‘iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile product,’ With these words, on 29th June 2007, Steve Jobs introduced iPhone and had prophetically added, ‘once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything’.
10 years later, the prophetic words of Jobs ring true. iPhone has sold over a billion phones and even today, neither its magic nor its impact is showing signs of waning.
Here are the reasons why I feel that iPhone was born to be magical:
1.
Intuitive: iPhone was designed to be intuitive - it did not require us to read a manual to use it.
2.
Impossible: Impossible challenges were given by Jobs and accepted by designers. For example, Jobs wanted iPhone to be operated with ‘one’ button - at a time when users had to dial / punch innumerable buttons to make a call!
3.
Vibration: In the earlier generation of a communication device, a sound was used as a signal to get users to act. iPhone introduced ‘vibration’ to the armoury of phones to get its users to act!
4.
Enrich: It enriched our lives in multiple ways for the better. It brought news, music, photography, and library & more to our fingertips; for us to savour and enjoy at our convenience. Take a simple feature like maps – it ensured that we would never get lost in any city!
5.
Design and Assembly: iPhone boldly said - Designed by Apple in California. Assembled in China. It separated the design and manufacturing of products.
6.
3 feet: iPhone set the tone that it was never more than 3 feet away from us even when we sleep!
7.
Connected: Always - with friends and work!
8.
Fast Following: Scores of companies started ‘copying’ iPhone and a euphemism was coined - fast following. It sounds so much better than ‘copying’!
9.
Sharing: Made ‘sharing’ trendy!
10.
Dent: It dented the power of mobile carriers.
11.
Shift: Action (and life) shifted from desktop to mobile screen.
12.
Accessories: Sprouted an industry estimated to be over $ 100 billion compromising of covers, charging docks, ear buds and more.
13.
App Store: It gave birth to App Store
14.
Sharing Economy: It laid the foundation on which the Sharing Economy was born – giving birth to Uber, Airbnb.
15.
New Industries: It spawned new industry - mobile payment, Self-publishing …
16.
Design: It was so well designed that at every touch point we had a memorable experience resulting in the creation of pleasurable experience, which made us fall in love with it!
17.
Love: Sounds silly, but it made us not just fall in love with an inanimate object but 'lust' for it!
On the down side, iPhone has also resulted in:
18.
Privacy: The concept of privacy has got redefined and unfortunately taken a back seat
19.
Addiction: It gave us such a pleasurable experience when using it that many of got us addicted to it.
20.
Orphans: It is on the rise. Many children have become ‘smartphones orphans’ because the parents instead of spending time with the children are glued to their smartphone!
Bottom Line: iPhone has changed our life forever & in many ways for the better, provided we do not get addicted to it!
It also put Apple on the road to becoming the world’s most valuable company (Market Cap: $ 800 billion) and on track to becoming the world’s first trillion-dollar company.
What do you think? Has it changed the world – for the better or worse? How has it impacted your life? For better or worse? Please do share your thoughts and enrich the conversation.