Many people know that the iPhone created the smartphone category, but they don’t know how much impact the iPhone’s emergence has had on the world. It can be said that without iPhone, there would be no prosperity of mobile Internet. Before the birth of the original iPhone in 2007,

Many people know that the iPhone created the smartphone category, but they don’t know how much impact the iPhone’s emergence has had on the world. It can be said that without iPhone, there would be no prosperity of mobile Internet.

Before the birth of the original iPhone in 2007, what were the mobile phones like at that time? It can be said that the vast majority of mobile phones use a numeric keyboard + plastic screen design. At least half of the space on the front is occupied by physical buttons, and the viewing area of ​​the screen is less than 2 inches. It is purely a communication tool.

At that time, the thinking of mobile phone manufacturers was this: mobile phones must have physical buttons, otherwise the most important communication function will be lost. Even if the screen size is increased, a clamshell-like structure must be used to ensure that the physical buttons can be stuffed in. The products designed under this thinking framework are all similar in function and can only be innovative in appearance.

In 2007, there was a relatively imaginative mobile phone called Nokia E90, which was a large-screen flip phone. It takes the physical keyboard to the extreme and looks like a mini laptop when unfolded. It is equipped with Symbian system and supports 3G network, just like a handheld computer.

Nokia has almost achieved the ultimate in the traditional route, but you will find that the Nokia E90 is essentially a functional phone. It mainly relies on a physical keyboard to operate the phone. The screen can only display images but cannot be touched. The functionality depends entirely on the system. Built-in applications do not create more needs.

Without the iPhone, today’s mobile phones would most likely become handheld PCs. The most important thing is that mobile phones are communication tools. They are portable and compact, and the screen cannot be made larger. This leads to a question: on such a small screen, there is no mouse, and just relying on a reduced version of the keyboard, how can the operating efficiency be as good as that of a computer?

Facts have proved that once you dare not break through the existing framework, you cannot make disruptive products. It’s hard to imagine what mobile phones will become if they continue to develop on this road. If there had been no iPhone, I think there would have been three obvious changes.

First of all, mobile games cannot become mainstream. The most critical premise for the development of mobile games is that the mobile phone screen supports multi-touch and the screen size is large enough to enable complex and diverse game interactions. The Nokia E90 does not have a touch screen. If you want to play games, you can only operate it with a very small keyboard and there is no mouse. You can imagine how bad the experience is.

Second, the mobile Internet ecosystem cannot be so prosperous. Under the design framework of feature phones, even if third-party APPs can be installed, they cannot develop. Just open a few apps and you will find that their interactive interfaces are completely different. But on feature phones, APP developers can only adapt physical buttons, and it’s good if they can barely realize the functions.

Third, mobile phone performance will not develop so rapidly. With the booming development of mobile games and APPs, consumers have increasingly higher requirements for mobile phone performance, and mobile phones need to take into account both performance and battery life. This has forced the rapid development of semiconductor technology. For example, the A15 uses TSMC's 5nm process, but intel is still polishing the 10nm process, and mainstream smart TVs are even still using the 12nm process.

In summary, you will find that Jobs’ definition of a smartphone is perfect. It can be touched, has no buttons, can install third-party APPs, and can cover everything with just one screen, creating a prosperous mobile Internet ecosystem out of thin air. . What do you think about this? Welcome to discuss.