The Speculative Prehistory of the iPhone

What prelaunch coverage of the original iPhone can tell us about today's coverage of Apple's "iSlate."

By  |  Monday, December 28, 2009 at 1:34 am

Arnold Kim at MacRumors, September 13th, 2006:

The click-wheel is closer to the bottom of the device with the screen taking a vertical orientation. The click-wheel portion of the device reportedly slides down to reveal a traditional numeric dial-pad underneath. The front is black, while the back is chrome like the current iPod.

Scorecard: The iPhone turned out not to have a click wheel, a sliding case, or a dial pad. But it did have a black front and a metal backside.

James Alan Miller at PDAStreet, October 5th, 2006:

According to ThinkSecret, Apple scaled back its ambitions a bit for the first iPhones: Instead of re-inventing the wheel, the company used some off-the-shelf parts and current iPod technology. In addition to the first model, there may be two or three others rolled out throughout 2007.

The first iPhone is said to feature a 2.2-inch display, 3.3-megapixel camera and an instantly recognizable Apple design, with the company’s usual elegant user interface. There will be iSync support and complete iTunes compatibly, of course. The idea is that people will go for this single device rather than both an iPod and a cell phone.

Unlike the widely panned Motorola ROKR E1 from last year, the first cell phone with iTunes compatibly, the iPhone won’t be limited to a 100 song capacity. The only limit should be the amount of storage available on the device. The same goes for photos.

No word on whether there will be support for video as well. Although one would think that since users should be able to take high quality video with such a high megapixel camera, there will be the capability of downloading movies and TV shows as well.

Reports also say that like the ROKR when it was first released, Cingular Wireless has signed an agreement with Apple to carry the iPhone exclusively for six months; which means other operators won’t be able to offer the device until mid-year.

Scorecard: The iPhone was far closer to a reinvention of the wheel than a modified iPod. 2007 saw only one model. It had a 3.5″ screen, not a 2.2″ one and a two megapixel camera, not a 3.3 megapixel one. It didn’t let users “take high quality video,” but did offer movie and TV downloads, and offered syncing and iTunes compatibility. Cingular (which later redubbed itself AT&T) got exclusivity for a lot longer than six months, and even AT&T didn’t get the phone until mid-2007.

Katie Dean at TheStreet.com, November 1st 2006:

Reports that wireless carrier Cingular will team up with Napster and Yahoo! go a long way to suggest it doesn’t plan to work with Apple on its music phone offering.

But rather than turn up the competitive heat on Apple, the move by Cingular, which is jointly owned by AT&T and BellSouth, could turn out to be a plus for the digital music king.

ThinkEquity analyst Jonathan Hoopes suggests that Apple might opt with its upcoming iPhone to become a “mobile virtual network operator,” which could be a better deal.

MVNOs, as they’re called, don’t own their own spectrum but enter into deals with carriers to use spectrum for their own brand-named services. Virgin Mobile, for one, is an MVNO.

And it might make sense for Apple to forge ahead on its own, Hoopes says. “If Apple just makes a phone and sells it, the carrier gets the recurring revenue of songs and data,” he says. “If they make the phone and deliver [it] in a MVNO, then they can potentially tap into a recurring revenue stream.”

Scorecard: Do you remember Cingular Music, powered by Napster, Yahoo, XM, and eMusic? Me neither.

Om Malik at GigaOm,  November 16th, 2006:

Apple, it is rumored has signed a deal that will allow the Cupertino-based computer company to source 12 million iPod-based phones from a Taiwanese electronics manufacturer. In itself, the news is hardly a surprise for the iPhone has been subject of rampant speculation.

What is surprising the speculation that Apple will sell these phones unlocked, allowing consumers to pop in their SIM cards and use it as a phone. In the US, that would mean getting a SIM card from either the Cingular or T-Mobile. If this is indeed true, and it is not clear if it is so, then Apple will be lending a helping hand to the mobile phone makers.

