Before the iPhone and the Samsung Galaxy S line, Nokia and BlackBerry ruled the mobile market with the likes of the impervious 3310 and fancy QWERTY handsets.
At the time, then Apple CEO Steve Jobs didn't think those devices were smart enough to give what the consumers need, saying that the iPhone would "leapfrog" over the phones back then and revolutionize the industry. Spoiler alert: he wasn't wrong.
While Jobs may have been confident, a lot of people wasn't singing the same tune. However, as we all know, the naysayers' sentiments weren't enough to deter the successful road the iPhone was set on.
Apple Introduces The Original iPhone
Back in 2007, Jobs took the stage to unwrap the original iPhone, saying that he's introducing three "revolutionary devices" — a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communications device.
He didn't reveal three devices, though. What he showed the audience was one device with all the feature he mentioned beforehand, and it was the iPhone.
People Who Thought The Original iPhone Was Going To Fail
Before going through the list, it's worth noting that the people who didn't exactly believe in the iPhone range from respected tech journalists to Apple's competitors in the industry.
Now here's a list of the people who thought the iPhone was going to be a flop:
TechCrunch's Seth Porges: "We predict the iPhone will bomb," he said.
In his defense, the reasons why he thought the original iPhone was bad make for some pretty valid points, especially back then.
Ad Age's Al Ries: "The iPhone will be a major disappointment ... An iPod is a divergence device; an iPhone is a convergence device. There's a big difference between the two. In the high-tech world, divergence devices have been spectacular successes. But convergence devices, for the most part, have been spectacular failures," he said.
Bloomberg's Matthew Lynn: "The iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks."
The Guardian's Jemima Kiss: "Apple's much-anticipated iPhone ... will struggle to break into the mainstream because of a lack of a 3G connection and low demand for converged devices, according to research," she said.
Just to be clear, she didn't say that the iPhone would fail. She's merely reporting research findings, but this was included in the list to emphasize the consensus at the time.
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer: "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item," he told USA Today.
iPhone Turns 10
The original iPhone has just turned 10, and since it went official on June 29, 2007, Apple has now sold more than 1 billion units of the mobile device.
However, the iPhone's current outlook doesn't seem to be as good as the Cupertino brand hopes, which is evidenced by declining sales. That means Apple will have to pull something off like it did with the first iPhone for the much-rumored iPhone 8, or something along those lines.
For the record, the original iPhone doesn't have dual cameras, reliable water and dust resistance, an HD display, and whatnot. Put simply, it's a far cry from today's iPhone 7, but what the iPhone did that the iPhone 7 didn't was pave the way for the future of smartphones.
With all said and done, did we miss anyone else who deserves to be part of the list? Drop by our comments section below and let us know.
