I’ll never forget when the first kid in my grade school got the original iPhone on release day. You would have thought this kid had found a golden ticket to Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory! At the time, it was merely an impressive little gadget, but many didn’t realize the future that this tiny little device held. But what exactly made this device so appealing to the masses at the time? Compared to what we have now, it was hardly versatile.
The App Store
The App Store within the device was certainly an impressive feat within the cellphone industry. For the first time ever, a platform was created on a phone that allowed outside developers to make applications according to the user’s needs. Endless pages of apps, many of which were just silly gimmicks, but expressed the openness and creativity of the platform. One of the many “selling slogans” for Apple’s iPhone was “there’s an app for that.” An expression used to advertise that if there was a need for an app, it was probably already produced and available within the app store.
Phone and iPod in One
Before smartphones were around, almost every kid growing up had an iPod. It was our generation’s Walkman. Once everyone found out that the latest iPhone could act as an iPod as well as a phone, who wouldn’t make the switch? Instead of carrying multiple devices around, you could just carry one. Ultimately this feature would eventually cause the iPod lineup to become obsolete. What would have seemed like industry suicide (creating a feature that would seemingly destroy your previous product), brought many new users into the iPhone world.
Easy to Use Interface
Was the iPhone the first portable device able to connect to the internet? Of course not. But many previous devices that had such capabilities were not very user-friendly or easy to navigate. Even some flip phones from the past had such a feature, but there is nothing easy or practical about doing an internet search on a one-and-a-half-inch screen. The iPhone, for the first time ever, offered a user-friendly experience that was fast and easy access to the internet via the Safari App. A web browser so easy to use, a child could conduct searches at the touch of a button.