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New York, 7:23 AM
Fri Dec 11
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    Dsmvwl  Admin  Promote to frontpage Approve user Ban user ×
    Image of diesel828 diesel828
    12/02/09

    In reply to Top 5 Assclowns Laughing at the iPhone Back in 2007
    I'm glad this post was done because I'm sure most of them thought they were in the clear. We remember you, assclowns!
     Reply
    diesel828 was starred diesel828 was unstarred
    Image of OMG_changed_my_name! OMG_changed_my_name!
    12/02/09

    @diesel828: Next year, when Windows 7 has 5-10x the marketshare of Mac OS X, let's come back and do a post on this:

    [www.engadget.com]

    Is Phil an assclown too?
     Reply
    Nathan Obbards promoted this comment OMG_changed_my_name! was starred OMG_changed_my_name! was unstarred
    Image of diesel828 diesel828
    12/04/09

    @OMG_changed_my_name!: Nah, he's not. Because it's true. Windows will always be Windows.
     Reply
    diesel828 was starred diesel828 was unstarred
    Image of OMG_changed_my_name! OMG_changed_my_name!
    12/04/09

    @diesel828: So you are an assclown then as well...
     Reply
    OMG_changed_my_name! was starred OMG_changed_my_name! was unstarred
    Image of ludwigk ludwigk
    12/02/09

    In reply to Top 5 Assclowns Laughing at the iPhone Back in 2007
    I like how Rubenstein, who worked on the iPod, was poopoo'ing the device while cooking his own competitor up at Palm. That's not so much assclownery as much as sleight of hand on his part.

    I suppose Anssi Vanjoki could still be correct, if, say, 5-10 years from now the iPhone is as esoteric as Macintosh computers in 1997. I love the iPhone now, but will it be relevant in 5 years time (the future iPhone, not this current one, which will be junk in a landfill or melted for scrap by then)?
     Reply
    ludwigk was starred ludwigk was unstarred
    Image of redman042 redman042
    12/02/09

    In reply to Top 5 Assclowns Laughing at the iPhone Back in 2007
    Ballmer: "You can get the Motorola Q right now and it does music and chat and internet... I'm very happy with our strategy."

    Um... how's Windows Mobile working out for you now Steve? Oh, and I owned a Q, and hated it from day 1.
     Reply
    redman042 was starred redman042 was unstarred
    Image of Bokusatsu_Tenshi Bokusatsu_Tenshi
    12/02/09

    In reply to Top 5 Assclowns Laughing at the iPhone Back in 2007
    Because if it was Steve Jobs laughing at some new competitor product that did work out later on, he'd be only defending his company.
    It would be only a basic strategy for a competing company.
    Moreso, it would be an intelligent way of marketing their own product, and even a bit "cool" and "ballsy".

    Predictions are made all the time by all companies. Lots of them get it wrong.
    In Ballmer's case here, like it or not, he had lots of good points there which are still valid today.
     Reply
    Bokusatsu_Tenshi was starred Bokusatsu_Tenshi was unstarred
    Image of BeyondtheTech BeyondtheTech
    12/02/09

    In reply to Top 5 Assclowns Laughing at the iPhone Back in 2007
    Don't forget this assclown.
     Reply
    BeyondtheTech was starred BeyondtheTech was unstarred
    Image of njdevil njdevil
    12/02/09

    @BeyondtheTech: "That's a Serious Package, Folks. "

    Why isn't that guy on TV?!

    (aside from this one time.)
     Reply
    BeyondtheTech promoted this comment njdevil was starred njdevil was unstarred
    Image of BeyondtheTech BeyondtheTech
    12/02/09

    @njdevil: I can picture him silhouetted onto a porno a la "Mystery Science Theater 3000" saying the same phrase.
     Reply
    BeyondtheTech was starred BeyondtheTech was unstarred
    Image of njdevil njdevil
    12/02/09

    @BeyondtheTech: Totally.

    "Looks like she got the short end of the stick there, America."
     Reply
    njdevil was starred njdevil was unstarred
    Image of Segador Segador
    12/02/09

    In reply to Top 5 Assclowns Laughing at the iPhone Back in 2007
    I especially love Rubenstein's quote. Right, no one wants intuitive devices that do many things well.
     Reply
    Segador was starred Segador was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @Segador: Well, you've got to explain Nokia's marketshare somehow.

