Schiller: iPhone, iPad born out of exploiting iPod success
updated 01:59 pm EDT, Fri August 3, 2012
Cameras, cars among early suggestions
The decision to make the iPhone and the iPad stemmed from the success of the iPod, according to Apple's senior VP for worldwide product marketing, Phil Schiller. The executive testified late yesterday as a part of the ongoing Apple v. Samsung trial in California. The iPod, Schiller explained, had allowed Apple to move beyond being a niche albeit successful computer maker. "This really changed everybody’s view of Apple both inside and outside the company," he said.
It wasn't immediately obvious what the company should try, however, and a number of suggestions were thrown around. "Make a camera, make a car, crazy stuff," Schiller remarked yesterday. Apple initially settled on a tablet computer which would eventually become the iPad, but then decided to switch its focus to a cellphone. "At the time, cellphones weren’t any good as entertainment devices," said Schiller.
In court the VP went through a list of iPad and iPhone reviews, and commented that a number of people outside Apple doubted that either the iPhone or the iPad could succeed. Palm and Microsoft, for instance, are said to have predicted the iPhone's failure. "Probably the biggest reason was that Apple had never had a phone before," according to Schiller. "They expected we would fall on our faces." Critics doubted that the iPad could succeed because it lacked a physical keyboard, which was seen as a particular issue for content creation. That concern has yet to die down completely; even IDC characterizes the iPad as a "media tablet" in industry tracking.
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It's too bad that Samsung was able to ride Apple's coattails of success with the Galaxy S series. They were able to jump right into the smartphone competition and block most of Apple's growth of market share. Actually, Steve is the source of all Apple's grief. He welcomed Eric Schmidt with open arms to play around at Apple and practically gave Eric the keys to the kingdom which birthed the rapid rise of Android. Eric helped himself to the cash, silverware and Steve Jobs pants and walked out with a nice helping of the family jewels of IP. That's what Steve got for being so trusting or maybe he was too preoccupied with other things to realize how treacherous humans are when it comes to stealing other people's property.
Now Apple has to put up with all this BS from the media about how the iPhone is falling way behind the smartphone curve and how Samsung and Android OS are eating Apple's lunch. Those boasting bloggers and analysts think they know so much by believing success is guaranteed from having major market share and they really don't know diddly. Having major market share can be margin-empty and fleeting if one were to use Nokia and RIM as very recent examples. Basing success on only owning major market share is a fool's game when there are so many other important factors in creating a financially successful long-term sales strategy. Just because Apple has one quarter of lowered iPhone sales it's so easy for the media to think that Apple and the iPhone are done for in the smartphone industry even though Apple has the back-burners on high.
So far, the so-called experts have been wrong about the iPod, the iPhone, the MacBook Air and now the iPad about being successful products. Those experts opinions are not worth a damn thing and should be completely ignored. Only the consumer matters to Apple and Apple seems to be satisfying them in droves. Let's see how long the rest of the tech industry is able to stay running strong in the long haul as Apple will despite the near-constant negativity of all those analysts and bloggers.