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Re:An Open Letter To Those Not Employed At Instagram by JonnieCache on Sunday April 15, 2012 @06:54PM (#3845061)
Obviously they weren't the first mobile photo app. They were the first photo sharing app that let you ironically pretend to have a polaroid style camera like a massive bloody hipster. Polaroids became cool again just after the world's supply of polaroid film ran out. "New age fun, with a vintage feel." That's what they were first with, and that's ultimately why they're now rich.
Re:An Open Letter To Those Not Employed At Instagram by hartror on Sunday April 15, 2012 @07:05PM (#3845088)
I think the low quality of the photos the original few iPhones took had something to do with it as well. The hipster filters hid that low quality and allowed an artistic bent to what was otherwise a poor user experience.

I find myself using the filters less and less now I have a 4S.

Re:An Open Letter To Those Not Employed At Instagram by ZeroGravitas on Monday April 16, 2012 @05:50AM (#3846692)
I believe they also offered better sharing options than Apple offered, unlike Android which allows you to hand off these task between apps which you can download to add filter options or uploads intents.
Re:An Open Letter To Those Not Employed At Instagram by user-id on Sunday April 15, 2012 @07:04PM (#3845085)
Hipstamatic anyone?
Re:An Open Letter To Those Not Employed At Instagram by phil on Sunday April 15, 2012 @10:05PM (#3845574)
Hipstamatic lacked sharing, at least when Instagram came out. That was the thing that set Instagram apart -- it did this popular thing with photos on your iPhone but bolted sharing on.