    I kid, seriously. I like having four different ways to exit apps with or without closing them. I'd get bored if there was just one, obvious way of accomplishing things.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of Hello Mister Walrus Hello Mister Walrus
    12/02/09

    In reply to Top 5 Assclowns Laughing at the iPhone Back in 2007
    Plus, talking shit about competitors is probably part of these guys' jobs. They will do it even if they believe that another company is about to revolutionize the industry.
     Reply
    Hello Mister Walrus was starred Hello Mister Walrus was unstarred
    Image of AlphaPepper AlphaPepper
    12/02/09

    @Hello Mister Walrus: I agree. There's just better ways to do it. I'm 40, maybe too old to get the shoot-from-the-hip commentary that's often used on this site. I still enjoy the site though.
     Reply
    AlphaPepper was starred AlphaPepper was unstarred
    Image of Aetius Aetius
    12/02/09

    @AlphaPepper: It's got nothing to do with being 40. I'm 25 and this post is low-brow at best. It's unprofessional and tabloid-level.
     Reply
    Nathan Obbards promoted this comment Aetius was starred Aetius was unstarred
    Image of Ashley Youngblood Ashley Youngblood
    12/02/09

    In reply to Top 5 Assclowns Laughing at the iPhone Back in 2007
    to be fair to Jesus:

    This is not necessarily Apple fanboyism (I mean, it could be on Jesus' part, but lets look at it from another angle). This is proof that the big wigs that reinvented... nah, caused SEVERAL paradigm shifts within our modern world while everyone laughed at them for trying to do so... generally are the first to line up and fill the shoes of those that did it to them.

    IBM thought Gates was a MORON for even *thinking* of making his money off of software licenses. Xerox R&D was told the mouse was a horrible idea by its own company, etc.

    What this really shows (whether it was intended to or not) is that *everything* these days has potential to be a game changer... particularly if you think it's the most ludicrous thing you've ever seen or heard of. I think wireless video is pretty ridiculous... but my stock portfolio has some major players for it as part of its lineup. Why? Because I can guarantee it'll make money sooner or later... and lots of it. Same with the whole "minority report-esque" gesture support devices.

    We live in a world where one man's trash isn't just another man's treasure, it's a whole vault of treasures.

    Oh, and Jesus, you said top 5, I see 6 pictures... just sayin.

    P.S. If this is fanboyism, just smile and nod and say "Yeah, what he said".
     Reply
    Sockatume promoted this comment Ashley Youngblood was starred Ashley Youngblood was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @Ashley Youngblood: The game-changing iPhone wasn't the one that originally shipped, though. Apple was reluctant to allow the development of native iPhone apps instead of browser-based ones, and from a spec standpoint it was somewhat out of date. The iPhone that took the market by storm was, arguably, the 3G.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of Louis Wang Louis Wang
    12/02/09

    @Sockatume: Except for the fact that the development of an SDK is sufficiently complex that they had to have been doing it from day one. If it isn't clear, it means:
    1) Creating said SDK
    2) Rewriting OS to use said SDK
    3) Rewriting Apps to use SDK
    4) Retuning SDK/Apps/OS to meet power and performance targets

    So if it took them a year to release the SDK, it means they were working on it from the very first day of release of the original iPhone.
     Reply
    Sockatume promoted this comment Louis Wang was starred Louis Wang was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @Louis Wang: It wasn't a question of developing an SDK. The first-gen iPhone was an explicitly closed system and it was made clear to developers that they shouldn't expect to be developing native apps for it, ever. Apple underlined that it was first and foremost a phone and iPod, not a computer.

    That may simply have been early bluster - Apple will confidently stand by decisions it knows very well that it will revoke in future, such as supposdely not even needing 3G - but it's how the device was presented.
     Reply
    Edited by Sockatume at 12/02/09 10:21 AM Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @Ashley Youngblood: Of course, all this aside, it's certainly not Apple fanboyism that's behind the post. I wholeheartedly agree on that.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of Ummm----what Ummm----what
    12/02/09

    @Sockatume: while i'm sure you'll stick to your guns on this one, you're wrong. they managed to sell 3 million original iphones without 3rd party app support, they managed to build a very solid image for the device, and all of this at a much higher price point. they made apps a new feature rather than a given. there is no place to knock them on this in a business sense......since they were able to pull all of that off, its actually quite brilliant business.
     Reply
    Sockatume promoted this comment Ummm----what was starred Ummm----what was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @Ummm----what: What am I wrong about, exactly? I'm not saying that the iPhone wasn't successful. I'm saying that the lack of thirdparty app support was a good reason to bet against it at the time. You list it as though it were a handicap yourself, so you must agree.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    In reply to Top 5 Assclowns Laughing at the iPhone Back in 2007
    To be fair, the iPhone of 2007 was a GSM device that only ran Apple-sanctioned browser apps and cost $600 plus contract fees. By comparison the average contract freebie in Europe was doing 3G backflips and downloading Java apps (or in some cases, native apps) while moonwalking out the door.

