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Apple's iPhone Turns 10 (www.bgr.in)
An anonymous reader shares a report: "Every once in a while there is a revolutionary product that comes along, that changes everything," that's how Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone 10 years ago. To think about it, the iPhone did not have anything that anyone associated with a smartphone. On top of that, it was expensive, you could not share files over Bluetooth, it did not support 3G, it did not have an expandable storage slot and you needed iTunes for everything. But despite that, and to the horror of its rivals, everyone wanted one. Veteran journalist Steven Levy spoke with Phil Schiller, VP of Worldwide Marketing at Apple on the occasion.
No, the product was 100% transformative. It was completely different from any that came before it
True, it's the only smartphone on which you can't install an application unless approved by the phone manufacturer. Nobody had that idea before.
and it was copied by everyone who came after
Who copied that? Android, despite Google's control and locked bootloaders on some phones, is nowhere near as locked-down as the iPhone. Not sure about Windows Phone and Blackberry but they failed anyways.
Who's talking about rooting? You can still install any unapproved application on Android without rooting. On iOS you are stuck in a walled garden.
It doesn't define everything about the device but it's the major differentiator between iPhoneOS/iOS and everything before. They didn't invent the touch screen, they didn't invent the feature phone (the first iPhone was clearly not a smart phone, because you couldn't install any application).