The introduction of the unlocked iPhone will do two things – it would basically get US buyers savvy to the idea of buying full priced unlocked phones. Secondly, it is going to cause a behavior change – of buying phones instead of freebies.

It won’t be a mass-market phenomenon in the early stages, but eventually (as shown by iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle), Apple will bring the iPhone prices down to a mass-market price point.

Scorecard: The iPhone isn’t an “iPod-based” phone in any real sense and has never been sold unlocked (except in countries where it’s been mandated by law). On the other hand, it did start out at an uncommonly high, unsubsidized price before switching to a lower, more crowd-pleasing subsidy model.

Katie Marsal at AppleInsider, November 20th, 2006:

Apple Computer, which recently released its first mobile handset to manufacturing, is working on a second model that will incorporate messaging capabilities, according to one Wall Street analyst.

“From our understanding, it will leverage off existing iChat software that runs on Macs,” American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu told clients on Monday. “We believe it will focus initially on mobile IM as opposed to e-mail.”

Wu said it’s unclear when Apple hopes to deliver the second device to market, as it appears to remain in the development phase. He said this newly uncovered handset is likely the company’s ‘smart phone’ and could be branded as “iChat mobile.”

Scorecard: Shaw Wu understood incorrectly; more than three years later, Apple hasn’t shipped a phone that includes built-in instant messaging at all.

Ryan Block at Engadget, December 3rd, 2006:

So apparently last night Kevin Rose, of Digg and Diggnation fame, apparently confirmed information he knew about the iPhone on his eponymous vidcast. According to Kevin, who, to his credit, accurately predicted one of Apple’s most secretive and hyped launches of 2005, the iPod nano, the iPhone will feature the following:

  • January launch on “all” providers, both CDMA and GSM
  • Extremely small form factor
  • Two battery design (with single charger) — one for playing music, the other for phone functions
  • Flash memory: 4GB for $249, 8GB for $449
  • “Slide-out keyboard”
  • Possibly touchscreen

There’s obviously a lot there to process — some new rumor, some old rumor, and some which does and does not jibe with what we’ve heard. According to a trusted source of Engadget’s, whose iPhone information has gone heretofore unpublished, it’s pretty safe to say it won’t have a QWERTY keyboard (although it may be a slider), touchscreen is out, and it’s only going to be GSM with 3G at launch, going with a singular carrier in the US (guess which).

Scorecard: Kevin Rose was wrong about the iPhone launching in January; wrong about it launching on all carriers; wrong about it being available in both CDMA and GSM flavors; wrong about it being extremely small (it was thin, but wide and tall); wrong about the two-battery design; right about the capacities but wrong about their prices; and wrong about the slide-out keyboard. And right about it possibly having a touchscreen. Ryan Block, meanwhile, was right about it not having a QWERTY keyboard, wrong about it not having a touchscreen, right about it being GSM, wrong about it being 3G, and right about it launching on one carrier.

W. David Gardner at InformationWeek, December 8th, 2006:

With Apple Computer’s annual MacWorld Expo in San Francisco just a month away, the rumors are focusing on what Steve Jobs will announce in his keynote address.

It’s not likely to be Apple’s much-anticipated iPhone, according to CIBC World Markets analyst Ittai Kidron, who speculates the phone won’t be announced until after the Jan. 9-12 event in San Francisco.

For weeks now, other Apple watchers — including Web site ThinkSecret.com — have said the ambitious cell phone-music player combo won’t be ready in time for the expo.

Scorecard: Unlikely or not, Steve Jobs did announce the iPhone at Macworld. Which started on January 8th, not the 9th, was called Macworld Expo (not “MacWorld Expo”), and which wasn’t Apple’s show–it was owned and operated by IDG.

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33 Comments For This Post

  1. Dave Barnes Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 1:53 am

    Harry,

    Congrats on the SlashDot appearance.

