Before the iPhone it was considered ridiculous for the mainstream American consumer to purchase a cellphone for more than $100 or $200. Operators would provide heavy subsides on devices with the catch that you had to remain a subscriber for at least 2 years. The iPhone changed all that. It became acceptable to shell out over half a grand (now only $400 vs $600 initially) for a device that could play music, videos, browse the internet, send and receive text messages and phone calls.
Then one day the iPhone was hacked and America’s most popular feature phone became America’s most popular smartphone. Applications could be installed, functionality could be added, your iPhone became more than an iPod connected to the cellular network. Your iPhone became a computer that was always connected and always in your pocket.
Recently Apple updated the iPhone’s firmware and those users who once enjoyed applications that let them play Nintendo games, chat with their friends over IM, upload images straight to Flickr, were now confronted with a dead device. Punished for exploring their curiosity, punished for thinking differently, the company who once stood for creating technology that enhanced your life turned into the company that wanted to control the end user experience.
Gizmodo recently came to the realization that the iPhone isn’t the holiest of holy devices, something I’ve been saying since before the damn thing came out, and I’m glad that the backlash is starting to happen. If there was ever a time for cellphone manufactures and operators to innovate in the states, than this is it. With Sprint saying their WiMAX network will be used for non subsided hardware and Nokia printing ads in the Times proclaiming how free their devics are, who will be the creator of a new device that gets as much hype as the iPhone did, yet deliver more to the consumer than the iPhone ever could?
The iPhone really is the best thing to ever happen to the American smartphone industry. Expect to see S60, Windows Mobile and Palm steal the best ideas Apple developed, compounded with the philosophy that users want to expand their devices functionality, and unleash a wave of devices that are easier to use and sexier than ever imagined.