mike_barton
Editor

Talkback: Are iPhone, AppleTV revolutionary?

news
Jan 9, 20071 min

Apple’s Steve Jobs announced the stunning iPhone and AppleTV, saying that in 1984, Apple (no longer Apple Computer; name changed to break the chains of being a PC company) introduced the Macintosh, and changed the computer industry. In 2001, Apple introduced the iPod, and changed the entire music industry. “Well, today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class,” Jobs said. “The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. The third is a breakthrough Internet communications device.”

Apple has easily upstaged CES with its jaw-dropper phone in a halo effect coup and a serious contender for a seat in the world’s living room at a time that CES advocates argue has come, but are the devices and deals revolutionary or simply evolutionary?

mike_barton

Mike Barton started out in online slinging HTML for CNET.com in the late 1990s and began his editorial career at New Media magazine shortly thereafter. In his early days, he was an editor at Ziff-Davis's PC Computing and ZDNet.com before heading Down Under, where he produced and edited the business and technology sections of The Sydney Morning Herald online. After returning to the States in 2006, he has worked for IDG's Infoworld, PCWorld, Computerworld, and CSO Online. He currently edits and produces WIRED.com's Innovation Insights, and is a contributing editor at ITworld.

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