  2. mark Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 11:04 am

    Thanks for this prehistory. I think you’re too harsh on your own predictions. Also looking back, it’s important to note that Apple claimed the switch to Intel was due to the important trend of low-power consumption mobile computing, and Intel also commented that it was eager to be a part of Apple’s gadgets in the lab (some of which it had seen). (As it turns out, Intel hasn’t been able to advance its tech enough to get Apple to use them in these handheld devices.) In sum, it’s clear that Apple had strategically focused on mobility way back in 2005 (and maybe earlier).

    Most of the current tablet rumors strike me as having real nuggets of truth, though it’s likely Apple is working on multiple products (7″, 10″) and the rumors are confusing which things are for which products. I think the 7″ is a larger iPod touch/iPhone (no Mac GUI so no Mac apps, PA Semi ARM chip) due in 1Q2010, and the 10″ is more of a MacBook Air sibling (Intel Core chip) but with a full touch GUI added to the Mac GUI due in 3Q2010.

  3. Armand Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 11:26 am

    I read speculation, mostly following the iPhone reveal, that Apple may have “leaked” misinformation to mislead but satisfy the blogosphere’s hunger for iPhone news until Apple was ready to launch. Everything written about the “iSlate” should certainly be taken with a grain of salt until, to quote Harry, Steve Jobs pulls it from his jeans pocket at a keynote and pronounces it incredible. I wonder if Levi Strauss could make him a pair of jeans with a 7″ pocket. 😀

  4. Berend Schotanus Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 12:11 pm

    Great post!

    It is amazing how much all iPhone predictions looked like traditional cell phones while today all cell phones look like iPhones.

  5. Hamranhansenhansen Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 12:18 pm

    Fun article.

    > allegedly to be known–maybe–as iSlate

    My money is on the return of the “iBook”, now running iPhone OS.

  6. Hade Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 12:30 pm

    I think the most important thing we should be taking away from this is that whatever people expected the iPhone to be, it was almost always too much like what already existed at the time. The actual iPhone stunned people when it came out, not because it was a clever re-hash of an existing concept, but because in many ways, it was completely different from anything we’d ever seen before. Nobody expected to see a phone with no buttons. Nobody expected to see a real, desktop-caliber web browser in a pocket-sized device. Nobody really *expected* to see what Apple eventually gave us.

    Until I see a mock-up of the so-called iSlate that I consider revolutionary in at least one respect, I won’t be giving any of these tablet rumors much credence.

  7. Jeff Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 12:41 pm

    An extremely important article, which gets me to thinking that most rumors are no where remotely based on facts, but on “wishes”. People were building on other rumors instead of starting from scratch and looking to see what was theoretically possible at the time.

    For example, here are my “reasonable” predictions. They aren’t based on “insiders” or anything like that. They’re based on logic and nothing else (something that many rumors seem to ignore).

    1) Screen – between 7-10 inches in size. Anything smaller makes it harder to read a webpage. Anything larger and it can’t be comfortably held in one hand. Multi-touch (since it’s in all of their latest products), and likely supporting more than 2 fingers, since the iPhone 3GS supports 3 fingers, and the latest Apple trackpads support 4 fingers. More importantly, the Magic Mouse supports 2+ fingers, as well as ignoring parts of your hand. Plus, this correlates well with the story of a key former Apple employee stating that “Apple Tablet tech” is visible in other devices. As for resolution, I think 1280×720 is the ideal resolution for such a device. All of Apple’s “HD” content is 720p, as well as their iTunes LP and AppleTV content. Other resolutions would not give a crisp 1:1 pixel mapping. And NO OLED. Considering that recently the largest OLED screen was $2500 for 11″ from Sony, I think you can do the math to see what such a rumor makes absolutely no sense.

    2) Weight – screen size dictates the weight of the device. Definitely no more than 3lbs, as that becomes hard to hold with one hand. Likely 1-2lbs.

    3) Material – Plastic or aluminum? It is reasonable to suspect that the tablet will have the entire front be glass (no covered edge). Aluminum is far more durable than plastic, especially if it might be dropped (though this flies in the face of moving from aluminum to plastic for the iPhone 3G).

