iPhone 2G

[CatherineVeraGat]

When the original iPhone came out, it was truly a revolutionary device that change how we use our phones, talk to other people, how we do things in our day-to-day life's.

When it came out, it had a 3.5 inch touch display that never was seen on a phone before. And Apple patented the Touch Screen and the technology that they used in the original iPhone when it came out.

I truly do believe that Apple came out with the revolutionary screen technology, and no other computer company should have used that patent in any way, shape, or form without paying Apple a fee for using the Touch Screen technology that Apple patented when the first iPhone came out. And yet every smartphone on the market used the same touch screen technology that is used in the original iPhone, when Apple did in fact came out with that revolutionary technology that found today on every smartphone.

Without other companies, using those patents then we wouldn't have many options to use a different phone that isn't the iPhone. So that means that if other companies didn't used the patents that Apple made when the original iPhone came out, then the iPhone would practically capture the entire smartphone market and the iPhone wouldn't have any competition or anything focing them to make it better every year, a.k.a. Amazon Kindle E-readers, Then it would be like AT&T owning the entire market back in the day when there was no competition. So AT&T could price it any way they want since there was no competition and they're the only Home Phone service company at the time.

So to me, I'm stuck what would happen if other companies didn't used the Touch Screen Display patents that Apple came out with in the original iPhone. Then the smartphone market today would look like, a Touch Sensitive iPhone, Blackberries (The phone company), phones that has QWERTY keyboards, and phones that just has a keypad. (Just for numbers).

And maybe a company would come out with a phone that just has the same display size or bigger but below the non-touch sensitive display (Since Apple patented the display technology used in the original iPhone) there would just be a mini trackpad so we can use our thumb to move around the display and maybe we would have a slide-out keyboard underneath the display. So it would look like kinda like this.

Even if the Smartphone market look like this today, I really do think sooner or later Smartphone companies would file a lawsuit saying that Apple has (Almost) all the smartphone market share and Apple has the Touch Screen Display patents that is used in all of their iPhone and we (The smartphone companies) are stick with just a non-touch display and some buttons while Apple has a touch-sensitive display with on-screen buttons that change the entire world on how they use their phones.

To me, since that touch-sensitive display technology was patented when the iPhone came out, it made the iPhone a revolutionary device. And to me, I think that the Touch Display technology should only be used on iPhones and Apple devices. But if that did happen then Apple would be like AT&T (I have mentioned this above), and many companies would file a lawsuit against Apple (I did too mentioned this above).

And I used Android devices before I switched to an iPhone SE. On Android it seems like the patented display technology is no big deal that it came from the iPhone, but on the iPhone it is a big deal because Apple used and patented the Display technology they is on all iPhones and it did change the world on how we use our phones.

I really do think that Apple should make companies pay a fee to use their patented Display Technology that they made on the original iPhone. So other companies wouldn't have to make phones that just have QWERTY keyboards on them.

And Steve Jobs wanted to ban any phone that used their Touch Screen Display patents because Apple made that technology and they have patented it. And when the iPhone came out, Apple did patented everything that made the Touch-sensitive display technology possible.

I really do agree with Steve Jobs that any phone that used the patents should be banned. But if that happened, then companies would have file a lawsuit against Apple and then Apple would have to hand over the Touch-sensitive display technology over to other companies, but I would have let other companies used the patented Display Technology if they pay a fee to use that Display Technology in their phones.

But if the display technology wasn't as revolutionary as it is today, then it wouldn't be a big deal that other companies used that technology because it would be like if Apple made a revolutionary Antenna for their iPhones, it wouldn't be as big as a deal as the revolutionary Touch Sensitive Display technology that is used in all phones.

I recently watched a movie called Jobs based on what happened at Apple in the late 1970's to the early 2000's, and last night I watched the Keynote that Steve Jobs released the iPhone 4, and other parts of Keynotes that Steve Jobs was in like the original iPhone event, other videos that Steve Jobs was in.

 

[Stefan johansson]

Some faults in this post. The iPhone was not at all the first touchscreen phone. Nokia and Ericsson had their first touchscreen models on the market more than a year before the first iPhone was introduced on the US market.
However,the first iPhone was never released in north Europe as the 2G technology was seen as outdated in north Europe in 2007. The Nokia N95 had a touchscreen and 3G technology in 2006,and so had most other phone models sold in Europe at the time.

 

[vkd]

Fact is, market monopolies are prohibited. Hence the concurrency of Apple/Samsung, Intel/AMD, iOS/Android etc.

