Time magazine: iPhone gadget of the year

[Twinnie]

I'm surprised this isn't already on here:
http://www.time.com/time/business/ar...678581,00.html

I wouldn't get too excited though, while I agree the iPhone's made a good impact on the short-term future of mobile phones in terms of user interfaces the editor sounds a bit out of the loop.

"The iPhone gets applications like Google Maps out onto the street, where we really need them." - Yeah, except every other smartphone in the world already had it, Apple merely took credit for it.

And apparently the mobile OS X platform is the first ever mobile platform and that's what makes it the first true mobile computer. That'd be excluding Windows Mobile and Symbian then.

[fury]

The iPhone is, in my opinion, the first device with the potential to put smart phones into the mass market. Granted, it's not priced like that yet, and it is sorely lacking in some areas smartphones have had down pat for years. But when was the last time you saw this kind of coverage over a smartphone? Apple may be a jack of all trades and master of none (well, ok, they win by far in style and hype) but the phone will improve, and all others will improve as a result. 10 years from now, it could be that the only kind of phone we see out there in the real world are what we consider right now to be smartphones / niche products. The original iPod may not have been the most feature filled or the biggest, but despite all that, it pretty much rocked anything else on the market, and the music business was definitely not the same. Let's see how it is in 6 years when we can take a look back on the iPhone in the same way we do now with the PC and the original iPod.

[cflamm]

actually, time magazine isn't calling the iphone the "gadget" of the year. they're calling it the "invention" of the year. big difference.

[mrgrumble]

Wow i love my iphone but don't get me wrong all the exclusive features that Steve Jobs took cred. for during the introduction and the first like press conference on it every other smart phone has already done. The only reason why his is so successful is the marketing campaign and the reputation the anything with an "i" before it has. Example MP3 player every phone has one but none is as cool as the ipod. Web Browser every phone has it just looks horrible when its put into a form that makes it easier to check out on a phone Safari is the actual page in your hand. Visual voicemail isn't even that big of a deal in my opinion. So thats my input.

[Twinnie]

I wouldn't really call the iPhone an 'invention' but maybe an 'idea'. It'd all been done already but not in such a thoughtful way.