    4) Connectivity – WiFi is a given, but should it include 3G? What brand of 3G? Verizon? AT&T? Ideally, it’s best to manufacture one device, but wireless carriers aren’t really ready to support “data only” devices because of their insane charge schemes. And because AT&T is already hurting from the iPhone, and any tablet would be FAR worse, I don’t see 3G being put in to the first run of devices. It may be saved for a 2nd gen device, plus it’ll keep costs down.

    5) Hardware – Another point of contention. As far as I know, Apple does not have an x86 license, and Atom processors use way too much power for a “low power” device. Plus, they bought PA Semi, which is well known for it’s engineering division. Likely, the chip will be a custom ARM chip designed in-house as to keep prying eyes from replicating their work very easily. The GPU may be a variant of the PowerVR SGX series used in the iPhone 3GS. Any RAM or storage space numbers I write here would be made up, so I’m not going to bother.

    6) Software – No guessing here. The secret sauce is what makes Apple Apple, otherwise I wouldn’t be writing comments, I’d be a CEO of a company!

    7) Cost – the big one. We’ve seen $600-$1000 in rumors. The best thing going for Apple in it’s sales is not overlapping price points whenever possible for base configurations. This is what makes it dead simple to purchase a product from a store without wandering into different price categories. Any tablet price near a MacBook will make one wonder why you should get a tablet instead of a MacBook, something Apple tries it’s hardest to avoid. On the other hand, what kind of tablet can be made by Apple for $500 while retaining the same quality we’ve come to expect? My guess? $599-699. Sure, it costs more than a netbook, just like the iPhone did when it first came out. But it’s the utility of the product that matters far more. And when you realize that people spent $300 just to read books on a Kindle, pricing for multi-function devices isn’t as simple as “it costs a ton, I’ll never buy it”.

    I wonder how much of what I wrote will be right. We’ll see. 🙂

  8. Ben Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 12:59 pm

    Great article. The one thing that’s missing (and probably forever will be) are the iPhone prototypes. Much of the misinformation during this time, may be due to the incredibly long development cycle of the iPhone, and prototype models that might have been completely scrapped.

  9. christopher Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 3:43 pm

    wow… some of those early version were really bad.

  10. James Bailey Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 5:18 pm

    Interesting article and well researched. Thanks.

    I personally doubt that there will be multiple tablet models at launch or any time near the launch. That just isn’t how Apple goes about introducing new platforms. They don’t want to muddy the water with too much confusion. Instead, they take the road that is most likely to appeal to the buying public (as opposed to the blogo-sphere.)

    I think it is somewhat likely that Apple introduces a single tablet model in early 2010. I think it is also likely that they introduce a second model of the iPhone sometime in 2010 as well. It is about time for Apple to target the lower end of the smartphone market just as they did with the iPod with the release of the iPod mini. The iPod was released October 2001. The iPod mini was introduced January of 2004. Perhaps the iPhone mini will be a CDMA/EVDO phone.

  11. Paul Johnson Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 7:35 pm

    I think your prehistory concentrates a bit too much on trade journalist/blogger comments about the possible design of the iPhone and not enough with other conceptualizations that appeared outside of the traditional spheres of journalistic comment. In particular, the iTalk concept video by Christopher De Santis that appeared on YouTube in May 2006 stimulated the imaginations of many people about how beautiful and useful a touchscreen-based Apple cellphone could be. For those who are interested, the video is still available at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4296efmOWLs. Other than the double flip phone design, which is very attractive in that it preserves the Mac aluminum look but is not practical in use with its sharp edges and foldover layout, the mockup comes very close to the actual iPhone.

    The problem with the proposed Apple tablet is that we lack similar visualizations of how it would operate. The Microsoft Courier concept video is a pitiful remake of the old 1998 Apple Knowledge Navigator that seems primarily designed to promote vaporware and spread FUD. The closest concept videos I have seen that stimulate the imagination are the recent digital magazine mockups, like the Sports Illustrated and Time Inc videos on YouTube, although that would only represent a small part of the functionality of an Apple tablet.

