and made damn sure to tell anyone they can reach that microsoft products (or anything else PC for that matter. and yes, the paradox there is highly ironic. so is the dual layer of that two letter, as being politically correct is starting to seem more and more boring) are for graying men in suits.

lets not forget two things about the iphone.

first, the faithful had been blogging about the chance of something like that ever since nokia and others started putting mp3 players into phones.

second, the iphone is not the first. the first was a 100 song app inside a motorola rokr. it bombed so bad that i suspect anyone responsible for that inside apple is either buried in the basement or gone into hiding.

what makes the iphone the thing it is, is not the hardware, or the software, its the whole package, including itunes and itms. if one have owned a ipod before, and faithfully synced it with itunes so that both had learned the media tastes of the user, then popping in a iphone will be a seamless upgrade of capabilities.

they twisted the arm of at&t and others to get within reach of their main demographic (most winmob devices are burdened by business, not consumer, aimed plans).

and they made damn sure to have video demos of how "cool" it was to interact with the device, and at the same time showing of its capabilities. most other companies seems to leave it at "name dropping", expecting the customer to be up to speed on the "lingo".

its like they say about writing books, show, dont tell. or in other words, use descriptions of what happens in detail, not just boil it down to some dense words and leave it at that.

one wants to plant a image in the head of the user about how one "appears" when using something, not just explain what it can do in quick words like web, mail, video...

to pull out that old car comparison, iirc the number of people interested in car mods spiked after fast and the furious hit the theathers. most had no clue what they where doing, and looked directly silly in the eyes of the people in the know. but in their own heads they where vin diesel punching that nox button and yanking the gear stick.