A Look at the iPhones that Weren’t and the iSlate that Might Be
Harry McCracken’s Technologizer looks back to pre-2007 and the ridiculous amount of hype and — comical in hindsight — guesses (and photoshop concept art) as to just what Apple and Steve Jobs’ iPhone might turn out to be:
Remember the very first iPhone–the one that sold for $249, had an iconic click wheel, a cool slide-out keypad, and a unique two-battery design–and which ran on Apple’s very own nationwide wireless network? No, not the iPhone that Steve Jobs unveiled at Macworld Expo San Francisco on January 9th, 2007. It didn’t have any of those features. I’m talking about the one that was an ever-changing figment of the collective imagination of bloggers reporters, analysts, and others who wrote endlessly about the iPhone in the months before anyone outside of Apple knew much of anything–including whether or not the phone existed at all.
Flash forward and Michael Gartenberg on Engadget uses that article as a cautionary tale when it comes to Apple’s future, possible, universe dent’er, the iTablet (or iSlate):
A larger iPod touch or a small MacBook with a touch screen is simply not the next big thing for Apple — the goal is to appeal to 50 million customers, not 50 thousand. Perhaps that’s why there’s so much mystery: what we’re waiting for isn’t another failed ‘tweener device but something as different from what came before as the iPhone was to previous mobile phones.
Gartenberg also points out that, without even mentioning the existence of a tablet, Apple still owns all the mindshare in that space, even over real devices that have been announced and shipped.
That’s probably not by accident either.
December 28th, 2009 at 11:37 pm
i think the islate is going to be a new kind of iphone a better iphone than the reg one. some features that might be added -better camera -Different look -thinner?
i think this is going to be an iphone because they take an iphone out each year… so why not start anouncing it now?
December 29th, 2009 at 12:05 am
@marcbee ….
That might be the worst/dumbest response I’ve read. Apple didn’t announce anything. And your right, they come out with an IPHONE each year. Not an islate.
“i think this is going to be an iphone because they take an iphone out each year… so why not start anouncing it now?” ….. So because they release a new iPhone each year you guess the islate will be an iPhone??? Wouldn’t it just be another Iphone?
December 29th, 2009 at 12:19 am
@ the beast
I second that emotion.
December 29th, 2009 at 1:10 am
The story about the lead up to the iPhone is really really funny. I see many lulz in all the iSlate coverage now.
December 29th, 2009 at 2:03 am
@marcbee You, my good sir, are retarded. iPhones are announced in the summer time, generally June. As for the “they announce it every year” BS they also release iPods, macBooks, and iMacs every year… maybe it will be all of them rolled into one, right? It won’t even be a tablet at all, just a mind blowing mega device… Some how i don’t see that happening. Thanks for your brilliant insight though.
@The67beast I think you’re officially my favorite.
December 29th, 2009 at 2:04 am
No one cares.
December 29th, 2009 at 2:33 am
All bets are ON. Just look for a touch-screen wonder machine from Apple. I’m calling it the iBet.
December 29th, 2009 at 6:26 am
Looking at all these mock ups is absolutely hilarious, these where soooooooo way off! This just goes to show how differently Apple thinks.
December 29th, 2009 at 8:48 am
MarcBee is not retarded, and his/her comments aren’t necessarily ridiculous at all… because, as the article suggests, new devices could be something nobody has even considered, just as the iPhone turned out to be something nobody had ever considered.
We’ve all read the comments that the new device couldn’t be a phone because it would be too big to hold up to one’s ear. But remember the giant phones people LOVED holding up to their ears in the eighties? Nobody complained… in fact, they showed them off and bragged about having them — and they could only make calls. Now that phones have became small enough to include cameras, web browsers, calculators, memo pads, address books, calendars, media stores, and all of the other things we see today, what’s next?
Well, what’s next won’t really fit into a modern compact handset. Although technology speeds along with miniaturization… our hands and fingers remain the same size, and our vision doesn’t improve. So, we need a bigger device to create documents from scratch, print them, and be able to store much larger files. We need a bigger device to include e-readers and enjoy movies better.
What if Apple foresees people not holding phones up to their faces anymore — but sees everyone using Bluetooth headsets and earplugs? Maybe they foresee that business people (and everyone else) want to use their devices to do many things at once… like flip through a magazine while speaking to someone at the same time, as they’d now do at home with a paper magazine.
Maybe there won’t be another iPhone next June. Maybe while the other jokers are playing catch up, Apple is making a small all-in-one (but larger) device that people will once again be happy to carry around as they once were happy to carry around laptops, and giant cell phones that did FAR less than this device will now do.