    It was, however, a very good touchscreen phone, and the iPhone 3G rightly recified all those hilarious oversights.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of Jesus Diaz Jesus Diaz
    12/02/09

    @Sockatume: It was a rocking success from day one.
     Reply
    Jesus Diaz was starred Jesus Diaz was unstarred
    Image of clak clak
    12/02/09

    "It was a rocking success from day one."

    Exactly darn right. Back in 2007 Apple managed to sell 270,000 iPhones in two days, despite the fact that the phone was GSM and $600.

    Let me repeat: the original iPhone was $600 and they still sold 270,ooo in two days.

    You compare that to any current phone, like the Droid selling 100,000, but at a measly $200 and it doesn't look that impressive at all.
     Reply
    Edited by clak at 12/02/09 9:40 AM clak was starred clak was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @Jesus Diaz: There's no doubt that it sold well in the US from the get-go, but you can hardly blame people for being sceptical based on the technology. Certainly it didn't do nearly as well in Europe, where 3G is taken for granted and free wi-fi wasn't as prevalent, although it'd be easier to tell if Apple hadn't hidden the sales figures. It really flew when it was actually at a technological parity with its competitors.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of NorwoodIsMyHero NorwoodIsMyHero
    12/02/09

    @Jesus Diaz: I don't think any of them were surprised by the iPhone's launch success. If Apple and AT&T had not come up with less expensive models, irrespective of any speed or OS improvements, the iPhone's market share would have capped out very quickly.Maybe these guys were being a bit ignorant to assume this wouldn't happen, but these quotes, especially the Ballmer one, are pretty much par for the course in terms of direct competitors discussing product launches of rivals. If Apple and AT&T had not come out with a cheaper and better iPhone, his off-the-cuff predictions could very easily have been true.
     Reply
    Edited by NorwoodIsMyHero at 12/02/09 9:46 AM NorwoodIsMyHero was starred NorwoodIsMyHero was unstarred
    Image of phunnyballs phunnyballs
    12/02/09

    @clak: I think it was more so intense marketing

    Look at this...

    The iphone was popular but it was by no means the success it has today.
     Reply
    NorwoodIsMyHero promoted this comment phunnyballs was starred phunnyballs was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @NorwoodIsMyHero: Precisely. The original iPhone was a risky proposition that did very well, and could've easily stalled once launch fervour died out. The launch of the iPhone 3G and the App Store eliminated that risk with truly remarkable results.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of clak clak
    12/02/09

    @phunnyballs: What the hell is your point? Ballmer and crew said that the iPhone was going to be a complete failure, so why are you bringing up irrelevant points about the iPhone 2G versus the iPhone 3G?

    Both phones were huge successes, which is why Ballmer and crew were wrong, which is the point of the original article.
     Reply
    clak was starred clak was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @clak: The iPhone could've been a failure, based on what they knew about it. The iPhone 3G was never going to be one. That's reflected in the sales figures. That's his point.

    It's easy to laugh in retrospect, but a quick Google could tell you that these "assclowns" as Diaz so eloquently put it were in very good company.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of clak clak
    12/02/09

    @Sockatume: None of the guys mentioned above said that the iPhone was going to be a failure because it didn't have 3G or an App Store. They said it was going to be a failure just on general principle, so why you guys are bringing up 3Gs and the App Store?

    Again, I think you guys are trying to reframe the argument. It's really simple guys.

    A bunch of CEOs and tech writers said the iPhone was going to be a failure. It wasn't. It doesn't matter too much why they thought it was going to be a failure, they were still wrong.

    That was the point of the article, in case you still don't understand.
     Reply
    clak was starred clak was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @clak: I'm assuming that they actually had reasons, and didn't just make the decision "on general principle", therefore it's reasonable to try to explain the origins of the conclusion when attempting to explain the conclusion itself.

