an ode to the iPhone

My obsession with Apple began 10 years ago. I had finished my MBA, joined a pretty high profile company, and was just starting my life really. Till then I was not really aware of Apple, had heard about the company, had seen the tacky looking iMac in stores, a friend had described the iPod and had learnt about how iTunes had given a new life to the music industry (as a case study in marketing class). But I really didn't know what Apple stood for.

That was to change with the iPhone. I don't really know when I first heard about it (I recently learned that Jobs announced the iPhone as early as January of 2007), but when I heard about it, a touch screen phone just appealed to me instantly. About 70  of us, new recruits, were in NY for a 3 month long 'NAPA'  training (which really was an endless party) when the iPhone was officially released. All of us wanted to buy it, but none of us were sure if the  carrier locked phone would work in India, and it was more like who'd take the risk first. I made a couple of trips to the fifth avenue Glass Cube store, fascinated by the glass stairs and apple retail.  But every time stopped myself from buying it, it was not very expensive, at $199, converted to Rs. 8000/-, it was a steal really, but still the Indian middle class brain heard $200 for something which might end up as a glorious paper weight (a term used for my iPhone many years later) .

But the allure was there and one late evening, on a whim, I stood in a long queue snaking through the Glass Cube and finally bought it.

The next question was what to do with it, it was carrier locked, so for the first couple of days I just used it as a camera.

Then started the adventure of unlocking the phone. A friend discovered a 39 step blog by the now legendary iPhoneDev team, with steps to root and unlock the iPhone. There were ample warnings about 'bricking' the phone in the blog, but then a brick also makes a good paperweight and so we decided to try it on my iPhone. So sirjee and I sat next to the pool, and started the unlock. Connecting through putty, replacing some files, rebooting a 100 times, keeping your fingers crossed and anxiety levels under control, we finally managed to complete the final step. And then the final reboot. The phone did come back up, and all seemed fine. But how do we test it. We needed an Indian SIM card. The friend who named the iPhone a glorious paperweight's roommate was carrying one and so we were banging at the girls doors at 2 in the night!

She was groggy and pretty pissed off, but understood our excitement, she gave us the sim and we inserted it in the phone. And voila, 4 bars lit up!

That opened the Pandora's box. After that first iPhone ˜70 more were bought between the 70 of us. I remember sneaking into Bangalore airport wearing a multi pocket cargo pants stuffed with 3 iPhones. And once in India, we unlocked so many iPhones.  Jaibreak, virginize, Basebands, DFU mode, Cydia, RedSn0w…there were so many terms. And yes, bricking an iPhone, that skip a beat, stop your heart, worst nightmare moment when after reboot Apple logo will not go away, or iTunes won't recognize your phone. Every jailbreak - unlock - please don't get bricked cycle was a small adventure in itself.

The other thing I distinctly remember is stepping out of the plane when we landed at the airport, and hearing the iPhone ringtone for the first time. It was my dad calling on my iPhone. The first time after 2 months of just taking pictures, I could actually use the ''Phone in the iPhone.

Last 10 years, the iPhone has always been by my side. Stuck by my hip in a stylish holster case, or in my right pocket, I have reached out to it innumerable times. Its been with me during the most important times during these 10 years. It was there with me during my two accidents (scarred and broken both times, but alive, both the iPhone and me).  It was there with me when I got married, promoted, basically any important moment. And it was dear to me, I went sliding about a 100 feet in the first accident, remember opening my eye during the long slide and realizing two things, one…I was still sliding, and two, my iPhone was sliding ahead of me! The iPhone has fueled many hobbies, photography, reading, exploring cities (google maps just makes it so much easier).  have clicked a million photos with the iPhone. read a million articles, and written long boring blogs. But more than all this, it has been a constant companion. Every time you feel alone in a crowd, every time you need to hide away, the iPhone comes to the rescue.

iPhone and Apple also taught me, and a million others about design and product management. Focus, launching at the right time, the right time, perfection, keeping it simple…all these things came from Apple. Last ten years I have watched every Apple event, except for the iPhone X launch, ironically. And then researching the features endlessly, debating in my head why a feature was added or removed, and then seeing the logic, the vision behind it. And finally getting that apple view validated by the rest of the industry (read removing flash, the headphone jack et al).

Another constant over the last 10 years has been the attention and the ridicule that the iPhone has got me (and all other iPhone users). For the first few months, as you walked around the office, everyone wanted to see the iPhone. First there were just a few of us, but iPhone 4 onwards pretty much everyone had it! And for everyone, it almost seemed like it was a part of them. You never see iPhone folks looking for new features, setting up their iPhones and all. Like Jobs vision, iPhone was just a platform for all the apps, for enabling folks to do stuff. Unlike Android, where the joy was customizing the phone, and yea, restarting it because it got hung all the time. And of course making rounds of the physical stores to update it. Yet there was and has been so much ridicule for us iPhone owners. All because it was expensive (even though the first few generations were not), and because it couldn't be customized. What people forgot was that iPhone was always meant to be an enabler for everything else. Like all Apple products, it just fits into your life, it doesn't want to be the center of it. I stopped arguing with the detractors long time back, but they all know that they would never possess their phones like I posses my iPhone.

The iPhone has been the pinnacle of design for this generation, and not just how it looks. The first generation was like nothing else. Black and Silver, shiny, small, light. And it just worked. It was so intuitive that I didn't have to learn how to use it. And ever since that gen 1, Apple has just been pushing the envelope. Over the years, the many versions which I have possessed (and which have possessed me), I have never felt let down. Yes there have been misses and mistakes, and the pace has slowed down, but for once and all, lets be very clear, Apple and the iPhone brought on this revolution, and they continue to lead it, one generation at a time.

And so a decade later, I still swear by the iPhone (X)

(PS: And I am calling it iPhone eX and not iPhone 10)