> The first two iPhones weren't as innovative as they make them

Yes they were. Multi-touch in particular was a revelation. Making a big screen with one physical button is a simple idea, but making it work well was the hard part that nobody else had figured out.

Those first iPhones were dog slow, sure, but they absolutely defined how smartphones work ever since.

don't forget pinch to zoom/expand on actual webpages in an actual web browser.

> Those first iPhones were dog slow, sure, but they absolutely defined how smartphones work ever since.

I don’t think this was my experience at all. The first iPhone was always snappy until they started adding random crap everywhere (e.g. by the release of the iPhone 4 the original was near worthless without really old firmware)

Do you remember the first phone that allowed you to play music? No. The first one to take photos? No. The first with internet? No.

Yet we're supposed to give to consider the iphone a revelation because of multi touch. I had the iphone 3g. It was a more polished experience than other phones but that revelation part was just not there. Apps made it big, later.

I swear people treat iPhones like a cult.

I think if you find a good, objective history of the first iPhone, you'll find that it was groundbreaking in many meaningful ways.

It was a full unix OS, not some mobile-specific trash like the others (Symbian, Windows Mobile, Blackberry). Capacitive touch wasn't an invention, but a premium form of touchscreens (most were resistive).

Having nearly 60fps high quality 3d accelerated animations on a phone also contributed to a heavily premium feeling for the software. It enabled things like Inertial Scrolling, which among other things (like first class typography afforded by using OS X, and a fully standards compliant web browser), none of which were "innovations" in the sense of "we came up with this first", but more exceptionally good engineering in service of a great experience.

In almost every way (apart from the "traditional phone metrics" like 2G ironically), the iPhone was a huuuuuge leap forward from the status quo.

It might be true that anyone else could've done it. But nobody else did. It wasn't just luck that Apple did.

I had phones before the iPhone that took pictures and played music (and a Nokia tablet with wifi internet browsing).

The iPhone was the first one that I actually used to take pictures and play music. It wasn’t the first to have those features (and the edge network was super slow), but that polished experience is what made it work. And made it clear to everyone how we would interact with phones for decades to come.

It was a technological inflection point. That’s why it is looked back on the was it is.

Multitouch was a huge deal because it allowed a usable Web browser to be offered. That was something no other phone came within a light year of providing.

There was a "cult," all right. It consisted of people like Steve Ballmer plugging their ears, shutting their eyes, and denying the obvious.

yep ... i'm generally downplaying Apple's "innovations" but I will say, there was huge scepticism that you could have a phone without a physical keyboard and Apple overnight turned that around. That was a real contribution, IMHO much bigger than anything in Vision OS so far.

To each their own perspective! As for me, as a user at the time of fairly cutting-edge cell phones from other manufacturers, my first hands-on with the first iPhone was one of the most memorable technological experiences of my life. Just using the Maps application with multi-touch was magical. Yes, it was slow, limited, etc., but it felt like an entirely different class of device, and that proved to be true.

Isn’t that what people are saying about the Vision Pro too?

Clunky and sorta useless, but “a new class of device”… eventually

Are current watches good? I genuinely don't know and am interested. I hadn't gotten one because I was an early iPhone adopter (Gen 1), but haven't been willing to be an early adopter since then. But I would like a watch, if they are good now.

Yep. They've been great since v7 or so. My S0 watch was... something. Apps took forever to load. Battery life sucked. The UI was still clearly highly experimental. Now even complex apps like OmniFocus launch instantly, and I charge my Ultra every other day. In short, it's a mature product now and works like it's supposed to, without qualifications like "...eventually".

I'm sure the later ones are also great, but as of Apple Watch 4, they are quite compelling depending on what your needs are. From a fitness / voice assistant button on the wrist, getting notifications without pulling your phone out standpoint the Series 4 and later are all fantastic.

I find them exceptional for a somewhat narrow range of activities (I love going on a run or hike navigating by my Apple Watch while streaming whatever music I want in the world to my AirPods - no phone, nothing to carry), and only slightly useful for a broad range of other things (notifications, weather, etc - conveniences).

What I love best with my Apple Watch is that I can respond to Duo/Okta/BankId directly from my watch and don't have to look for my phone or pull it out of my pocket.

I think Apple was smart to focus on Fitness and Health monitoring because that's about the only thing I've found immensely useful with my watch.

Apart from that, yesterday I just played Pickleball with a guy who used his apple watch to keep score. It was a little odd at times but seemed like a cool use.

If you want a very small cell phone on your wrist, they are good at that. I’m nit sure what they’re good for , but they can be that.