    If they were going to pooh-pooh the iPhone regardless, then there's no discussion to make. That's certainly a possibility, but it's a boring one.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @clak: Lemme put it another way. The point of the article isn't simply "these individuals were wrong about the iPhone", but "these individuals are stupid for being wrong about the iPhone". That's implicit in "assclowns". Correspondingly, it's worth discussing why they might have been stupid, or might not have been stupid.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of clak clak
    12/02/09

    @Sockatume: Uh, Ballmer gave his reasons. He said the original iPhone was expensive, but now you want to argue that he thought it was going to be a failure because of 3Gs and App Stores.

    Jon Rubinstein said that the iPhone was going to be a failure because it wasn't a specialized device.

    Ed Colligan said that the iPhone was going to be a failure because he didn't think PC guys could figure out how to make a good phone.

    John Dvorak said the iPhone was going to be a failure because he's just an asshole. He has a history of predicting Apple failures (for instance, he said the Apple Stores were going to fail).

    Anssi Vanjoki said the iPhone was going to fail because the Mac had failed and was "niche" product.

    Just about all these guys gave their reasons why the iPhone was going to fail and yet you still insist on saying they thought it was going to fail because it didn't have 3G and an App Store.

    Well, your conclusion makes no sense.
     Reply
    clak was starred clak was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @clak: Actually, I gave reasons why it wouldn't be stupid to conclude the iPhone was going to fail. I didn't say that they were the reasons Diaz dug up, or the only way they could've drawn those conclusions. They were serious and prevalent concerns, on this side of the Atlantic at least, when Apple didn't release sales figures and people started to wonder how well it was actually doing.

    Which is to get back to my original thesis, "It wasn't moronic to be dismissive of the iPhone when it was announced".

    (You're the one who said that "[t]hey said it was going to be a failure just on general principle". Thanks for rebutting yourself.)
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @clak: I will grant, the reasons that Diaz has highlighted are comically fatuous, especially with the benefit of hindsight, but they've been chosen because of that. You don't get to call someone an "assclown" for saying something dumb, otherwise the entire tech universe would be nothing but assclowns.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of clak clak
    12/02/09

    @Sockatume: So basically your whole point is that Ballmer and the others weren't assclowns because YOU also thought it was going to be a failure?

    So I guess we've gotten to the root of your disgust for the article.

    Sorry, but you were an assclown too.

    Why? In January of 2007 there was no reason for you to believe that there wouldn't be an iPhone 3G in the future. If you watched the keynote closely, you would have heard Steve Jobs say this:

    "iPhone is a Quad Band GSM+EDGE phone. We have decided... (clapping) ...we have decided to go with the most popular international standard, which is GSM. We are on that bandwagon, headed on that roadmap and plan to make 3G PHONES and all sorts of amazing things in the future."

    Furthermore, most of these responses above came right after MacWorld 2007, which was in January 2007. Steve Jobs didn't announce his plans for an iPhone SDK until WWDC, which was in June of 2007, that's six months after the keynote.

    So there was absolutely no reason for you or Steve Ballmer and the others to think there was not going to be an App Store, because Steve Jobs hadn't announced it yet.

    So based on this information we can confidently say that you guys are a bunch of assclowns.
     Reply
    clak was starred clak was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @clak: "So basically your whole point is that Ballmer and the others weren't assclowns because YOU also thought it was going to be a failure?"

    No, my whole point is that there were perfectly good reasons, echoed in the press and elsewhere at the time, and easy to bring to mind now, for thinking that the iPhone was a gamble. Ergo, they weren't assclowns, just wrong. There was hubris, but we're not talking nobody-wants-to-play-online hubris. The iPhone could've been the next Newton.

