[josai]

> > Apple invented the smartphone (and the tablet)

> No they didn't

While you're technically correct, the iPhone was such a leap over any previous effort that it basically redefined the meaning of the word. If you showed an iPhone 1 to someone today, they'd at least recognise it as an (old) smartphone. A blackberry from the same era? I very much doubt it, and frankly I'd agree. The word now means "iphone 1 or better".

You're right about myspace though (and friendster before them)

[gozo]

Apple wasn't the biggest problem for the mobile phone industry though. They made an early bet on technology that wasn't mature yet and while they had some head start, partly due to aggressive business practices, other companies were catching up. If anything Apple was leading the way for more profitability. What really changed the industry was Googles price dumping of mobile operating systems.

All the other successful smartphone companies today are hardware focused, while companies with strong software departments like Nokia and RIM are struggling. Which is sad because in a couple of years hardware is going to be good enough, while we have ended up with a similar triopoly as the desktop operating systems market is suffering from.

[blkhawk]

Apples or rather jobs main contribution to the rise of the smartphones was that he convinced the providers to allow mobile data at prices that were merely very expensive instead of astronomical like before. The other innovation that accelerated the emergence of smartphones tremendously was the realization that resistive touch screens are crap and won't ever get good enough for comfortable touch control. That pretty much made better on screen keyboards possible. Also i want to point out that the 1st gen iPhone was pretty much limited in what it could do initially - Apple got completely surprised by the magnitude of interest in mobile apps and games.