Just saying this so you know why Apple's touchscreen tech has not been limited to solely them.

 

[Stefan johansson]

Fact is, market monopolies are prohibited. Hence the concurrency of Apple/Samsung, Intel/AMD, iOS/Android etc.

Just saying this so you know why Apple's touchscreen tech has not been limited to solely them.

As I clearly mentioned,touchscreen technologies was no new thing when the iPhone was released. The major advantages with the iPhone,is and has always been iOS and secure app downloads. Touchscreen devices was first released about 10 years before the first iPhone hit the market.

 

[vkd]

As I clearly mentioned,touchscreen technologies was no new thing when the iPhone was released. The major advantages with the iPhone,is and has always been iOS and secure app downloads. Touchscreen devices was first released about 10 years before the first iPhone hit the market.

Yes, that as well. The OP was thinking that touchscreen and associated tech were Apple priority. Some tech may well be but as i suggested they cannot patent absolutely everything because of market monopoly laws

 

[Stefan johansson]

Yes, that as well. The OP was thinking that touchscreen and associated tech were Apple priority. Some tech may well be but as i suggested they cannot patent absolutely everything because of market monopoly laws

Yes,that's right. And trying to patent things that someone else got a similar patent for years before won't work either.

 

[kdarling]

When it came out, it had a 3.5 inch touch display that never was seen on a phone before. And Apple patented the Touch Screen and the technology that they used in the original iPhone when it came out.

- Apple did not invent the touchscreen they used. And many of their patents on related stuff are seen as obvious.

Analysts had already predicted that 2007 would be the year that capacitive screens and finger friendly UIs would take off.

Lots of designs and demos were seen throughout 2006, which is no doubt why Jobs felt compelled to break normal Apple secrecy and show off a device that barely worked, six months before it was ready. He wanted to take credit for what everyone else was already working on.

- Jobs, the movie, is ridiculous in the way it makes Jobs look like he had engineering knowledge. He never designed a circuit or programmed a single line in his life. He didn't understand most of what his employees were talking about. But he was great at pushing them to make things simpler for users like him. That was his forte.

 

[Stefan johansson]

- Apple did not invent the touchscreen they used. And many of their patents on related stuff are seen as obvious.

Analysts had already predicted that 2007 would be the year that capacitive screens and finger friendly UIs would take off.

Lots of designs and demos were seen throughout 2006, which is no doubt why Jobs felt compelled to break normal Apple secrecy and show off a device that barely worked, six months before it was ready. He wanted to take credit for what everyone else was already working on.

- Jobs, the movie, is ridiculous in the way it makes Jobs look like he had engineering knowledge. He never designed a circuit or programmed a single line in his life. He didn't understand most of what his employees were talking about. But he was great at pushing them to make things simpler for users like him. That was his forte.

You got a point,but touchscreen as a general idea is older than 2006.
I bought my first touchscreen device back in -98,was a PDA called Palm Pilot. When it comes to phones,Nokia released their N95 on the north European market a few months before Steve jobs introduced the 2G iPhone in North America. The N95 used 3G technology,and the first iPhone with 3G was introduced in 2008. That's the reason why the first iPhone where never sold on the north European market,the 2G technology was discontinued and seen as obsolete in north Europe in 2007.

 

[GigabitEthernet]

What Apple tends to do is not invent things but reinvent them. That was literally the tagline of the original iPhone when it was first launched.

Apple didn't invent the touchscreen. But what they did do was use it in a way that had mass market appeal. Before the iPhone touchscreens were seen as a helpful extra rather than a primary input method. The N95 still had physical buttons because frankly the touchscreen was awful. You had to use a stylus.

There's a reason that Nokia fell. It's because they didn't understand the appeal of the iPhone and so they carried on as they were.

Just look at touchscreen phones before and after the iPhone. I think it's pretty clear that a lot of companies (well not Nokia or Microsoft) through out their old plans when the iPhone was announced.

And you know what? We're all better off for it. Android would have been another Windows Mobile if it weren't for the iPhone.

 

[Stefan johansson]

What Apple tends to do is not invent things but reinvent them. That was literally the tagline of the original iPhone when it was first launched.

Apple didn't invent the touchscreen. But what they did do was use it in a way that had mass market appeal. Before the iPhone touchscreens were seen as a helpful extra rather than a primary input method. The N95 still had physical buttons because frankly the touchscreen was awful. You had to use a stylus.

There's a reason that Nokia fell. It's because they didn't understand the appeal of the iPhone and so they carried on as they were.