    To your specific points: Giz, and everyone else, were explicitly told that there would be an iPod-style closed system during their hands-on time, so there was no reason to expect an SDK. Apple talked up "all sorts of amazing things", but they did not exist yet.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of Ummm----what Ummm----what
    12/02/09

    @Sockatume: in case you haven't been informed, a CEO's job is about being able to see where their market is going and how to compete with the competition years in advance. so to say the 3g and the app store were things they couldn't have known about is actually wrong. these are the exact conclusions that these guys should have been coming to about where the iphone would go, and adjusted their market offering accordingly to stave off massive market share losses. That didn't happen. so either apple is just a far superior company and was going to drink their milkshake no matter what, or these guys dropped the ball when it came reacting to the iphone and defending their market. neither of those conclusions bode well for any of them.

    but i truly love your effort to use the whole "they couldn't have known" argument for men running companies worth millions and billions of dollars...doubt their investors would count that as valid though.
     Reply
    Sockatume promoted this comment Ummm----what was starred Ummm----what was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @Ummm----what: Bear in mind, we're not talking about their competitor's business decisions here, we're talking about comments made to and by the press. Apple's rivals almost certainly reacted to the iPhone with more seriousness than these cherry-picked, moronic-in-retrospect comments would suggest. I'm not going to argue that they were right to be flippant about Apple in planning their business moves, because I don't think they were.

    The App Store was more than something they "couldn't have known about", it's something Apple explicitly misdirected them about, either by chance (if they never intended native app dev) or design (if they just flat-out lied when they told people it'd be closed to development). Everyone knew, because Apple told them, that it was a closed system. In that respect it was no threat to Nokia, and Blackberry, and all the other companies who had phones that could edit Word documents. Now, we know that's not the case, but that's what they must've thought at the time.

    As far as 3G goes, it was a perfectly good reason to bet against the original iPhone as a product. I'm sure they were well aware that a 3G iPhone was going to turn up eventually, but they weren't commenting about that, and Apple's own stance was that it was a non-essential feature. In a rational market, where no amount of ease of use could've made up for that price tag and featureset, it would've flopped, and its 3G replacement would've have been anything to worry about. It didn't flop, though, because Apple's got a heroic capacity for exploiting the apparent irrationality of the market, and realising the value of ease of use.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of clak clak
    12/02/09

    @Sockatume: Prove to me that Steve Ballmer and the others thought that the iPhone was going to be a failure because of the lack of 3G and the App Store. Otherwise, you don't have a leg to stand on.
     Reply
    clak was starred clak was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @clak: Why is that?
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @Sockatume: Because I know you're not going to understand that question:

    Please explain why my argument hinges on Steve Ballmer and the others thinking that the iPhone was going to be a failure because of the lack of 3G and the App Store.

    I think you'll find that it doesn't.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of seanpat12 seanpat12
    12/02/09

    @phunnyballs: or the fact it was $199?

    the original iphone 2.5G was 499/599 and most average people wouldn't throw that much money down on a phone.

    Once the 3GS came out with a more reasonable price at 199 then it exploded.

    In the end you can say it was the prince and a little marketing that sold the phone.
     Reply
    Nathan Obbards promoted this comment seanpat12 was starred seanpat12 was unstarred
    Image of Ummm----what Ummm----what
    12/02/09

    @Sockatume: wow....i hate arguing with you because it pointless to argue with irrational people. you are basically saying that a rational market would pass on a BRAND NEW PLATFORM that didn't launch with a fully mature ecosystem? yeah, really rational (to the msft fanboy). and then your argument that apple either hadn't planned on the app store or they lied (oh the horror). lets see here...apple launches the iphone summer '07, apple announces 2.0 and app store in march '08 (i think). they had worked with hand picked 3rd party devs for 2 months prior to the announcement.....so jan '08....so you're telling me that apple suddenly decided on the app store, wrote the sdk and developed 2.0 all in less than six months? really? really?

    lets all face the fact that your arguments hold absolutely no water and your insinuation that these things could have been part of the thinking for people like ballmer et al only makes them look like bigger assclowns.

    and lets get into companies like msft not doing their due diligence.....a 16 year old hacker hacks the iphone and suddenly independent devs are starting to show the potential power of the OS......you mean to tell me that msft doesn't have the resources to do the exact same thing from purely a research standpoint?
     Reply
    Ummm----what was starred Ummm----what was unstarred
    Image of Hello Mister Walrus Hello Mister Walrus
    12/02/09

    In reply to Top 5 Assclowns Laughing at the iPhone Back in 2007
    Hahaha... what suckers. Oh wait. All of these guys still have hundreds of millions of dollars in their bank accounts. I guess we're the clowns.
     Reply
    Hello Mister Walrus was starred Hello Mister Walrus was unstarred
    Image of Jesus Diaz Jesus Diaz
    12/02/09

