I remember watching Steve Jobs on our classroom monitor in my senior year of high school at Mr. Bartlett's IT class at Jakarta Intercultural School. With this revolutionary Apple product was introduced to the world, were all fascinated by the touch screen capabilities and the innovative concept of apps. However were in no rush to purchase it. After all, I was living in Indonesia at that time and the Nokia phones in Asia was far superior with its unique design, the camera capabilities, the convenience of typing/texting, and the lasting impact of their batteries. In fact, the students in my high school in the mid 2000's had phones that were far ahead of its time compared to my college classmates in the early 2010's.
Fast forward to 2010, when my parents visited me in Wittenberg University. I was perfectly content with my Sidekick since it was the go-to phone that American socialites such as Paris Hilton and Brittny Gastineau relied on during the pre-social media days (before they switched to the Blackberry). I suggested to my dad if we can consider the Android phone, but my dad insisted that I was going back to my dorm room with my iPhone 3. He also gave me a Ziploc bag to go along with it, because the device was so sensitive that a drop of water would damage the phone permanently. Since that day, I have become a loyal customer and the only phone I have used ever since has been the iPhone.
Today, I cannot imagine my life without my iPhone and almost every other time a new version is released, I cannot wait to upgrade to the latest design. I heavily rely on the GPS from Google Maps to direct me to my showings as a directionally challenged realtor, listen to Pandora or Youtube when I go on my jogs on the trail, access social media to achieve my dopamine fix, and send me a reminder regarding an important appointment coming up. I even utilize the calculator when I run my comparative market analysis for my clients.
The iPhone has beat out their competitors by causing them to become irrelevant and obsolete such as the Blackberry, Nokia, Siemens, and Motorola. Others continue to thread water by leaving behind their old business model and adopt Apple's ideas with Samsung producing their own touchscreen phones and apps with the Android.
Happy Birthday iPhone! Thank you so much for bringing us so much joy into our lives.