  12. carkitter Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 11:21 pm

    The problem with most of the speculation is that it is starting from the wrong place – specification. We really should think about what sort of device Apple needs right now to make another pile of money, what market it can revolutionize. We should be looking for the business case for the device rather than creating imaginary gaps in the product range. I don’t see the raison d’etre at this stage.

  13. Valentijn Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 2:40 am

    Think different.

  14. Joe Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 6:41 am

    I actually know iPhone OS designer and to be honest they are scared to talk, not just because of their job security but overall. But one thing is for sure, it is coming as GSM and will be sold on Apple website for all carriers.

  15. |☼◙ Avenger ◙☼| Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 7:22 am

    I wish I have iphone 🙁

  16. KenC Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 8:01 am

    I vaguely recall Katie Huberty of Morgan Stanley got the specs of the iPhone correct, a couple days before MWSF. Strange since she’s been so wrong about everything else.

  17. jeffb Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 8:41 am

    Basically, what I’ve concluded is that the people at Apple are a lot smarter than people who write blogs about Apple. Apple believes in the R&D department. They look for what’s next, what’s deep in the bowels of the research institutions, ideas discussed only among academics and scientists, ideas and technologies that your average journalist and blogger simply isn’t educated enough to understand (know any bloggers on Techmeme who read IEEE journal?), then figure out how to put those technologies in consumer products today, not 20 years from now. That’s why you gotta love Apple, if you hate Apple (odd paradox I know, but there are plenty of us who don’t drink the cool aid but respect the hell of the company’s accomplishments). -s

  18. antmeeks Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 12:26 pm

    Great article.

    I think the new Mac “tablet” product will be less about the product itself and more about the interface / I/O / OS advances. It seems logical to assume that the Touch OS will eventually subsume the current Mac OS, and this iteration will represent more progress towards that end… IE: proper file system management & access, multiple 3rd party software running concurrently, etc. I expect that the OS itself will be renamed to something more general, and perhaps even iTunes could be renamed as well (overdue). It’s possible that a complimentary way of interacting with this OS will be via voice commands. I would also expect that a tablet would be capable of pairing with a bluetooth keyboard and perhaps touchpad with a complete gesture library for more traditional computing. But I definitely believe the real story is going to be the advances in the OS.

  19. mrboma Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 2:00 pm

    “Apple might come up with an utterly new user interface for mobile devices.”

    Seriously? Rows of icons in a touch interface is not a new mobile interface at all. Look at the Newton, the Palm Pilot, and even (dare I say) Windows CE. This is the standard user interface for hand held touch screen mobile computing devices going back to 1990. Rare in a phone for sure, but not revolutionary in a mobile computing device by any stretch of the imagination.

    The real thing that threw people was the size of the iPhone and the computing power inside. Phones and iPods had been trending ever smaller, so few people predicted a large screen device that could accommodate a traditional touch screen interface. And fewer still predicted the iPhone would truly be a mobile computing platform that would need such an interface.

  20. Sir Pent Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 5:47 pm

    So the question is, what will Apple do next? And will it include music from the band LIZARDS FROM AFAR? They give their music away for free on their website:
    http://reverbnation.com/lizardsfromafar

  21. Rash Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 8:39 pm

    Great article, Really appreciate the download … The speculations and rumors about the upcoming Apple tablets and again sounding similar to what happened before the iPhone was launched

  22. Ross Bodman Says:
    December 30th, 2009 at 2:19 am

    i originally wanted to get the iphone but spent hours searching the net on http://www.allaboutthemoney.net

    i took part in surveys, read reviews and the only thing that out me off was the fact the so many batteries have exploded while owners are using them. not really something i would like to happen next to my face

  23. theseditionist Says:
    December 31st, 2009 at 2:58 am

    You either missed a piece or only alluded to it. I recall a piece based on a patent filing that referred to a touchscreen with virtual… actually, don’t recall whether it was a clickwheel, telephone dial or what. However, what was interesting is that it was dead-on accurate. Except it was a perfect description of the Touch and not so accurate a piece predicting the phone. At the time it of course got the fanboys frothing but when the Touch actually debuted, it was greeted with not very much excitement, the phone having debuted between rumor and announcement.

