I respectfully disagree; I was there too when it came out, and the walkman was a lot more mind-blowing and had a larger impact on the world than the iPhone.
The walkman was literally the first consumer device in its class (portable music players). It created the market.
The iPhone, even under the most generous interpretation, could never be considered the first consumer device in its class. IIRC, much of what the iPhone offered was already available in the consumer market, bearing in mind that the first iPhone did not even allow App development.
The iPhone expanded the reach of the internet on everyone's lifes and revolutionized social culture and brought an enormous individualism:
- the narcistic selfie with an attractive filter replaced the group picture and changed how people view themselves
- expanded instant messaging, dating apps etc. enabled a lot of interaction but among highly selected individuals or groups
- navigation apps, review apps, spotify etc. enabled an individualistic movement through the world, individually entertained and shielded from strangers and random encounters
These changes, unless superceded by even crazier things in the future, will probably stand out to historians in the far future.
- Music went from being a social activity to something you could privately enjoy
- You could listen to music wherever you wanted, whenever you wanted
- It was the first time, bar maybe some niche LCD games, that electronic entertainment was portable
- It was also the start of the decline of social interaction. Where people would put their headphones on and shut out the rest of the world. eg no longer chat to strangers on the bus.
Sure, there have been bigger changes to society, like the web, like micro computers, like kitchen appliances or even the car. But the Walkman is probably the least discussed and least credited of them.
> The iPhone expanded the reach of the internet on everyone's lifes and revolutionized social culture and brought an enormous individualism:
That was already happening with or without the iPhone. Don't get me wrong, it certainly help accelerate things, but it wasn't the only device out there nor even the first to do this.
> expanded instant messaging, dating apps etc. enabled a lot of interaction but among highly selected individuals or groups
Maybe in America, but that wasn't true in a lot of other continents. In the UK (for example) people still primarily used text up until relatively recently. Here the iPhone was largely just another handset (London is a slightly different story) and by the time smart phone apps became a thing the average person cared about, Android was already outselling iOS. The iPhone didn't really create that market either since feature phones would have services like this too. Again, I'm not saying the iPhone wasn't a contributor. But it your point was that is was at least mainly responsible for, and that simply wasn't the case in Europe.
> the narcistic selfie with an attractive filter replaced the group picture and changed how people view themselves
lol you do realise that people were doing that with disposable camera's in the 90s? I know this because I'm an old fart who used to do just that when out with mates. I have albums full of pictures printed on card (remember when that's what people would call a "photo") of such images with myself and friends in clubs, bars and holidays.
The iPhone wasn't even the first camera phone, nor even the first phone with a "good" multi-megapixel camera. That was an established market and an expectation that high end phones should have.
> navigation apps
I ran Google maps on my Sony Ericsson several years before the first iPhone was released. Some of my mates ran mapping software on their PDA's before me too. Fair enough these are edge cases but you're still forgetting about Android.
> review apps
Yes, that massive pivot in society, "review apps". But again, not an iPhone exclusive.
> spotify etc. enabled an individualistic movement through the world, individually entertained and shielded from strangers and random encounters
Aside from the Spotify branding there, you're literally just describing the Walkman!
Don't get me wrong, the iPhone definitely had a big cultural impact. But you're massively over attributing changes the technological and social landscape to one of what was actually many similar devices all making the same inroads in the same decade. Yet it was the Walkman (and similar cassette players) that started that journey in the first place.
The iPhone doesn't get credit to be the first, as you said, but triggered the broad adaptation and therefore has the bigger cultural impact across many dimensions.
I also said:
> Sure, there have been bigger changes to society, like the web, like micro computers, like kitchen appliances or even the car. But the Walkman is probably the least discussed and least credited of them.
Plus those changes were still much larger than "dating apps", "review apps" and the other suggestions you raised :P
> The iPhone doesn't get credit to be the first, as you said, but triggered the broad adaptation and therefore has the bigger cultural impact across many dimensions.
Did it though? I cited several reasons why I disagree with that already:
- Android
- pre-existing feature phones with J2EE app support
- Android
- pre-existing PDAs
- Android
- pre-existing cameras
- Android
- pre-existing music players, like the Walkman!
- oh and had I mentioned that Android, RIM and others massively outsold iOS for years in Europe.
I'm an iPhone user myself so don't take this as biased view point. But iPhone took a hell of a lot longer to penetrate the European market than it did America. And we haven't even touched Russian, Indian or African markets. People on HN seem to forget that other markets exist and Apple weren't nearly as influential on them.
That's why I said "broad adaptation". These days there are situations where everone in a room is looking into the smartphone. So, the iPhone as a coincidental almaganation of already existing, maturing technologies happened to be in the right place at the right time to be considered as a historic turningpoint, without taking anything away from the pre-existing feature phones wiht J2EE app support.
> Music went from being a social activity to something you could privately enjoy
It made private, detached listening immersive, wholly personal.
Accelerated transition from common culture via shared realities to bifurcated cultures.
> I respectfully disagree
Agreed.
I think what is mind-blowing is that Sony (and others for that matter) weren't able to sustain their lead, continue to innovate and dominate the industry.
Well, perhaps that's not entirely fair since it's quite evident that they had the technical prowess. It probably had more to do with their conflict of interest of also being copyright purveyors.
edit: just remembered Sony's rootkit fiasco. What an absolute fall from grace.
[1] My printer (Brother) has a resistive touchscreen and every time I have to use it, I'm reminded how much resistive touchscreens suck.
If you change ‘players’ to ‘devices’. Transistor radios [1] had equal or greater cultural impact, as the _transistor_ is literally a technology leap forward—portable electronics.
I grew up in the age of the Walkman. What do you put in your Walkman? You made one of those great mix tapes. Radio was great. You could buy an album on tape and with a dual-drive boom box you could mix a tape (wow. mix tapes from radio were a cherished possession). You see. The Walkman did not succeed on its own.
You could listen to radio on a Walkman, but that’s 20+ year old tech. Not the revolution.
That’s an in the weeds argument. But the iPhone? Not as a music player. Not as a phone. Not by any one feature alone was a ‘game changer’.
Funny note. My Nokia N900 had a radio tuner! Not that I could ever get it to pick anything up.
That’s where Apple shines, by creating forward-looking products which break from the past.
[1]: https://www.google.com/search?q=vintage+transistor+radio
That was an inflection point where a portable music player went from a host for swappable units of media, to being the whole library, for most users.
https://future.a16z.com/podcasts/algorithm-friendly-design-c...
I agree with you - the revelation of walking down the street with an internal soundtrack was almost life-transforming, and I don't think any other electronic gadget since then has had the same immediate, visceral, immersive sensory impact as the first time I put a tape into my brand-new Walkman[0] on London's Tottenham Ct Rd (the mecca of UK electronics in the 80s), and started playing Duran Duran's opening chords inside my head while walking amongst other people.
In the following years I bought Minidisc players, DAT recording machines and tiny DAT players - and they were all marvels of micro-engineering and beautiful to own and use - the top-of-the-line models being exquisitely and minimalistically designed and manufactured. All of these were still functioning when I stopped using them - though now it's a few years since I took them out of their boxes.
[0] this model: http://www.walkman-archive.com/wa/project/sony-wm-7-worlds-f...