[dasil003]

Keep in mind this was right after the iPhone announcement. Although he lays it on a bit thick with the "Apple cult" nonsense, it's understandable given the extreme level of hype at the time. The analysis of the state of the industry was good, and really it's an amazing accomplishment that the iPhone was good enough that none of the powers that be could stop it.

The only part where he goes off the rails is this:

> Lastly, the iPhone is a defensive product. It is mainly designed to protect the iPod, which is coming under attack from mobile manufacturers adding music players to their handsets.

This is just a blatant misunderstanding of how Apple operates that anyone could have refuted in 2005, 2000, 1995 (maybe not quite as strongly here), 1990, or 1985. The potential of the iPhone as a smartphone was obviously a lot more than a simple music player even if its feature set seemed weak compared to Blackberry.

[meric]

It was both "defensive" and "offensive". Rather than standing still milking profits of the iPod until the entire market slowly dwindles as other mobile devices begin to incorporate music players as well, Steve Jobs moved onto the next thing with one foot firmly planted in the portable music player.

It was exactly how Steve Jobs operates, from the Apple II to the Macintosh (personal computer), from the Mac to the iPod (hardware + software), from the iPod to the iPhone (mobile device, battery). All transitions were done from positions of strength, stride to stride.