People Who Thought The Original iPhone Was Going To Fail
Before going through the list, it's worth noting that the people who didn't exactly believe in the iPhone range from respected tech journalists to Apple's competitors in the industry.
Now here's a list of the people who thought the iPhone was going to be a flop:
TechCrunch's Seth Porges: "We predict the iPhone will bomb," he
said.
In his defense, the reasons why he thought the original iPhone was bad make for some pretty valid points, especially back then.
Ad Age's Al Ries: "The iPhone will be a major disappointment ... An iPod is a divergence device; an iPhone is a convergence device. There's a big difference between the two. In the high-tech world, divergence devices have been spectacular successes. But convergence devices, for the most part, have been spectacular failures," he
said.
Bloomberg's Matthew Lynn: "The iPhone is nothing more than a luxury bauble that will appeal to a few gadget freaks."
The Guardian's Jemima Kiss: "Apple's much-anticipated iPhone ... will struggle to break into the mainstream because of a lack of a 3G connection and low demand for converged devices, according to research," she
said.
Just to be clear, she didn't say that the iPhone would fail. She's merely reporting research findings, but this was included in the list to emphasize the consensus at the time.
Microsoft's Steve Ballmer: "There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance. It's a $500 subsidized item," he
told USA Today.