Just an observation...

Speedygi

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I deeply recalled a Web article where I have read that said, from the outset, the iPhone was designed to be a media consumption device with lust factor unseen in a phone, and I believed that was the direction given to Forstall and the first team.

Fast forward to today, we see Apple trying to push iOS into wholly different directions: I realized the original vision for the iPhone isn't one of being a mobile computer...But now it's trying towards being one.

Do you think that's what Apple has to struggle against right now, or is just normal that a product has to be agile and adaptable?

Give some thoughts here...
 

Just_Me_D

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I think that trends, consumer feedback, and competition often causes companies to slightly alter their plans or at least readjust their vision. Happy New Year, by the way...:)
 

pr1nce

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It's normal for companies to adjust their plans over the years as the competitive landscape changes. The companies that fail to adjust are usually the ones who end up in trouble.
 

Speedygi

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It's normal for companies to adjust their plans over the years as the competitive landscape changes. The companies that fail to adjust are usually the ones who end up in trouble.

I agree with that, which you can see happening to Blackberry right now. I think Apple did good to adjust their iOS priorities as of these few years. However, I would like to see them step up in their efforts to shake off some of their more non-computing design principles in their mobile devices.
 

BlackBerry Guy

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Pr1nce hit the nail on the head. You have to evolve your products to address consumer demands and competition in the marketplace, and you have to do it in the right way at the right time. I think Apple has handled this well. Each version of iOS and each hardware revision have added features and improved capabilities. They've done it at a pace that doesn't alienate existing users with wholesale changes in how they use their phone. Yet at the same time, they do enough to also keep a lot of existing users happy with the improvements so that they don't start thinking of alternatives.

BlackBerry is the perfect example of what happens when you fail to do this. They really didn't address the bomb Apple dropped on everyone in 2007, then the rise of Android in the years that followed. BlackBerry 10 was finally released in 2013, in full catch up mode. I don't think they're dead in the water yet, but they are in a very tough position right now. At this point it's no longer about evolving a product, but evolving as a company in order to survive.


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Speedygi

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Android really closed the door on pretty much any third player in the mobile market, because of the way so many manufacturers could exist within that same umbrella, further making the competition even greater. Much more phones are vying for sales in the market as a result, pushing any sort of hopes of success significantly less.
 

Jaguarr40

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It's normal for companies to adjust their plans over the years as the competitive landscape changes. The companies that fail to adjust are usually the ones who end up in trouble.

Pr1nce hit the nail on the head. You have to evolve your products to address consumer demands and competition in the marketplace, and you have to do it in the right way at the right time. I think Apple has handled this well. Each version of iOS and each hardware revision have added features and improved capabilities. They've done it at a pace that doesn't alienate existing users with wholesale changes in how they use their phone. Yet at the same time, they do enough to also keep a lot of existing users happy with the improvements so that they don't start thinking of alternatives.

BlackBerry is the perfect example of what happens when you fail to do this. They really didn't address the bomb Apple dropped on everyone in 2007, then the rise of Android in the years that followed. BlackBerry 10 was finally released in 2013, in full catch up mode. I don't think they're dead in the water yet, but they are in a very tough position right now. At this point it's no longer about evolving a product, but evolving as a company in order to survive.


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Yes I am going to have to agree with both of you as any Major company worth it's salt is going to model their business plan for products on consumer demand, market trends and the way they want their own internal business plan to meet with demand.
Apple is a major company that has a bullseye on their back so to speak and always has but they take what they want to do on their time frame along with consumer demand and past experience. They do this better than anybody.

As far as the OP and his opening question to start the thread, I don't know where or why the question and don't agree with the initial or followup question at all.
 

EmceeGeek

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It's normal for companies to adjust their plans over the years as the competitive landscape changes. The companies that fail to adjust are usually the ones who end up in trouble.

Exactly! And people have to remember that the iPhone really was the first of its kind at the beginning. They didn't see all of these companies coming, apparently.


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tgp

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And people have to remember that the iPhone really was the first of its kind at the beginning.

The iPhone isn't the only product Apple produced that was the first of its kind. Apple used to steer the market. Apple said that consumers wanted a smartphone without a physical keyboard, the consumers said they didn't, but how many physical keyboards do you see on smartphones today? Apple was absolutely correct. Apple said the market didn't need an optical drive in a laptop, and that's now fast becoming the norm. Apple said the market wanted a 10" flat device, and today tablets are taking market share from computers very quickly. Even Steve Jobs said that the tablet would never happen (by Apple at least). Apple isn't the largest player anymore in any of these departments, but they were instrumental in getting it going.
 

anon(4698833)

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"Wholly different directions"

...please explain that to me...no offense, but I haven't the first clue where a person would come up with such an observation.
 

Speedygi

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"Wholly different directions"

...please explain that to me...no offense, but I haven't the first clue where a person would come up with such an observation.

Well something that does not revolve around being a feature phone that plays media? Or go onto the Internet?
 

anon(4698833)

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Well something that does not revolve around being a feature phone that plays media? Or go onto the Internet?

