Apple did not create this part of the 21st century. There have been applications for mobile phones for years now (and before the phones, there was the palm pilot). I am sure there are way more applications available for other mobile platforms than for the iPhone. #nitpicking
The critical point is cognitive friction. The UI of the iPhone means that it integrates with your brain much easier then a cell phone. There is a critical point between UI, mind extension, and cognitive friction. The 21st century potentials come from the way the exponentially better UI reduce cognitive friction and let your mind interact with your phone more naturally.
It's like a primitive MMI. A cell phone isn't. That's the difference. This isn't the last cell phone. It's the first MMI that follows you everywhere.
I think your view that apps are what is important is superficial, and what's important is cognitive function. Getting human brains to work better with a phone is what makes apple responsible for this part of the 21st century, not the abilities of the phone per se.
I thought the discussion was about the app store. Usability of the iPhone - maybe. Maybe a bigger factor is mobile internet becoming cheaper. I haven't been a user of mobile internet so far, but perhaps those Blackberry guys have been using mobile internet long before the iPhone?
What exactly can be done with the iPhone now that wasn't possible before (possibly with a slightly less pleasing UI)? Maybe it only adds one ingredient: mass audience, which of course accounts for a lot.
The app store is a seed. I'm talking about the tree it's going to grow into. That's topical.
I can interact with it and have 100% of my brain available for the kinds of thinking my brain is good at. Because interacting with it does not require much of my brain (that good UI), it solves a bottleneck. If I use my iPhone to manage information, it multiplies the efficiency of my thinking. A cell phone doesn't do that.
There is a tipping point from UI and getting your mind into your phone where you can get more of your mind free to think while you use your device. UI represents the bottleneck between your brain and your device, so breaking that bottleneck is as important a technological revolution as breaking a bottleneck between different parts of your computer.
maybe you didn't do enough acid in college and don't consider every possible description should include an observer, but how your brain interacts with your machine (and environment) is as important a technological factor as anything technological. Apple, and the other people that realize that get to invent the 21st century. There is a reason neuron valley will be the next silicon valley over the next 20 years.
Maybe I didn't do enough acid to believe that Apple is the shit. Palm Pilots already were used to organize information, and they were much more open than the iPhone.
It would like to like Apple, but somehow it is all too restricted. Take the deeply flawed app store: since it is not open and not even HTML compatible, it is impossible for other people to step up and improve on it. I hope that is not the 21st century we are heading for.
Maybe the first time with the iPhone feels like a shot of a new, exciting drug. But ultimately using it synchronizes you to Apples way of thinking, and turns you into a drone.
You are thinking days and weeks ahead instead of months and decades. I agree the app store as it stands is crap. I think the ship has sailed on the app store being crap. That's a short term, soluble problem. Long term, UI + neurology will determine the 21st century we are headed for.
All the other corporations suck at integrating UI and the brain.
Watching people talk about the technology game as if what's happening right now (i.e. last years decisions) matters on a larger scale is like watching kindergardeners play soccer by mobbing the ball. While you're talking about HTMML in the app store, they're thinking about 2010, 2020.
If the printing press was just invented, you'd be saying monks had been copying books by hand forever, and were more open then the printing press.
Just not betting on Apple, that's all. I think/hope the "corporations" only have a couple of years left before open source takes over completely. At the moment they still have some hold on the hardware, but open source hardware will fix that. Apple hurts my brain because I can not amend it to my needs.
but open source cannot compete with apple. That is like saying an army with no generals, navy, air force or money will beat an army with a great general with stealth bombers, battleships, and a building filled with hundred dollar bills and gold bars. Just not gonna happen.