  24. Andy Click Says:
    December 31st, 2009 at 3:47 am

    Not to mention that the iPhone didn’t support MMS when it was launched…

  25. Mark Says:
    January 4th, 2010 at 1:33 pm

    I noticed the manufacturers house leaked the iPhone’s creation before Apple did. Very intrguing ideed to see them do that. :-#

  26. Ryan Adler Says:
    January 11th, 2010 at 12:44 am

    New Apple products are traditionally presented as solving an existing problem. With the iPhone, Steve came out and mentioned that he wanted to solve the problems of existing mobile phones just not being very good.

    I think we need to answer the question, “What problem would Apple be trying to solve with the iSlate?” Once we know the answer to that, we would probably be going in the right direction to get an idea of what the product will be…

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  23. Miniquestion.com » Blog Archive » Entelligence: iSlate or just uWish? Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 5:20 pm

    […] McCracken has a great post on Technologizer reviewing the tremendous buzz around the iPhone right before it launched — it was about three […]

  24. Entelligence: iSlate or just uWish? | Products & Tech News Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 6:34 pm

    […] McCracken has a great post on Technologizer reviewing the tremendous buzz around the iPhone right before it launched — it was about three […]

  25. MTPH Software: Blog : Entelligence: iSlate or just uWish? : Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 6:43 pm

    […] McCracken has a great post on Technologizer reviewing the tremendous buzz around the iPhone right before it launched — it was about three […]

  26. The iPhone Would’ve Sucked If The Rumours Were True | Gizmodo Australia Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 7:03 pm

    […] – just like everybody knows the tablet is coming. Funny thing is, (nearly) everybody got everything else about it wrong. If we’d all been right, the iPhone would’ve […]

  27. Entelligence: iSlate or just uWish? Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 7:32 pm

    […] McCracken has a great post on Technologizer reviewing the tremendous buzz around the iPhone right before it launched — it was about three […]

  28. BlogLime » Blog Archive » Entelligence: iSlate or just uWish? Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 7:40 pm

    […] McCracken has a great post on Technologizer reviewing the tremendous buzz around the iPhone right before it launched — it was about three […]

  29. A Look at the iPhones that Weren’t and the iSlate that Might Be – BehindTheGeek Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 9:27 pm

    […] McCracken’s Technologizer looks back to pre-2007 and the ridiculous amount of hype and — comical in hindsight — […]

  30. A Look at the iPhones that Weren’t and the iSlate that Might Be « iPhoneBizBlog Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 9:55 pm

    […] McCracken’s Technologizer looks back to pre-2007 and the ridiculous amount of hype and — comical in hindsight — […]

  31. Entelligence: iSlate or just uWish? | Consumer Electronics Newz Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 10:38 pm

    […] McCracken has a great post on Technologizer reviewing the tremendous buzz around the iPhone right before it launched — it was about three […]

  32. com3.es | Entelligence: iSlate or just uWish? Says:
    December 28th, 2009 at 11:02 pm

    […] McCracken has a great post on Technologizer reviewing the tremendous buzz around the iPhone right before it launched — it was about three […]

  33. The Speculative Prehistory of the iPhone | Harry McCracken | Voices | AllThingsD Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 12:05 am

    […] Read the rest of this post on the original site Tagged: Apple, Internet, Silicon Valley, Voices, digital, economy, hardware, innovation, media, mobile, Apple, Harry McCracken, iPhone, iSlate, tablet, Technologizer | permalink Sphere.Inline.search("", "http://voices.allthingsd.com/20091229/the-speculative-prehistory-of-the-iphone/"); « Previous Post Next Post » ord=Math.random()*10000000000000000; document.write(''); […]

