Why Would You Buy a Phone from a Computer Company?
Tech’s greatest lesson on the iPhone’s 10th birthday.
It’s honestly crazy to think that the iPhone was first launched ten years ago. On the one hand it seems so long ago, teens were still on MySpace, and I’d just started high school and was still texting on a number pad. On the other hand it’s all so fresh, we’re in the midst of a digital revolution and we’re really only just getting started. AI, IOT, the on-demand sharing economy, these are all things born out of a remarkable vision, a smartphone in every pocket.
But another key part of iPhone’s legacy is what it speaks about culture in the technology industry. As a kid with a nascent interest in technology a decade ago, iPhone was the first time I saw a product and thought to myself: why would they do that? That question is stupid now of course, iPhone which has grown to become the best business ever answers that question with aplomb. But I knew many people who thought the same thing: Apple, the maker of Macs and iPods was suddenly going to start building phones, entering a market that Nokia, Motorola, and Microsoft Windows Mobile had already called their own. To what end? The iPod business was doing just fine, everyone I knew had one.
Jobs took the stage in 2007 anyway and unveiled a product that would change the world in a scale not even he could imagine. It’s amazing thinking that all this came from a hardware computer company started by a couple of tinkerers in a Los Altos garage. But that’s exactly the point, like the iPod first showed us, there is no Apple the computer company, or Apple the music company, or Apple the phone company, there is just Apple: the Apple that uses its resources and competencies to innovate in areas it sees fit, unconstrained by definition.
That is tech’s greatest lesson, the folks in Silicon Valley innovate because their businesses are defined by goals and visions, not by product. Uber which started off as a peer to peer ride-sharing platform linking private vehicles, now has ambitions to transform public transit. Amazon which started as an online book seller, is now a global leader in cloud computing, a front-runner in the connected home, and is now transforming brick and mortar retail experiences. Snapchat, a photo messaging application is now building camera hardware. Facebook which began as a social network for Harvard students is now investing in AI and VR technologies to change the way we interact with the world. Google, a search engine, is now in the industry of automated vehicles.
The list could go on but the point is clear, people are fascinated by technology because the entire industry is a perfect representation of the things it builds: relentlessly and unforgiveably transformative. To hell with tradition. Tradition destroyed Polaroid and Kodak when they refused to go digital as the world went by without them. Its clear why Steve Jobs was uninterested in commemorating the past. Ironic therefore that I write this now to celebrate 10 years of iPhone. But it’s not really about looking to the past, like I said, this is just the start. Maybe the smartphone will transform Apple into Apple the food company, or Apple the logistics company, or Apple the fashion company. Who knows.
What a smartphone in every pocket could mean for the world 50 years from now? We can only dream.
