Steve Jobs is remembered for several things: for the Mac computer, the iPod, the studies Pixar, by the exaggerated cult of fabric around your figure of the visionary, and by their divers black neck turtle. But of all the innovations he was involved with, none achieved a higher success rate than the smart phone iPhone, that in 2017, played a decade shaking up the markets of mobile communication.
As in most of his great accomplishments, Apple was not the first to arrive, but the first to do so in an extraordinary way. The category ” smartphones existed before he was born the iPhone. Between 2003 and 2006 the former company Palm sold heaps of phones Treo, the great innovators in his time in the pioneering idea of merging the cell phone with the computer. And before Palm had done BlackBerry. And the story is back. Nokia created its first Communicator in 1996, and in 1992 appeared the first smart phone in history, the Simon, IBM. All with a touch screen, physical keyboard, a pencil or a wheel to interact with the device, and all geared to the corporate world. Designed to conquer the taste of executives important and well-paid that they could do their office work from these luxurious artifacts.
But it was the obsession of Steve Jobs to achieve a design win to mass whole, which allowed output to the market, in June 2007, the first iPhone, the phone that redefined the category of smartphones. No pencil, no keyboard, with a screen occupying almost the entire size of the device, exploiting a mode really new to the touch experience by the use of the fingers, and an operating system that marked the difference, easy to use and of pleasing appearance, the phone from Apple turned out to be a revolutionary innovation. It was not designed thinking in boring office tasks (although I could do them also), nor is it intended to imitate a computer, but it kept the appearance of the music player iPod, the star of the house Apple in those days. All smart phones from there imitarían the design of the iPhone.
The arrival of Apple to the mobile phone seemed to be a crusade quixotic. In 2007 there was Nokia in the global business of mobile phones with a production of 300 million devices per year, but executives of Nokia belittled the smartphones category and focused on the common telephone, which served only to talk. In the niche of smartphones, the undisputed leader was BlackBerry. Ten years later, the Nokia phones disappear and the BlackBerry are dying.
The app store App Store, created a year later, contributed to the popularization of the telephone. Apple unveiled last week the astonishing figure of 20,000 million dollars in revenue for developers of apps for the iPhone, iPad and Mac computers, as only in 2016. This ecosystem approach, with phone, store apps, and integration with the computer and an operating system the same on all devices, allowed for the success of the strategy of Jobs.
There are distances, of course, between that first iPhone 3.5-inch and camera of 2 megapixel camera that did not capture video, that you could not add new apps, but only that they came from the factory, and the iPhone 7 Plus newly appeared at the end of last year, with 5.5 inches, very oriented to photographic quality, with two cameras, rear 12-megapixel camera that introduced the wide-angle and telephoto for the first time in these devices, and with the operating system iOS 10, the true magic recipe of their success. The iPhone now has GPS and the assistant Siri, HD video, and comes in colors gold, pink and white. Even in that, you have to admit that Apple won the fashion.
The business context is different as well. Today it rivals with the powerful asian industry, with Samsung on top in total sales and with Huawei respirándole in the nape of the neck. The media discussed whether it was time for a reinvention of the popular iPhone, as there are already many models with similar appearance and has grown so much the innovative capacity of the competition, which is now the iPhone copy features of its rivals. Questioned its high price, it is clear that the company’s costs to maintain its sales levels, and since there are no rows from the eve of the release to purchase the first device. But the iPhone remains the phone more emblematic of the mobile era, which has sold more than 1,000 million units.
Apple has patented recently a design of a device whose screen occupies the entire area, which gave floor to the rumor that the next iPhone will not have a physical home button. Is all that can be said about the next generation. Apple never reveals its plans, so that anything that is said about the next version will be speculative, but a mark already achieved this product: it is the most notable success of the technological culture created by Steve Jobs.
What is said of the first Iphone
In 2007, were invented several things disruptive, as the car driven by solar energy, the dress is sensitive to the moods of the people, the flexible screen and a new type of rocket light created by Nasa; but the Time magazine chose the iPhone as the invention of the year.
But there were also a lot of skepticism. Most observers doubted that a manufacturer of computers would be able to assert itself in the world of mobile telephony.
"An appliance is not very good to send 'e-mails'". Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft.
"We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here on how to make a decent phone. The kids computer will not understand this. Not going to enter in." Ed Colligan, CEO of Palm.
"The iPhone is nothing more than an ornament of luxury that only attract a few fans of the 'gadgets'" (article on Bloomberg).
"Apple has attracted a lot of attention, but it is still a manufacturer of niche". Anssi Vanjoki, director of Nokia.
"The iPhone made us look old fashioned". Chris DeSalvo, an engineer of Google.
"How have you done that? Do you put a Mac on that thing?". Mike Kazaridis, CEO of BlackBerry.
No comments:
Post a Comment