    @Hello Mister Walrus: Who cares about what money they have in their accounts? They are still clowns for being so dismissive and obtuse not to recognize and respect the enemy.
     Reply
    Jesus Diaz was starred Jesus Diaz was unstarred
    Image of Mysta Mysta
    12/02/09

    @Jesus Diaz: Wonder if Steve Jobs ever laughed at Windows.
     Reply
    Jesus Diaz promoted this comment Mysta was starred Mysta was unstarred
    Image of Jesus Diaz Jesus Diaz
    12/02/09

    @Mysta: He did, and look what happened.
     Reply
    Jesus Diaz was starred Jesus Diaz was unstarred
    Image of Hello Mister Walrus Hello Mister Walrus
    12/02/09

    @Jesus Diaz: My point is that while these guys underestimated the iPhone's potential success, this was just one bad prediction in a lifetime of good decisions and spectacular accomplishments. We could ridicule Steve Ballmer for this one comment. However, he could ridicule us for our choices and lack of ability that will result in us never achieving 1% of what he has accomplished so far.
     Reply
    Hello Mister Walrus was starred Hello Mister Walrus was unstarred
    Image of phunnyballs phunnyballs
    12/02/09

    In reply to Top 5 Assclowns Laughing at the iPhone Back in 2007
    Hey Guys...

    You have to remember that Apple Didn't release the App Store until 2008. They gave no indication that there were going to be apps for it in 2007. All it did in 07 was make calls, browse the web, take pictures, and text. Businessmen all over couldn't install what they needed.

    This isn't an entirely a fair comparison.

    Also, it is pretty old news. Do you really need to bring this up? really? slow news day? its 8am.

    I just dont see the point in this story at all.
     Reply
    phunnyballs was starred phunnyballs was unstarred
    Image of clak clak
    12/02/09

    @phunnyballs: I don't see anything about the guys above saying that the iPhone was going to fail without an App Store, so what's your point?

    If Steve Ballmer had said, "Yeah, yeah, the iPhone is nice and all, but without apps, it's going to totally tank," then yeah, I could see your point, but none of these guys said that.
     Reply
    clak was starred clak was unstarred
    Image of phunnyballs phunnyballs
    12/02/09

    @clak: what? why would they say that it would fail without an app store? It didnt have an app store. The app store is what made it a *wild* success. Look back in almost every business and medical periodical, they all say the same thing: the iphone needs a way to install 3rd party apps.
     Reply
    phunnyballs was starred phunnyballs was unstarred
    Image of clak clak
    12/02/09

    @phunnyballs: Dude, the original iPhone sold 270,000 phones in two days. It was a wild success from the first day.

    Apple sold 1 million of the original iPhones in two months, when it was still priced $600.

    What other smartphone in history has done that?

    Developers were climbing the walls for an SDK because it was overwhelmingly SUCCESSFUL. The App Store was just icing on the cake.
     Reply
    Edited by clak at 12/02/09 10:00 AM clak was starred clak was unstarred
    Image of phunnyballs phunnyballs
    12/02/09

    @clak: agin. In this graph you can see the iphone sales leveling off to a quite a flat plane until the 3G/App store.

    iphone sales were leveling until the App Store came in.
     Reply
    phunnyballs was starred phunnyballs was unstarred
    Image of clak clak
    12/02/09

    @phunnyballs:

    So what? I still don't see what that graph has to do with the article that Jesus Diaz wrote.

    The point of the article is this: a bunch of CEOs and tech writers said the iPhone was going to fail. It didn't.

    Get it? That was the point of the article. So who cares about that graph? Do you think for one second that Apple didn't plan on releasing another phone?

    Steve Jobs said in his original keynote that they were going to make 3G phones in the future.

    A quote from Steve Jobs, MacWorld Keynote, January 9, 2007.

    "iPhone is a Quad Band GSM+EDGE phone. We have decided... (clapping) ...we have decided to go with the most popular international standard, which is GSM. We are on that bandwagon, headed on that roadmap and plan to make 3G PHONES and all sorts of amazing things in the future."

    So again, Steve Jobs laid out the iPhone road map from the very beginning and Steve Ballmer and others were wrong about its success.

