Originally Posted by s219:
Rubinstein left Apple long before the iPhone. I don't think he had anything to do with it at all. There are articles from years earlier where he is quoted as being completely against an "iPod phone", but that's about it. Obviously, if he was against the idea of what became the iPhone, he has been proven wrong.
I do have to question your thoughts on removable battery, keyboard, and memory. If Apple has shown anything, it's that there are major benefits to a non-removable battery, the pluses of a software keyboard at least offset many of the minuses, and that having a lot of onboard memory is the way to go (especially when people start putting gigabytes of apps on their devices). You definitely have valid opinions, but the tens of millions of iPhone customers sort of proves Apple's point. Some people do want hard keyboard and removable battery/memory options, but masses of customers have embraced the complete opposite approach.
One thing webOS (until it's fixed) and Android (may never be fixed anytime soon) are going to get hammered on is the small partition available for app storage. That was a suicidal decision. Some of the best iPhone games are already larger, by themselves, than the entire 256MB app space on Android!
i think that the popularity of the Iphone lies in its operating system (and marketing) and not as much in its form factor. the iphone would have been equally as popular if it had a hard keyboard, and removable battery.
keep in mind that the BB is still the best selling smart phone. I also believe that people put up with the disadvantages of the Iphone (as a phone) cause it does other things well (music player, game machine,web surfing, fart generator). Not to mention Apples ability to make people believe that they need their products!
The Brits know what's up though, and are not afraid to admit it:
brit-Blog-names-iPhone-worlds-worst.html: Personal Finance News from Yahoo! Finance