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Comment by threatofrain | Hacker News Reader

Steve Jobs said on stage at the iPhone launch that the killer app was the phone app. IMO that was wrong — the killer app was Google Maps, back when GPS navigation devices used to cost $200+. This made the economic value of the iPhone a lot more solid and subsequently destroyed the entire device category.

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Google Maps didn’t have turn by turn navigation until late 2009, you probably mistaken the original iPhone with iPhone 3GS.

I didn't buy an iPhone until the 3GS, but I never used turn-by-turn navigation. I just needed a map with directions that I could refer to if I got lost. After I got it, I also discovered how useful it was for planning trips by bus. Did the original iPhone not have Maps at all? I think it would have been a killer app even without turn-by-turn.

Well, people don’t carry a Garmin when they ride buses I guess? iPhone’s navigation didn’t become reliable enough to replace a Garmin / Tomtom till 2011-2012.

The killer feature was the multitouch interface and removal of the keyboard. The same was with Macintosh, they removed the focus from the keyboard to the mouse. It is much easier to know what to do when you have several buttons on the screen instead of generic keyboard with many keys. I remember Steve Jobs emphasized this during the iPhone introduction event.

Maybe in subsequent phones but the initial iPhone didn't even have GPS, only WiFi triangulation which worked only so-so and only in cities (with well... WiFi).

It was cellular triangulation.

I disagree. I'd put Google Maps on #2. #1 was solidly the camera app, and the various apps (remember Burbn? [0]) that allowed the user to modify, post online, etc.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_Instagram

Several smartphones already had a GPS receiver back in 2007. The original iPhone did not.

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