[spogbiper]

there were tons of smartphones on the market prior to the iphone. i used several of them. mostly windows mobile devices that required a stylus or keypad for input. they had apps stores, web browsers, email, etc. copy and paste, which the iphone lacked at release. from a functionality stance there were many options very much like the iphone available. the interface on the iphone was nicer for most things, and it had a nicer web browser. not a different world of functionality at all, just a bit nicer overall but also with some big trade offs.

[iknowstuff]

A world of difference. Completely different products.

[givinguflac]

Couldn’t agree more. Those amalgam windows mobile devices were an interesting for the time, but hellish experience imho.

[spogbiper]

i don't understand this take at all. what did the iphone do that the existing devices did not do?

[iknowstuff]

Multitouch

[spogbiper]

thats certainly a nicer input method, but is that what you're referring to when you say its an entirely different product?

[JoelMcCracken]

To me the primary answer was a fully functional web browser. the mobile web was extremely limited; I know, I used to use it on a windows pda device.

[iknowstuff]

Wait, were you not there? Did you not see how much the world changed pre vs post iPhone? In 2007 some nerds failed to see the forest for the trees and bitched about MMS but we have 2 decades of hindsight so let’s not. Why are we having this discussion