Just look at touchscreen phones before and after the iPhone. I think it's pretty clear that a lot of companies (well not Nokia or Microsoft) through out their old plans when the iPhone was announced.

And you know what? We're all better off for it. Android would have been another Windows Mobile if it weren't for the iPhone.

You got a point,but when it comes to Nokia,the phones as a very minor part of their production,Nokia brands like valmet,wärtsilä,and others are still very much alive,producing everything from rubber boots to arctic ice breakers.

 

[Tech198]

There are only so many ways to make a touchscreen....

Besides, it is re-invent for iPhone, but technically since it was never on the phone to begin with its IS an "inventing" by Apple only.. Doesn't it sound better if u tell someone "I just invented a new form of driving" ? vs "I just ripped it off"?

 

[Stefan johansson]

The first phones with some kind of touchscreens where the Nokia 9110 i communicator. Was a mix between PDA and phone.

 

[kdarling]

You got a point,but touchscreen as a general idea is older than 2006.

Oh, you're preaching to the choir . I was developing commercial capacitive touch screen devices that were finger friendly over fifteen years before the iPhone came out. And certainly multi-touch has had a long history.

As for smartphones, by 2006 over 100 million a year were being sold, and IIRC about 20% of them had a touchscreen.

During the iPhone debut, Steve Jobs of course carefully avoided mentioning any of those. Even though Samsung for example had come out with an all-touch phone with fingertip scrolling a year BEFORE the iPhone went on sale. (The one at upper right below.)

Instead he only showed phones with keyboards taking up the front.

Btw, when the 2005 Pidion came out, Unwired Magazine predicted that if Apple ever did an iPod phone, that's what it would look like. Not so surprisingly, Apple lost their design patent claims every time the Pidion was shown as prior art. Also not surprisingly, that was one of the key items that Apple's lawyers blocked from the Samsung trial. They couldn't afford to let the California jury see it.

IPhone features like slide to unlock were not new, as most people know by now. Even the orientation sensor had been done years before in another finger friendly phone with nice web browser:

Apple didn't invent the touchscreen. But what they did do was use it in a way that had mass market appeal. Before the iPhone touchscreens were seen as a helpful extra rather than a primary input method.

True, the main appeal of the iPhone was not multi-touch. It was simply about being finger friendly, something that had been done multiple times before through the years, but not with the publicity that Apple got, and not with their special flair.

And you know what? We're all better off for it. Android would have been another Windows Mobile if it weren't for the iPhone.

Some of it was better, some was not. For example, throwing out scrollbars that you could drag quickly to certain spot was a huge UX mistake. Even now I dread picking out a pulldown menu item that starts with 'Z'

But not everything was copied, thank goodness. I'm glad that Android and others continued having a Back button from the very beginning. It took years for Apple to put in the Back swipe.

 

[Stefan johansson]

Oh, you're preaching to the choir . I was developing commercial capacitive touch screen devices that were finger friendly over fifteen years before the iPhone came out. And certainly multi-touch has had a long history.

View attachment 710856

As for smartphones, by 2006 over 100 million a year were being sold, and IIRC about 20% of them had a touchscreen.

During the iPhone debut, Steve Jobs of course carefully avoided mentioning any of those. Even though Samsung for example had come out with an all-touch phone with fingertip scrolling a year BEFORE the iPhone went on sale. (The one at upper right below.)

View attachment 710855
Instead he only showed phones with keyboards taking up the front.

Btw, when the 2005 Pidion came out, Unwired Magazine predicted that if Apple ever did an iPod phone, that's what it would look like. Not so surprisingly, Apple lost their design patent claims every time the Pidion was shown as prior art. Also not surprisingly, that was one of the key items that Apple's lawyers blocked from the Samsung trial. They couldn't afford to let the California jury see it.

IPhone features like slide to unlock were not new, as most people know by now. Even the orientation sensor had been done years before in another finger friendly phone with nice web browser:

View attachment 710857



True, the main appeal of the iPhone was not multi-touch. It was simply about being finger friendly, something that had been done multiple times before through the years, but not with the publicity that Apple got, and not with their special flair.



Some of it was better, some was not. For example, throwing out scrollbars that you could drag quickly to certain spot was a huge UX mistake. Even now I dread picking out a pulldown menu item that starts with 'Z'

But not everything was copied, thank goodness. I'm glad that Android and others continued having a Back button from the very beginning. It took years for Apple to put in the Back swipe.

Interesting. I was not aware of this part of the development. The old Nokia communicator i referred to,never had multi touch,and the earlier model had no Color screen. The communicator had many things in common with the old Psion PDA.