That is what you said in your first post...I was hoping for something a little more elaborate. I guess what my confusion is in the idea that Apple is going in a "wholly different direction" with the iPhone. I don't agree to say the least, but I think even more so, I don't understand how a person could deduce that. Apple, at least in my observation, has a product that has quite literally stayed true to it's original plan...you have unique design cues, unique OS build, unique feature implementation...etc etc etc (i could list these for days)...I mean, the iPhone has stayed on course about as closely as you possibly could while also maintaining top tier relevance with advances in technology.

I mean they CONSTANTLY push the iPhone's gaming core, and they CONSTANTLY clamor about airplay and iTunes media playback...the "beautiful retina display" as they always discuss and how great movies and TV shows look on it. And one thing that I feel has always been Apple's strong suit (especially with computers) is photo and video integration...if there's one major shift change (and I think this comes from the entire market of phones), it's with camera importance. I don't think ANYONE expected smart phones to completely obliterate the market of point and shoot cameras...but it has, it basically eliminated the need for those kinds of cameras, and it damn near eliminated the need for your common household video camera as well, with the ability to record in HD and easily upload these things for all to see in the social media world.

I guess I just don't see your logic here. Has Apple evolved? Of course they have...you can't remain stagnant and expect continued success over the years, it just doesn't work like that at all. Have they gone in a "wholly different direction"? I can't say I even understand that at all...of course they haven't, look at the iPhone, and look at what Apple puts focus on. Bigger screens? Nope. Maxed out internals? Nope. Unpolished popular tech features? Nope. Phablets? Nope. Widgets? Nope...I mean I think you see where I'm going with this. If you look at the smart phone world, you'll see that almost every other manufacturer has gone the route of most if not ALL of these things with their new offerings...while Apple has stayed back and continuously polished what they have, and each year, it feels like the perfect version...and then each year, they figure out a way to improve it.

If there's one phone on the market right now that HASN'T strayed in a different direction...by definition it is the iPhone.
 

Speedygi

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They added multitasking, didn't they? And that was from pressure they weren't delivering an experience from a Productivity standpoint. For example, trying to attach a single file to a email was a bothersome thing early on. Even anyone who barely catches up on the mobile scene knows that iPhones weren't corporate geared phones from the beginning...

Even if they did some corporate features to cater to enterprise, iPhones didn't have best in class quality in those respects. Multitasking itself wasn't true multitasking the way Palm was back in the day. They added those but they weren't good implementations but merely serviceable ones.

So I was saying they haven't gone in a wholly direction, of course they hadn't. But at least they are trying to.

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Speedygi

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Plus Apple redid the entire user interface because people wanted something new that could maybe keep itself fresh against Android and Windows phone competition with iOS7 .

They added a notification system which some were accustomed to having on Android much earlier, with a previous OS version.

Any more examples do you want me to give to back my point about Apple trying to change their original vision for the product line ?

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anon(4698833)

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You know...you've probably watched this before...maybe you haven't. But regardless, watch this again, watch what Steve Jobs focuses on:

- Ease of use (in regard to the UI)
- NO keyboard (not ever)
- NO stylus (not ever)
- Focus on multimedia (videos, music, gaming)

...I mean I could keep listing them, but they're right there in the video. What's changed? Where is this "wholly different direction"? Because after having seen that video so many times in my life, all I see is one thing...a device that is exactly what Steve Jobs envisioned, that follows right in line with EXACTLY what he represented in that video...but with 6 years of Apple's magic into it, 6 years of polish...6 years of perfect iPhone evolution.

[HD] Steve Jobs - iPhone Introduction in 2007 (Complete) - YouTube

Lastly, to speak on your comment about a completely redone user interface...what are you talking about? Are we talking about the same iOS 7 here? The one that certainly had a major cosmetic overhaul, but remained nearly identical at it's core? There's a big difference between adding function to a UI and "redoing" it...iOS 7 isn't a new interface, it's an optimized version of the same iOS we've all grown to love.
 

Speedygi

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I would say Apple had an intention of trying to change some aspects of their products from iOS (change of look in 7, and an inclusion of a notification center) to the actual specifications like the 64bit processor, in response to the competition and pressure from customers, but still retaining much of that Apple feel, as you have mentioned, iOS7 still looking largely the same.

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sting7k

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I deeply recalled a Web article where I have read that said, from the outset, the iPhone was designed to be a media consumption device with lust factor unseen in a phone, and I believed that was the direction given to Forstall and the first team.

Fast forward to today, we see Apple trying to push iOS into wholly different directions: I realized the original vision for the iPhone isn't one of being a mobile computer...But now it's trying towards being one.

Do you think that's what Apple has to struggle against right now, or is just normal that a product has to be agile and adaptable?

Give some thoughts here...

For me at least, the iPhone has always really been my iPocketComputer. It actually kind of bothers me that we even still call all these things phones. I look around and no one is ever using it as a phone. I don't think it has really changed it at all. It just does even more than it used too, like any product does over time.
 

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