Business men still carry brief cases, pens, notepads, books, large documents that can’t be created from scratch on small handsets… and they still carry their phones too. Why should they if they have a device twice the size of an iPhone that can do all that, do much more, and do it better?
This article shows that assumptions can be way off (especially with Apple). To assume there will be another iPhone next June (or be phased out soon), and that this won’t be the replacement… could again, be way off.
December 29th, 2009 at 9:01 am
People, people. Calm down. Lets go back a ways. Do any of you remember that the FIRST (the real first) iPhone was a MOTOROKR??? Jobs had met with the “Helo Moto” guys and put an iPod on that phone. IT SUCKED!! Held like 10 songs. It was supposed to be a candy bar version of the RAZR, and it tanked. Apple came up with our beloved phone after that joke. THAT being said, I guess we need to back off MarcBee some. His point is that with Apple, ANYTHING is possible.
December 29th, 2009 at 9:39 am
Yea but he is still retarded that doesn’t change! Y would apple change the name of iPhone? Everyone knows the name iPhone it wouldn’t be smart to change it!
December 29th, 2009 at 9:58 am
@BBYM:
Because it’s not just a phone.
They changed the name of iBooks, they changed the name of PowerBooks, they changed the name of .Mac, they changed the name of Mighty Mouse…
Shall I continue?
December 29th, 2009 at 11:34 am
@fastlane true, all fair points. But the iPhone’s an ICON, Apple would be retarded to mess with the name.
December 29th, 2009 at 12:10 pm
@Dragonfly:
If a new device replaced the iPhone, it would most definitely have a different name. If the iPhone remains in the product line, along with an additional tablet device, then of course the iPhone name would remain.
You misunderstood my original point based on another’s confused and misconstrued reply.
December 29th, 2009 at 12:13 pm
@Dragonfly:
MarcBee suggested the tablet could possibly be the new iPhone. I agreed that, knowing Apple, you can never be sure.
BBYM somehow twisted that into the iPhone changing names. Who knows why.
December 29th, 2009 at 1:21 pm
Ah, sorry but we have ALL considered another iPhone. Some here were even asking how you would place a call holding a 10 inch display up to your head.
So, no. Not an iPhone. Might have a phone bolted on, but its primary function will not be that of a phone and Marcbee’s guess is “retarded” to use Mr. Audacity’s term.
Retarded in the sense that he has not kept up with all the news on this subject.
The news of a large camera purchase that surfaced a few days ago might cause me to add video calling to all my prior predictions of usurping the print media and totally changing the newspaper/magazine delivery paradigm for the first time in 200 years.
But it still would not make this device just an ‘iPhone.
December 29th, 2009 at 1:49 pm
@Fastlane:
Sure. Apple is going to take what is in every pocket and make a 10 inch version that is so big nobody will carry it. Makes sense to me. Fits right in with Apple’s tendency to shoot themselves in the foot and kill off their most lucrative market segment.
What ARE you guys smoking?
December 29th, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Icebike:
First, I never said Apple would replace the iPhone with the tablet. I was making the point that everyone was wrong about the iPhone, and, as Gartenberg says, will most likely be wrong about this device as well.
People carried around laptops and giant phones (that only made calls). Neither ever fit into anyone’s pocket. When the first cell phones came out, they were three times bigger that a home phone. Go bigger? Why would anyone want that? Because they could follow you everywhere — they offered “more”.
So, a larger phone (a small fraction of the size of what people once carried around) but which functions like a small computer, and eliminates other devices, is impossible? Why? Just because Icebike still holds his phone up to his ear?
If a 10″ tablet (which isn’t all that big) can run iLife, iWork, MS Office, support stylus use for artist, communicate as a phone, etc…. people most certainly would cary them (again!), and other companies would copy it (again!).
Perhaps you thought Apple would shoot themselves in the foot making an iPod with no clickwheel or slideout keyboard four years ago.
Exactly.
December 29th, 2009 at 6:20 pm
Maybe this will be the first major apple product that doesn’t have the iConic i ?
January 9th, 2010 at 3:42 am
@Fastlane: You’re missing the point about the 1980’s phones. They were that big, because that was as small as technology at that time would allow, not be auae they wanted them that size, ideally.
January 17th, 2010 at 6:11 pm
Looking after your hearing has to be one of the most significant things you can do. Take it from me, somebody who sufferred hearing damager early on. As a result, I actually like taking care hearing and whilst I do agree with the above-named poster and I really hope I do not get shot down for stating this, but I guess it is important to take all things in moderation.