  34. The iPhone Would’ve Sucked If the Rumors Were True [IPhone] | Anish E J's Blog Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 12:26 am

    […] coming—just like everybody knows the tablet coming. Funny thing is, (nearly) everybody got everything else about it wrong. If we’d all been right, the iPhone would’ve […]

  35. Apple Tablet « Zandstra IT Blog Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 12:43 am

    […] Een interessant stukje over de ontwikkeling van de iPhone en de paralellen die we kunnen trekken met de […]

  36. PDA Hog » Blog Archive » A Look at the iPhones that Weren’t and the iSlate that Might Be Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 1:16 am

    […] McCracken’s Technologizer looks back to pre-2007 and the ridiculous amount of hype and — comical in hindsight — […]

  37. A Look at the iPhones that Weren’t and the iSlate that Might Be | TalkiPhoneNow.Com Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 2:06 am

    […] McCracken’s Technologizer looks back to pre-2007 and the ridiculous amount of hype and — comical in hindsight — […]

  38. iPhone rumors revisited Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 5:16 am

    […] one of his exhaustive topical examinations, this time turning his bespectacled gaze towards the iPhone. Like the iSlate or the iTablet or the iNinjaStar, analysts, journos, and bloggers frothed at the […]

  39. iPhone rumors revisited | Products & Tech News Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 5:53 am

    […] one of his exhaustive topical examinations, this time turning his bespectacled gaze towards the iPhone. Like the iSlate or the iTablet or the iNinjaStar, analysts, journos, and bloggers frothed at the […]

  40. A Look at the iPhones that Weren’t and the iSlate that Might Be | Hitech Zone Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 6:30 am

    […] McCracken’s Technologizer looks back to pre-2007 and the ridiculous amount of hype and — comical in hindsight — […]

  41. O que a cobertura do iPhone original diz sobre a do tablet Apple » AppleMania.info Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 9:32 am

    […] mais e veja as imagens das previsões sobre o iPhone original no artigo completo de McCrancker. Tags:iPhone, tablet     Tópicos relacionadosRumor: iPhone 3G iminente, […]

  42. Entelligence: iSlate or just uWish? « DIGITALTABLETS.ORG Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 9:45 am

    […] McCracken has a great post on Technologizer reviewing the tremendous buzz around the iPhone right before it launched — it was about three […]

  43. A Look at the iPhones that Weren’t and the iSlate that Might Be | Cell Phone Infoz Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 9:47 am

    […] McCracken’s Technologizer looks back to pre-2007 and the ridiculous amount of hype and — comical in hindsight — […]

  44. Tal vez no es buena idea hacerle caso a los rumores | ALT1040 Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 10:29 am

    […] Technolizer Leer más: Apple, BlackBerry, CNET, iPhone, Michelle Meyers, RIM Enviar a Twitter Compartir en […]

  45. Quais serão mais quentes: os rumores sobre a iSlate ou os rumores sobre o iPhone original? | MacMagazine Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 11:03 am

    […] o que temos ouvido a respeito da mítica tablet com uma maçã no verso, o pessoal do Technologizer compilou rumores e mockups do iPhone. Quem acertou e quem errou não vem ao caso, mas o tanto que erraram chega a ser […]

  46. O iPhone seria um lixo se os boatos sobre ele fossem verdadeiros | ZooM Tecnológico - Só mais um blog de tecnologia Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 12:41 pm

    […] blog Technologizer fez um resumo da cobertura pré-iPhone do iPhone, e estas são algumas das especulações tragicômicas mais erradas sobre o […]

  47. Top Posts — WordPress.com Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 4:01 pm

    […] The Speculative Prehistory of the iPhone Remember the very first iPhone–the one that sold for $249, had an iconic click wheel, a cool slide-out keypad, […] […]

  48. Rumores… al final, que equivocados estábamos « Iphone 3GS, Iphone 3G, Iphone Classic, Ipod Touch, Juegos Iphone en MoViC.cl - Todo para tu Iphone - Utilidades - Apps - Noticias - Descargas - Juegos Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 4:51 pm

