Instead we have this mish-mash of interfaces, that take way too many keystrokes to do what most people want. As well, the web experience is not too hot on even dedicated smartphones (the HTC Wizard, aka Cingular 8xxx series).

There is no reason why a company could not have worked on a phone like this, and provided a good, fast, easy to use user interface before now, except for a lack of vision.

Like somebody said on another forum, most phones these days are designed by engineers. The iPhone is designed by designers - people who have actually studied how phones are used, what people want, etc. The Apple engineers then had to make it work, and they did. Just like the iPod.

[Aquinasfan]

The funny thing is - Nokia, Palm, Sony, HTC, LG, etc., all could have done this phone before now.

I was thinking the same thing. Apple did have an advantage with the popularity of iTunes, but Sony had the resources to challenge Apple with their own music library. Certainly other companies could have designed a button-free interface.

There is no reason why a company could not have worked on a phone like this, and provided a good, fast, easy to use user interface before now, except for a lack of vision.

Yup. It reminds me of the mini-computer versus PC days. Where are Prime and Wang now?

Like somebody said on another forum, most phones these days are designed by engineers. The iPhone is designed by designers - people who have actually studied how phones are used, what people want, etc. The Apple engineers then had to make it work, and they did. Just like the iPod.

That's the heart of the matter. The consumer electronics company that I work for is just beginning to acknowledge the importance of the user interface, etc. But it's still an engineering-driven company. Non-engineers are still looked down on. Oh well. Some companies have to learn the hard way.