Before Apple introduced the iPhone…

1. Carriers ruled the industry with an iron fist
2. To access carriers’ networks handset makers capitulated everything
3. Carriers dictated phone designs, features, apps, prices, marketing, advertising and branding
4. Phones were reduced to cheap, disposable lures for carriers’ service contracts
5. There was no revenue sharing between carriers and manufacturers
6. There was no notion of phone networks becoming dumb pipes anytime soon
7. Affordable, unlimited data plans as standard were unheard of
8. A phone that would entice people to switch networks by the millions was a pipe dream
9. Mobile devices were phones first and last, not usable handheld computers
10. Even the smartest phones didn’t have seamless WiFi integration
11. Without Visual Voice Mail, messages couldn’t be managed non-linearly
12. There were no manufacturer owned and operated on-the-phone application stores as the sole source
13. An on-the-phone store having 65,000 apps downloaded nearly 2 billion times was not on anyone’s radar screen
14. Low-cost, high-volume app pricing strategy with a 70/30 split didn’t exist
15. Robust one-click in-app transactions were unknown
16. There was no efficient, large scale, consistent and lucrative mobile app market for developers large and small
17. Buttons, keys, joysticks, sliders…anything but the screen was the focus of phones
18. Phones didn’t come with huge 3.5″ touch screens
19. Pervasive multitouch, gesture-based UI was science fiction
20. Actually usable, multi-language, multitouch virtual keyboards on phones didn’t exist
21. Integrated sensors like accelerometers and proximity detectors had no place in phones
22. Phones could never compete in 3D/gaming with dedicated portable consoles
23. iPod-class audio/video players on mobiles didn’t exist
24. No phone had ever offered a desktop-like web browser experience
25. Sophisticated SDKs and phones were strangers to each other

This list too could go on. But it’s sobering to remember that a single device by a company with zero experience in the industry and against all odds caused such a tidal wave of change. Change didn’t come because of Nokia, Microsoft, Sony Ericsson, Samsung, RIM or any other player in the market for the past 15 years bet their company on it. Android and webOS weren’t there before the iPhone.