Genuine question.

I know they were the scrappy startup doing different cool things. But, what are the most major innovative things that they introduced, improved or just implemented that either revolutionized, improved or spurred change?

I am aware of the possibility of both fanboys and haters just duking it out below. But there’s always that one guy who has a fkn well-formatted paragraph of gold. I await that guy.

  • theodewere@kbin.social
    361·
    11 months ago

    and i think in general, their attempt to really focus on user experience first always seemed to define their business… trying to make things that people would WANT to use was what made Jobs and Apple stand out… other brands were better known for performance, for example…

    • AA5B@lemmy.worldEnglish
      273·
      11 months ago

      Exactly. They innovated

      • a GUI that people wanted to use and ushered in a new era of computer guys
      • several times a personal computer it laptop that people wanted to use and set new standards for others to follow
      • personal music devices that worked so well they set the standard.
      • a phone that just works and set many standards for other phones to follow
      • an App Store that set standards for usability and security, and set a high bar for others to follow
      • a mobile payment system that’s secure and private, and set a standard for the industry to follow
      • shared resources and config across devices and family members, setting new standards for usability and convenience

      I could probably go on for a while. The thing is that everything in tech is an iteration: almost nothing is completely new. Apple has consistently applied design and usability to revolutionize many different areas of tech. It is true innovation with real change and huge impact

      • Brkdncr@lemmy.worldEnglish
        520·
        11 months ago

        The iPod wasn’t very special. Lots of competitors in that space.

        Their phone wasn’t very special. It lacked a lot of features like enterprise email for 1-2 years. It was also slow and locked to a slow carrier in the US for that time.

        They managed to sell it though. Their ads and marketing is always been great even if the devices weren’t.

        • DJDarren@thelemmy.clubEnglish
          4·
          11 months ago

          Lots of competitors in that space.

          Sure, but none of them in such a small size with such a relatively big capacity, and certainly none that were as easy to use and easy to sync. Apple absolutely rewrote the book on how a portable music player should be, then did it all over again with the iPhone.

        • Zoolander@lemmy.worldEnglish
          31·
          11 months ago

          This is a very ignorant take. MP3 players before the iPod sucked for most people. Obtaining music that was properly tagged or ripping CDs with command-line apps was out of reach for the majority of people.

          Saying that the iPhone wasn’t special is also crazy. The best-selling smartphone of all time wasn’t special?

          Unbelievable…

          • Brkdncr@lemmy.worldEnglish
            36·
            11 months ago

            At the time of release it it wasn’t. Palm was better. Blackberry had advantages in data speed and email. The iPhone couldn’t take advantage of its browser because of how slow mobile internet was.

            The iPod at release was up against a number of players that were nearly identical.

            Apple marketed its products better than everyone else, and by 2008 had definitely come up with winning products, but to say its stuff was unique or better at release is revisionist history.

    • IWantToFuckSpez@kbin.social
      16·
      11 months ago

      Jobs really wanted to make tech usable for the mainstream. Just look at the first iPod all the other MP3 players at the time were for the geeks and music nerds. They were clunky, had ugly geek esthetics and the software was hard to use for most people. And the non techies had no idea where to get mp3s. The iPod together with the iTunes Store really sold the MP3 player to the masses.

    • yesdogishere@kbin.social
      431·
      11 months ago

      Wrong wrong wrong. It was never about ease of use. It was always about taking control away from the user, and hiding authority for control. This kind of deceptive practice has led to what we gave today - cars selling subscription hearing seats. The truth is, the gui was always buggy and a product unfit for its purpose from day one. Apple sold it as a means to get consumers to accept a defective product from the start, perpetuating their ability to always sell updates, forcing consumers to pay for things THEY DO NOT NEED.