The 3GS was light years better than the original iPhone, and by that time it had things like actual GPS, the App Store, and usable mobile data. The original iPhone was seriously limited.
Ironically many of the things you are identifying about the iPhone are also true of the Vision Pro - for example the eye and hand tracking that enable gestures that actually work in an incredibly intuitive way is a game changer - including literally pinch to zoom.
I think there are other things you are seriously underestimating about Vision Pro - for example the quality of movies, including 3D, is better than anything I've ever seen in any home, movie theater, or other headset. It's simply stunning.
I also don't think a lot of people have tried thing like using FaceTime with the first person camera. I have, and it's an incredible way to give a presentation or explain things to people even if they are using a phone at the other end. Incredibly natural.
There really are as many steps forward, if not more so with the Vision Pro than with the iPhone.
As people below have pointed out, arguable it was crappy. Sure, lacked 3G, lacked apps, but the utter ease of connecting to wifi and flicking through Safari…
…anyways, arguable. What’s inarguable is that the iPhone 4, which came along only 3 years later, was a damned miracle. Beautiful design, Retina screen, something approaching a “real” camera—just remarkable progress in that time.
I’m unsure if Apple is going to be able to pull off that hyperspeed progression this time. The Vision Pro seems to have truly wild capabilities, but for a lot of money and with very little battery life. Are we going to have a big leap in price/performance soon? I dunno.
The S variants certainly didn’t – and this adds more than every S variant ever did.
Looking at the construction, the 3G was never something to write home about. The technology forced Apple's hand and they had to make that plastic monster. Acceptable, not great. Like the 5, the 3G improved every aspect of its predecessor and it added 3G.
The 5 is just like the 3G – only that this time around the construction is at least on par or better (likely, looking at first hand ons, still, only speculation at this point) than that of the predecessor. It’s also, quite obviously, less fragile. So Apple has done much more on the construction front, but the jump from 3G to LTE is also arguably not as important than the jump from Edge to 3G.
Looking at the specs and comparing them with other phones you get the same picture you always got. It’s a wash. Those kinds of comparisons never mattered.
In conclusion: no 3GS to 4 jump, but certainly a 1 to 3G jump.
Also a familiar sight since the 3G, geeks are disappointed, the phone sells faster than Apple can make it.
This phone is no surprise. It’s Apple doing what they have always done.
They used to be critical features, but I just don't think the incremental improvements are as noticeable anymore. My iPhone 6s feels quite snappy yet.
The iPhone 3G to the 3Gs was an amazing leap in usability though. Everything just worked so much better, mostly just due to faster chips as far as I'm aware.
They're still selling the iPhone 3GS too. It would be interesting to see a comparative review with the equivalent mid-range Android (and/or nokia, blackberry, bada etc.) phones now that it's been updated to iOS 4.
I think the 3G was a worthy contender when it was in this position last year. I'm not so sure how it would turn out now.
Well, that and the 3GS is still being sold. Previously, Apple would retire the phone that came out 2 years previously when they brought out the new model.
For me the surprise was iPhone 3G back then with Apple skipping the iPhone 2. Apple probably was thinking about iPhone 4G but it wasn't perfect yet or they just wanted to stop marketing hardware features like that.
Those weren't their only two choices, since iOS 4.1 fixed the performance problems with the 3G. (Not that this suit has any merit, especially in light of that.)
Keep in mind that you're comparing old Galaxy S to a fairly new iPhone 4. S2 gets gps lock in <1s with assist and <5s without wifi assist (I guess gsm helps anyway to some extent).
I mean, it's fair to say Galaxy S was pretty bad, but I don't get the "not gonna buy or recommend samsung ever again". Why not "iPhone 1 has no apps or 3G or ..., I'm not gonna buy or recommend iPhone ever again"? Products improve in newer releases, there's no reason to drop the whole line because version 1 was bad.
I think, that you didn’t see it in person was the reason you didn’t expect it to be a success.
The 3G had 3G, but otherwise same hardware specs as the original.
What sold me was that Apple got the UI right (“smooth as butter”), the webbrowser and email actually worked, and jailbroken it was almost Unix in your pocket! It really felt like a phone with so much potential and a far ahead of anything I had seen. The things you mention were just a matter of software updates. Btw. 3G and App Store both came out in 2008.
I strongly disagree. A phone which was mind blowing awesome this year will be pretty good next year and for a lot people attractive even after two years because you have decent hardware and the latest software. If you buy an low budget model Android phone, you get the Android version which was released 4 years ago. I think no one would buy an 3 GS at this point if Apple would sell it with iOS 3.
A lot of my friends have a iPhone 3 GS and they are happy with it and see no need to change. It's not the same with Android low-end models.
Please don't get me wrong I don't want to bash Android here but I want to make how smart this decision was / is. People are buying the old hardware ( which was awesome) and getting it with new the software for a good price.
Maybe I should also point out that people have also seen the same product last year and friends using it. Think about it. Would you buy a new phone which just came out as low-end model or would you buy the product from last year for a better price? Apple shows that the second choice wins.
G1? That would be like iPhone 1G prototype! The phone was too weak hardware wise. The difference between newer Android phones like the Galaxy S or G2 and iPhone has greatly narrowed to the point where it is mostly an individual preference / needs for specific features that dictate if you will buy one or the other.
I had a 3G as well. We got maybe 3 years of useful work out of it, but that's all. It ended up with my wife's sister in China. The 3GS looked the same and seemed like an incremental update, but the improvements made a massive difference. Then the year after they came out with the iPhone 4. Wow! Those 2 years look like 5 years or more worth of advances in retrospect.
I have a 3GS. And even though I've had it for so long, it still doesn't feel dated to me. Apple did a good job with the hardware and the software support. It is finally starting to feel a bit sluggish after almost 4 years of very heavy use. Compare that with my old phones which I essentially threw away after a year or so and never missed them...and the crappy Razr that died after a year.
Usually Apple’s 2nd version of anything is the best.
V1 is always missing something important that they couldn’t quite get ready in time.
That is my only hesitation with the Vision Pro! It’s a lot to shell out if next years will have some new and amazing thing
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