    […] Technologizer ha publicado un curioso artículo sobre la “Prehistoria especulativa del iPhone” en el que recopilan algunos de los rumores más sonados sobre el teléfono de Apple. Es curioso ver a como la gente de The New York Times, Business 2.0, PC World, Chicago Tribune o iLounge compartían algo en común: todos daban palos de ciego tratando de unir una declaración de aquí y un rumor de allá con las esperanzas particulares de cada cual para imaginar un producto que al final no tuvo nada que ver. […]

  49. Get your News: Get live news from all around the world » Entelligence: iSlate or just uWish? Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 6:46 pm

    […] McCracken has a great post on Technologizer reviewing the tremendous buzz around the iPhone right before it launched — it was about three […]

  50. looking back on iphone speculation Says:
    December 29th, 2009 at 10:09 pm

    […] The Speculative Prehistory of the iPhone […]

  51. iSlate – Revolutioniert Apple auch die Verlagsbranche? / tba. Says:
    December 30th, 2009 at 9:02 am

    […] könnte man “on the go” benutzen. Interessant in dem Zusammenhang übrigens folgender Artikel der die Gerüchte vor dem iPhone noch einmal […]

  52. History says that… « IFapp’s Weblog Says:
    December 30th, 2009 at 8:00 pm

    […] The Speculative Prehistory of the iPhone by Technologizer. […]

  53. A Look at the iPhones that Weren’t and the iSlate that Might Be | iPhone Info Says:
    December 31st, 2009 at 8:02 pm

    […] McCracken’s Technologizer looks back to pre-2007 and the ridiculous amount of hype and — comical in hindsight — […]

  54. A Look at the iPhones that Weren’t and the iSlate that Might Be | iPhone Info Says:
    December 31st, 2009 at 8:02 pm

    […] McCracken’s Technologizer looks back to pre-2007 and the ridiculous amount of hype and — comical in hindsight — […]

  55. Friday Night Links (1/1/2010)… | The Digitante Says:
    January 1st, 2010 at 8:41 pm

    […] Speculative Prehistory of the iPhone (http://thedig.in/8w) – Ever wonder what everyone was saying about the iPhone before they knew there was an iPhone? Some got it dead on by suggesting touchscreen, gaming, and GPS. Others looked like big goofballs by suggesting that Apple and BlackBerry were teaming up for a device called the AppleBerry. Stop it. In a couple of years I plan on running a similar post to this with a link to the Speculative Prehistory of the iSlate. Or whatever the heck it ends up being called. […]

  56. A Look at the iPhones that Weren’t and the iSlate that Might Be | iTravelAlert Says:
    January 5th, 2010 at 6:28 am

    […] McCracken’s Technologizer looks back to pre-2007 and the ridiculous amount of hype and — comical in hindsight — […]

  57. Mike Jr | My thoughts on life, business & technology. » Redefine It Says:
    January 5th, 2010 at 7:36 pm

    […] A week or two ago, I was reading an article on technologizer.com titled “The Speculative Prehistory of the iPhone.”  (click here for the article) […]

  58. The Apple Tablet: What Will Be, According to You Says:
    January 24th, 2010 at 9:27 am

    […] The iPhones that weren't […]

  59. Snap Judgments! The Early iPhone Skepticism Says:
    February 1st, 2010 at 4:04 am

    […] The iPhones that weren't […]

  60. urbandesire» Blogarchiv » links for 2010-03-21 Says:
    March 21st, 2010 at 11:03 pm

    […] The Speculative Prehistory of the iPhone Eine Zusammenfassung des paradigmatischen Rumors um das Erscheinen des Iphones. Im Prinzip nur sinnlos, da ich vermute, dass all dies irgendwie nur für Apple gilt und keine Rückschlüsse auf das Erscheinen von Produktneuheiten anderer Firmen lässt. (tags: apple iphone ipad social medien) […]