"Nokia had an on device application and service delivery system on its phones long ago. "Download" was ahead of its time, and a precursor to the Ovi Store."

And it was NOTHING compared to the App store. Not even close. It was a totally cheap user experience. How many people used it vs. directly downloading stuff from getjar and copying it over via USB? Also, it had nothing to do with the whole app ecosystem. What Apple did was to create an end-to-end solution where developers, marketeers and users all benefit from the app store.


"Nokia almost invented the "desktop view on a mobile", and is still the leader in that space to this day. Most Nokia smartphones and even some featurephones do Flash embedded objects."

I give you this one, although what is to invent about using a browser that supports flash? Could the iPhone not do it? Is it not just a licensing issue?


"Nokia's 770, the original Maemo device, featured an icon based touch interface years before the iPhone. "

This is not a fair comparison. Apple iPhone came about in 2007. Anything before that (i.e. the invention of the transistor) can be credited to someone else obviously. What apple brought to the masses is the smartphone, however want to define it. Before the iPhone there were no smartphones. And no, the N95 is not a smartphone. It is a phone with great features but is missing the "smart" part. For most people smartphone means that the phone is smart and not the user. It is to make users' lives easier.That's why the iPhone is a success here, because as you Europeans like to say "Americans are dumb".

This is the same analogy as driving a standard vs. automatic. Most Europeans drive standard while Americans drive automatic. We value our convenience.

My 2 cents.