[toddmatthews]

Not sure I agree. When I first saw the 1st gen iPhone I was so impressed with it, I went out and got one a few days later. This is before the App Store. Yes compared to today it might “suck” compared to the latest version, but the first iPhone was super compelling by itself at the time and started selling very well

[wkat4242]

Yeah I used my iPhone 1 for 4 years until I moved to the phone 4 (a year after it was released because I couldn't afford it new). It was a great device, only let down by its ridiculously slow data connection.

[hattmall]

Yeah if the first version doesn't take off that's generally not a good sign. 1st Iphone did extremely well.

[jsjohnst]

> 1st Iphone did extremely well

Citation needed. The 1st gen iPhone sold 6 million units over two years. The Nokia N95 (not a super mainstream device, but in a similarish price category) sold 10M. Other Nokia phones of the time period sold 100+ million devices. BlackBerry, LG, and Sony/Ericcson was in the tens of millions per device model.

Let’s not forget:

1. The iPhone didn’t support 3G, which essentially all other phones of a similar price point had

2. Was only available for AT&T customers in the US (then still known as Cingular Wireless)

3. Cost significantly more ($500-600 w/ two year contract) than the average consumer paid for phones (almost always under $150 with contract, but usually “free”) at the time.

4. No App Store

5. No cut and paste

6. No removable battery

7. No physical keyboard (a positive for me, but was a deal breaker for so many back then)

That’s not to say the original iPhone wasn’t amazing in many ways, but let’s also remember the past accurately.

[goosedragons]

How many countries was the Nokia N95 available in VS. the 2G iPhone? I don't think it launched in Asia or most of Europe.

[jsjohnst]

> How many countries was the Nokia N95 available in VS. the 2G iPhone?

Way more, especially since the original iPhone was only available in the US for the first 5 months. It was available across Europe, North America, South America, China, and Australia at minimum.

> I don't think it launched in Asia or most of Europe.

The N95 was heavily across Europe, that was the primary market for it in fact.

[dnissley]

So you can see how it might not be a fair comparison?

[jsjohnst]

Sure do. But it’s also a quite a bit more expensive phone too, which helps level the playing field some. Either way, there will never be a perfect apples to apples comparison.

That said, there is sufficient evidence to support my claim made in my original post.

[tpmoney]

The iPod, iPad and Apple Watch are all products from Apple where the first version didn't take off. I'd say they did just fine and the iPhone is largely an outlier in Apple's history of new products. Even the initial iMac suffered relative to its later revisions.