
IPhone: The bet Steve Jobs didn’t decline - nreece
http://counternotions.com/2008/07/16/bet-iphone/
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tom_rath
I don't think the iPhone was so much a bet as it was an escape from a dying
market.

It's Apple's answer to the 2004 problem: "All phones will soon include free
MP3 players. As this will eliminate the iPod cash cow, how do we compete with
these new telecom competitors?

"Answer: We'll add a phone to our MP3 player."

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axod
Funny thing is the killer feature of the iPhone is not that it has a phone.
It's that it is a decent portable pocket internet tablet with edge/3g/wifi.
The fact it's called the i"Phone" is quite weird in a way I think, as I'm sure
90% of the usage on it is not phone related for most people. I had mine a
couple of weeks before I used it for making a voice call...

So I see it more as a "How can we make a cool pocket macbook which has a
killer browser" rather than how to save the iPod. After all, no other mobile
browser can compete at the moment.

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netcan
Yes that's true.

But it still plays in the phone league. It replaces a purchase of another
phone. If hadn't bought an iphone, you probably would have bought a nokia.

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mattmaroon
A lot of his "issues" would be issues for someone other than Steve Jobs, but
Jobs has never in his life had a thought like "[I] may think Jonathan Ive can
easily design the hardware, but [I]’ll have to invent a stunning UI and a
truly innovative interaction paradigm". Or at least he would never consider
that an issue.

His thoughts are more like "everyone designing interfaces for cellphones is a
fucking asshole who can't get their UI straight, and I'm going to do it
right."

Or so I imagine. Also a normal person might think "holy hell, I've got
pancreatic cancer" while Steve just shrugs and starts eating lots of carrots.

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kingkongrevenge
Speaking of carrots and cancer and Jobs, when it came out that he had cancer I
realized a lot of celebrity vegetarians have had cancer.

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mattmaroon
Most vegetarians just jumped from one unhealthy diet to another. They're still
eating as many preservatives and HFCS calories as anyone else, often more.

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UandIblog
He also had quite a miserable experience with the ill fated SLVR. This had to
have a considerable effect on the tactics used as he got into bed with AT&T. I
would imagine having his creativity vetoed by the suits at Motorola had a
silver lining.

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wallflower
If you haven't read this, nice feel-good-about-Apple-and-can-doism read: "The
Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry"

[http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_ipho...](http://www.wired.com/gadgets/wireless/magazine/16-02/ff_iphone)

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whalesalad
Seeing that capital "i" in the title hurts... I need eye bleach!

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netcan
Apple's like a case study in multiple competencies.

