When Steve Jobs unveiled a phone with no buttons, the world gasped. Competitors laughed. Then they scrambled to catch up. Here’s how Apple didn’t just enter the phone market—they obliterated it.
In 2007, Nokia owned 49% of the phone market. BlackBerry was the executive’s darling. And then Steve Jobs walked on stage with a device that had one button and a screen you could touch. The iPhone wasn’t just a phone—it was a cultural reset button. Apple didn’t play by the rules; they rewrote them entirely. While competitors were perfecting physical keyboards, Apple bet everything on a touch interface that seemed almost magical.
The genius wasn’t just in the technology—it was in understanding what people actually wanted before they knew they wanted it. Apple created an entire ecosystem that made switching brands feel like downgrading your life. The App Store turned the iPhone from a device into a platform, and suddenly, your phone wasn’t just for calls—it was your camera, your GPS, your gaming console, your everything.
Fast forward to today: Apple captures over 50% of smartphone profits despite having less than 20% market share. They turned a commodity product into a status symbol, a tool into an identity. Nokia? Sold to Microsoft for parts. BlackBerry? A cautionary tale in business school textbooks. Apple didn’t just crush the phone industry—they transformed it so completely that we can barely remember what phones were like before the iPhone existed.
