Perhaps best defined by events that occurred ten years ago today.
A single decade, a BILLION + units, 13 models, 395 sold every minute, 101 million users in the US alone,
Still hard to fathom…
Steve Jobs and Apple launched the iPhone on January 9th 2007.
[ Steve Jobs iPhone Launch January 9th 207 ]As Apple says:
At Macworld 2007 in San Francisco, Steve Jobs introduced the world to iPhone as three products in one — “a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough internet communications device.” In the ten years since, iPhone has enriched the lives of people around the world with over one billion units sold. It quickly grew into a revolutionary platform for hardware, software and services integration, and inspired new products, including iPad and Apple Watch, along with millions of apps that have become essential to people’s daily lives.
Things really have improved. Perfect? Not by a long-shot.
Could you imagine the largest manufacturer in the world, even a decade ago, investing capital and recurrent resources in this level of innovation to recycle the products they produce?
The cynical amongst us [I count myself as one] have always looked closely [and with scepticism ] at the “triple-bottom-line” commitments of manufacturers.
There is, however, a new breed of steel-bending industrialists [who also works in silicon] and they genuinely view the entire product cycle as their responsibility. Yes, labour laws and working conditions are not to be ignored…
[Source: #clickclean GreenPeace Report ]As recently as 2012, according to Greenpeace, Apple used 55% coal at the time to power many operations. By 2014, Greenpeace was praising the company as the most aggressive and innovative in Silicon Valley. In its most recent report, Apple scored 100% on Greenpeace’s green index.
Apple’s own report shows:
The wars of the twenty-first century
I recall the words of the head of the United Nations Environment Program [UNEP], Dr. Noel J. Brown, when a guest of ours in Broadford, in the early 1990’s, speaking to a group of students and community leaders. He said:
…the wars of the twenty-first century may well be fought over access to and the cost of water
Perhaps prescient.
The importance of renewable energy sources and the central role of “full-cycle” product management was clear to him twenty-five years ago. It only appears now, even with the level of controversy and debate over global warming and long-term energy solutions still raging, that a new breed of industrialist is taking matters in to their own hands and “walking the talk”.
“LIAM” is simply another example of the paradigm shift occurring in plain sight.
The implications of the government’s demands are chilling. If the government can use the All Writs Act to make it easier to unlock your iPhone, it would have the power to reach into anyone’s device to capture their data. The government could extend this breach of privacy and demand that Apple build surveillance software to intercept your messages, access your health records or financial data, track your location, or even access your phone’s microphone or camera without your knowledge.
The nature of true innovation is such that any unique activity is at once, both ignored as irrelevant and recognised [by some] as the future…
The difficult part is knowing which one…
We know what we are, but know not what we may be.
William Shakespeare
Given current policy debates regarding “industries of the future” and the need to be “agile” and “innovative”, it is instructive to consider our own cognitive biases when it comes to change, reform and innovation. Consider public policy debates of energy futures and global warming.
Thanks to The Atlantic for highlighting the work of the tech website BGR when they uneartheda comment thread from 2007 that originally appeared on the website Engadget, and was preserved by the Internet Archive.
The conversation is focused on the brand new iPhone, which had just been unveiled.
For those of you that can remember rotary dial phones, communication prior to the internet and those that euphemistically consider themselves well-read [at least when there were identifiable canons that one could digest in a life-time ] the prospect of the technological and behavioural change that occurred on the release of the “iPhone” is nothing short of profound.
[Rotary Dial Phone]Just eight years ago. The concept of “generational change” has perhaps been compressed to “decadal” or something even more finely temporal.
How we react to change, how we identify the new through the frameworks of the past are increasingly challenges of modern, highly technical societies.
Consider these humorous, prophetic and simply wrong reviews of the newly unveiled iPhone and consider our current notions of “innovation”.
“Apparently none of you guys realize how bad of an idea a touch-screen is on a phone. I foresee some pretty obvious and pretty major problems here. I’ll be keeping my Samsung A707, thanks… Color me massively disappointed.”
“Touch screen buttons? BAD idea. This thing will never work.”
“I say get on the train, or get run over by it.”
“No freaking way, Apple! It’s over!”
“Well, it beats the hell outta my Nokia 6030”
“Steve…where is my FM radio?”
“OMG, its the Newton reborn!”
“no qwerty keyboard? ojhsdodsagfadhjldgs!!”
“This looks like a disgusting bastard child of iPod/Cellphone/PDA. Yes it’s shiny, but I’m sure it won’t be so shiny once you touch it.”
“5 hour battery life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME THIS IS A JOKE ITS A PHONE NOT A LAPTOP”
“DAMN! If you think it’s big, look at the picture with Steve holding it close up, its like a Razr! Wifi! Everything, good BYE every phone company in the world.”
“Im not impressed with the iPhone. As a PDA user and a Windows Mobile user, this thing has nothing on my phone… No thanks Apple. Make a real PDA please.”
“I mean it looks pretty but its not something i foresee being the next ipod for the phone industry…It took apple how long to develop this ONE PHONE, samsung and motorola release new phones every few months lol, and constantly innovates and gets better, im sorry but if im sending text messages i’d rather have my thumb keyboard than some weird finger tapping on a screen crap.”
“These comments remind me of the folks who thought the original iPod didn’t stand a chance.”
“Blackberry is DEAD. And so is every other poorly designed idiot phone and plastic PDA. Thank God. R.I.P. Blackberry. R.I.P. Palm. R.I.P. Treo.”
“That sound I just heard was everybody’s head exploding.”
The notion of originality, innovation and the oft-used “paradigm-shift” challenges all of us.
None more-so than the “experts” within an industry. Not unlike those Generals and the last war… or those Teachers that have “seen it all before”
As we move in to the “Apple rumour season”, It seems appropriate to look back at some expert reviews and consider what value and meaning “expert analysis” and “market responses” have within the life-cycle of any innovation.. I know what Steve would have said……
The iPhone
“Apple will sell a few to its fans, but the iPhone won’t make a long-term mark on the industry.” – Matthew Lynn, Columnist at Bloomberg [Ouch – Ed]
“This is not a great phone. It’s an interesting design.” – Rob Enderle, Analyst with the Enderle Group
“That virtual keyboard will be about as useful for tapping out emails and text messages as a rotary phone. Don’t be surprised if a sizable contingent of iPhone buyers express some remorse at ditching their BlackBerry when they spend an extra hour each day pumping out emails on the road.” – Seth Porges, CrunchGear
“I’m more convinced than ever that, after an initial frenzy of publicity and sales to early adopters, iPhone sales will be unspectacular.” – David Haskin, Computerworld
“Implementing a cellphone is absolutely more difficult than anything Apple’s done to date. Go out and buy an iPod and hold it at waist level and drop it. That’s the end of the iPod. I don’t think Apple’s going to be a big player in this at all.” – Edward Snyder, Analyst with Charter Equity Research
“There is no reason to have an 8GB iPod on the phone. Give us a 2GB capacity so we can put our favorite stuff on it and listen when we want, cut the price to $299 and you may have something.” – Todd Sullivan, Seeking Alpha
“[The iPhone] will have very little impact on the business community.” – Avi Greengart, Analyst with Current Analysis
“Sales for the phone will skyrocket initially. However, things will calm down, and the Apple phone will take its place on the shelves with the random video cameras, cell phones, wireless routers and other would-be hits.” – Michael Kanellos, Editor at CNET
