Revolution of the First Order

Undoubtedly you’ve heard about the iPhone by now. You’ve probably seen the keynote too. Or downloaded all 1.21 gigs of it from the iTunes Store. I could watch Steve Jobs introduce the iPhone over and over again:

Now that a week has passed and reality has had a chance to set in, I have to say that I’m even more impressed. In his keynote, Steve Jobs said the iPhone was a “revolution of the first order”. The phrase absolutely applies not just to the device itself, but Apple’s approach to creating the iPhone.

At this point, you’re probably doing one of two things:

1) You’re thinking, “come on, Jack… it’s just another phone with music and the web. The design looks slick, and the touchscreen is cool, but it’s basically got the same features as the 100-dollar smartphones out there!”

2) You’re flipping to your dashboard iPhone countdown widget, then looking down and seeing the papercraft iPhone on your desk:

Then frowning and wishing you could fast forward 132 days to June, all while listening to the mix of Steve’s “nobody wants a stylus!” through your white earbuds:

To those of you in the first group, remember that the iPod at first seemed like “just a 400-dollar MP3 player”. Likewise, the iPhone is more than just a well-designed smartphone. It’s the embodiment of Apple as a company.

It’s tough to type that phrase without even myself rolling my eyes just a little bit. But let me explain why I don’t think Steve was making an overstatement when he said that the iPhone is on the same level as the Mac and the iPod.

The Perfect Follow-up

The iPod changed Apple. It made Apple realize what it was capable of – that is to bring in a unique mix of technology that builds on top of its existing platforms and capabilities.

From a hardware standpoint, anybody could have built the iPod. By anybody, I mean that an inventive team at another electronics-maker could have put together the same components, even come up with the click-wheel interface. Yet Apple was not only clever enough to create the hardware, but also bring up the other end of that – the integration with the operating system. And perhaps ironically, only Steve Jobs could have gotten the record companies to sign a deal to sell music online:

Now, remember, it was initially just on the Mac, so one of the arguments that we used was, “If we’re completely wrong and you completely screw up the entire music market for Mac owners, the sandbox is small enough that you really won’t damage the overall music industry very much.” That was one instance where Macintosh’s [small] market share helped us. Then about six months later we were able to successfully persuade them to take down the barriers and let us move it out to the whole market.

-Steve Jobs, from a Newsweek Q&A entitled ‘Good for the Soul’

Once it started rolling, Apple used its traction in the market to improve the iPod, and because of its relationship with Samsung and other parts suppliers, Apple could get all the latest technology – e.g. the thinnest memory chips, the sharpest screens – in large volumes and for cheap. Their software was dominant, but they were able to stay ahead of competitors in terms of hardware too.

The Mega Man Effect

The iPod was a “holy shit” moment for Stevie J and the Apple crew – they took their unique position in the market, along with their existing technology, knowledge and skill sets, and created something wonderful and that couldn’t be replicated.

People commonly talk about the iPod’s halo effect and its ability to boost Mac sales. In my mind, this halo effect is insignificant compared to what I’m going to call the Mega Man Effect.

Comic via Bob and George

See, every time Mega Man conquers an enemy boss, he gains the boss’ ability. He then uses the newfound ability to defeat new enemies, mixing up his different skill sets to get through levels. The mobile phone industry is like the Wood Man level. All the baddies there have been doing battle with twigs and leaves. Now, Apple, having just defeated Metal Man (the portable music industry) comes in with his newly-obtained metal blade and the wooden bad guys don’t stand a chance.

Think Unique

The iPhone is a device that is wholly unique to Apple. If Apple didn’t make it, nobody else could have. Nobody could have built a phone that was also a true iPod. Nobody else could have built a device with a full-fledged (non-crippled) operating system like OS X. Just the thought of an iPhone was enough to get Cingular to sign a deal and modify their network (without even seeing the product) in order to accomodate Visual Voicemail.

Take a look at this LG touchscreen phone. It looks just like an iPhone, right?

Yet check out how unresponsive it looks. How button presses seem to lag. If you want to take my geeky video game analogy a step further, you could say that this LG phone is like an crude imitation of Mega Man’s metal blade. It might beat a twig and some leaves, but it’s still no match for a true metal blade. No iPod, no Coverflow, no Multi-Touch LCD, and crippled, “baby” software.

The Opening Act

On the day the iPhone was announced, I heard this through the walls of my office here at work:

“It’s like the future!”

My co-worker Brian probably meant that the iPhone was all those sci-fi futuristic touch-screen interfaces brought to life. But in a way it’s also a glimpse into the future of Apple’s business. The iPhone isn’t just years ahead of its competitors. It’s a product that only Apple could create. And while the other guys are playing catchup, Apple keeps building up its arsenal of technological weapons and using them to bring innovation, simplicity, and sheer awesomeness to other markets.

Photo by Joe Pugliese for TIME

You can already see Apple’s pieces lining up. A few years down the road, I’ll be calling in a video conference from my iPhone to your Apple HDTV which, like every Mac, has an embedded iSight camera. I’ll be able enjoy my digital media wherever I go and across all my devices. And I’ll be able to do it in a way that’s seamless and effortless. Everything will just work.

The iPhone is the culmination of three decades of technology and experience. Apple started out building something wonderful and useful. It established a base of devoted fans and developed its software and hardware platforms. It looked at a market that was ripe for disruption (and that was also within its realm of expertise) and changed the way we listen to music. Now it’s bringing everything together again into a perfect storm of technology, branding, design and culture. It is perhaps Steve Jobs’ finest act to date. That new years’ banner on Apple’s homepage wasn’t just hype. The first 30 years really were just the beginning.

An iPod. A phone. An Internet communicator. A true revolution of the first order. Are you getting it?

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