Would a car be like that now? Batteries are close to too expensive, but 38k model 3 says we are close...
Not that much about the iPod changed between 2001 and 2005. A simple to use interface, large storage made it great from the start, but windows support it what made it successful.
It tool them 4 generations to get there, and a lot of money.
I don't think that's true. For example, less than a year after its release, the iPhone accounted for 28% of smartphones sold in the U.S. (and presumably for a greater percentage of smartphone-sale revenue): see https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2008/02/iphone-owns-28-perce....
And half a year after that, the news was better still: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2008/10/apple-officially-sur...
So... by & large nobody had an iPhone or smartphone. They all had Razrs (or other feature-phones) instead.
That's a difficult statement to support. It set the stage for everything that came after, and it knocked the industry back on its heels. I'm not sure of the margin or unit numbers but for lots of values of "commercial success", that alone is hard to ignore.
> “We’ve learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,” he said. “PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They’re not going to just walk in.”
1: https://daringfireball.net/2006/11/colligan_head_stuck