    So again, what part of this article are you just not getting?
     Reply
    Sockatume promoted this comment clak was starred clak was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @clak: To be fair, none of that enlightening editorial is in the actual article. The article is just Diaz pointing and laughing, which I could get in Slashdot comments.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of clak clak
    12/02/09

    @Sockatume: If you hate Gizmodo so much, why don't you just leave? We won't miss you.
     Reply
    clak was starred clak was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @clak: I don't hate Gizmodo, as my registration date attests. I dislike this article and disagree with its premise. If you don't like to see people having an informed discussion on the content of Gizmodo, I suggest you avoid reading the Gizmodo comments.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of clak clak
    12/02/09

    @Sockatume: I don't think you even understand the basic premise of the article. That's the problem.
     Reply
    clak was starred clak was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @clak: I understand the premise of the article perfectly well, however I disagree with it, and I can provide a cogent, well-reasoned basis for disagreeing with it. By disagreeing with an anti-anti-Apple article, you think I'm criticising you personally, and you feel duty-bound to invent reasons for me to be wrong. That's the problem.
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of clak clak
    12/02/09

    @Sockatume: I'm not inventing anything. I'm simply stating facts. Your primary criticism, that Steve Ballmer and the others believed the iPhone was going to be a failure because it didn't have 3G or an App Store, is not backed up by either their statements or any information that Apple put out at the time.

    I gave you a quote showing that Steve Jobs promised 3G phones in the future, so that disproves your first notion. And the fact that Apple didn't release details about their SDK plans until six months later, disproves your second notion.

    Furthermore, apps were not a relevant measure of success for smartphones before the iPhone. So why would any of these CEOs use that as a criteria for the iPhone's success? That doesn't make a bit of sense.
     Reply
    clak was starred clak was unstarred
    Image of Sockatume Sockatume
    12/02/09

    @clak: My primary criticism is that there were many well-founded reasons for being sceptical of the first-gen's iPhone's chances of success, reasons which no doubt steered the retrospectively hilarious comments in the article. I've outlined those reasons to illustrate the point. I'm not going to sit here and rebut your straw-man version.

    There was an iPhone 3G on the way. That didn't mean the iPhone was going to fly off the shelves. If anything, it would've been a reason for people to sit on their hands and wait it out, in much the same way that knowledge of the GBA SP would've killed the GBA.

    Apple did not merely omit details about an SDK. It flat-out stated that there would not be thirdparty app development. Given the paucity of functions built into the iPhone compared to other smartphones at the time this was an issue. (Giz, again, described it as rather more of a super-dumbphone after its first hands-on.)
     Reply
    Sockatume was starred Sockatume was unstarred
    Image of johncon3 johncon3
    12/02/09

    In reply to Top 5 Assclowns Laughing at the iPhone Back in 2007
    iPhone is great as a personal phone, terrible for business. Everyone in my company that has one and needs to do a lot of email 'on the go' has gone back to a phone w/ a real keyboard.
     Reply
    bornonbord promoted this comment johncon3 was starred johncon3 was unstarred
    Image of bornonbord bornonbord
    12/02/09

    @johncon3: Everyone in my company that has a phone with a real keyboard and needs to do a lot of email 'on the go' has switched to an iPhone.

    Well, good to know that all evened out.
     Reply
    bornonbord was starred bornonbord was unstarred
    Image of MePerson MePerson
    12/01/09

    In reply to Steve Ballmer Rendered in BSODs
    Created this using 60 random images found using Google Image Search, and assembled using AndreaMosaic. #apple #mosaic #stevejobs
     Reply
    Edited by MePerson at 12/01/09 10:37 PM MePerson was starred MePerson was unstarred
    Image of MePerson MePerson
    12/01/09

    @MePerson: Oops, the image got lost in the edit.
     Reply
    MePerson was starred MePerson was unstarred
    Image of Odin Odin
    12/02/09

    @MePerson:
    Also you messed up the link from imageshack so it's still lost. =P
     Reply
    Odin was starred Odin was unstarred
    Image of Yerzriknot Yerzriknot
    12/01/09

    In reply to Steve Ballmer Rendered in BSODs
    Oh what I'd give for this in 1440x900
     Reply
    Yerzriknot was starred Yerzriknot was unstarred
    Image of Jrsy Devil's Advocate® Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
    12/01/09

    In reply to Steve Ballmer Rendered in BSODs
    This isn't a BSOD. It's BTOD. Ballmer Tongue of Death or Bovine Tongue of Death. Take your pick.
     Reply
    Jrsy Devil's Advocate® was starred Jrsy Devil's Advocate® was unstarred
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