For years phones were getting smaller, cheaper and with more and more functionality. Here was a phone that was more expensive, larger and (for the first release), not that much in the way of functionality. It didn't even have copy and paste.
I guess the sceptics were wrong. Apple stormed the market with a new product and the world quickly followed.
I remember a friend bringing a new iPhone to work as soon as they were first launched back in 2007. He was hooked, loved it! I was intrigued. I liked it but I considered it too expensive to switch.
He was an early adopter. He bought to be ahead of the curve, cool, hip. He was also prepared to take a product that wasn't really that great yet (only 2G, 6 hour battery life) and pay a premium.
In our household, the first smartphone appeared in 2009. That was when the price came down and the network connectivity improved (3G). I was in the "early majority" group.
Last week, for the first time, every adult in our household now has a smartphone for the first time. An old phone was being replaced and the standard replacement now for a contract phone is a good value Windows or Android phone. Smartphones are now in the "late majority" stage of consumer adoption.
This is born out by the stats. In the UK we have;
62% smartphone penetration
87% smartphone users searching for local information via their phone
73% smartphone users researching products via their phone
39% smartphone users who have made a purchase via their phone
This is information gleaned from Google's Our Mobile Planet Report, which is is a really useful tool to check the above numbers for any country in the world. You can also drill down by usage, age and gender.
The world has moved on. The PC era is over. The mobile era is here.
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