I had a flip phone with a stylus and palm os in 2001 So i tell everyone I had a smart phone before them and you can’t convince me otherwise.
Couldn’t even foresee vests going out of style.
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They’re coming back. So I hear. I won’t be wearing one.
There were smartphone devices before Apple but Apple invented the modern smartphone.
There was chicken before KFC and hamburgers before McDonald’s.
No one is claiming KFC invented fried chicken or McDonalds invented hamburgers. At least I hope not.
But people are making the same type of analogy regarding tech and tech companies. And it’s equally meaningless–regardless of how much we may loath the founders in question.
The difference is that with tech companies, people really claim that Apple did come up with the first smartphone (as least what people commonly consider one to be). I thought that too until micro’s post above.
The only thing apple “invented” was bringing an existing tech (as noted touch screen phones + apps were already a thing) and wired it into the mac/apple ecosystem, which included itunes, which everyone was already using, and had a much more developer friendly OS, plus immediate significant user traction by the virtue of their fanboys. It was a leap forward but to say they invented the smart phone is a thing I know people believe but is ridiculous. It’s kind of like when people say elon founded paypal or has a physics degree without even questioning the validity of it, these companies/people love to perpetuate these misconceptions too
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Apple was able to sell it as a consumer device in a way that Palm and Blackberry never could. Because Steve Jobs was amazing at sales.
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It’s not just that. Palm and Blackberry were completely shit compared to an iphone.
I still remember my Palm. You were supposed to learn a whole new written alphabet just to be able to use the stylus to input. GMAFB
A better analogy might be that lots of people believe Henry Ford invented the motor car.
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My first iPhone was less capable than my last Palm phone in several ways, but it was much much cooler for sure.
Discovering that my first iPhone did not take video is what got me into jailbreaking.
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Jailbreaking…that’s a real blast from he past. Does anyone even do that any more? I assume there is probably still some value in doing that.
The moderators of this message board, otatop, L.Washington, WichitaDM, Yuv, JonnyA, RiskyFlush, and SvenO, are cowards who let abusers dox and harrass other long time posters.
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Grunching but iphone slappies are a sad breed. The end.
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I’m lazy AF. I’ve posted that exact phrase on here at least a couple of times today. And at least once a week. Most recent instance:
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Say what you want about the iPhone 74, but anyone who experienced the original iPhone and didn’t feel like the thing was fucking magic is pretty suss to me.
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blackberries were pretty awesome way before smart phones. I loved my blackberry more than my first android. Blackberries just didn’t have apps. They were superior outside of that.