30 The New Ecology
part of personal communications for years, and the Nokia 1100 still
remains the bestselling device ever (with over 250 million phones sold,
although the iPhones 6 and 6s came close with 220 million). Nonetheless, it was Apple rather than Nokia that truly revolutionised mobile
platforms for the twenty-first century, so much so that by 2016, the
iPhone accounted for 91 per cent of mobile profits based on a 17.2 per
cent market share: more people owned Android devices, but for the majority of manufacturers – including HTC, Sony, and LG, although not
Samsung – that meant operating on razor thin margins or at a loss. As
Brian Merchant explains in great detail, the iPhone itself was the product of huge levels of collaboration and innovation outside of Apple itself,
one that was capable of a “civilisation-scale transformation”, although
ultimately one that may simply mark a phase in the transition towards
more pervasive and intimate technologies.
76
The iPod had prepared
the way, but it was the iPhone that led to an explosion in the mobile
market – though its effects on news consumption, at least to begin with,
were perhaps less important.
Instead, it was with the launch of the iPad in 2010 that Apple effectively
introduced another format to market which, once again, transformed
the consumption of media. Apple did not invent the tablet format: as Apple Computer in 1987, the company had launched its tablet division under the direction of John Sculley rather than Steve Jobs, an initiative that
resulted in the launch of the truly innovative – if little loved – Newton
MessagePad in 1993. The 1990s saw a number of ultimately ill-fated
devices appear, some relatively successful, such as the PalmPilot, others
little more than concepts like the Knight-Ridder tablet video, shown in
1994 as a future device to consume media produced by the company.
The most substantial development was the launch of Microsoft’s Tablet
PC operating system on devices made by original equipment manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard, pen-driven devices that, however, were
too bulky and plagued by display and power issues that made them unsuccessful in the market place. Such were the precursors to Apple’s iPad
that when, in 2011, it sued Samsung for bringing a similar device to
the market, the Korean company argued that the original prototype for
tablet computers was the device shown in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 movie,
2001: A Space Odyssey.
77
Regardless of the patentable origins of tablet computers, with the iPad,
Apple managed to bring together a number of factors that made the device an incredible success. While underpowered in comparison with later
tablets, being particularly constrained by only having 256Mb of RAM,
nonetheless it offered up to ten-hour battery life and its screen, while a
low resolution compared to subsequent devices, was bright, clear, and
responsive. Most of all, pricing for the iPad began $499, much less than
Microsoft’s early devices. In its press release to accompany the launch,
Apple described the iPad as “A magical and revolutionary device at an
part of personal communications for years, and the Nokia 1100 still
remains the bestselling device ever (with over 250 million phones sold,
although the iPhones 6 and 6s came close with 220 million). Nonetheless, it was Apple rather than Nokia that truly revolutionised mobile
platforms for the twenty-first century, so much so that by 2016, the
iPhone accounted for 91 per cent of mobile profits based on a 17.2 per
cent market share: more people owned Android devices, but for the majority of manufacturers – including HTC, Sony, and LG, although not
Samsung – that meant operating on razor thin margins or at a loss. As
Brian Merchant explains in great detail, the iPhone itself was the product of huge levels of collaboration and innovation outside of Apple itself,
one that was capable of a “civilisation-scale transformation”, although
ultimately one that may simply mark a phase in the transition towards
more pervasive and intimate technologies.
76
The iPod had prepared
the way, but it was the iPhone that led to an explosion in the mobile
market – though its effects on news consumption, at least to begin with,
were perhaps less important.
Instead, it was with the launch of the iPad in 2010 that Apple effectively
introduced another format to market which, once again, transformed
the consumption of media. Apple did not invent the tablet format: as Apple Computer in 1987, the company had launched its tablet division under the direction of John Sculley rather than Steve Jobs, an initiative that
resulted in the launch of the truly innovative – if little loved – Newton
MessagePad in 1993. The 1990s saw a number of ultimately ill-fated
devices appear, some relatively successful, such as the PalmPilot, others
little more than concepts like the Knight-Ridder tablet video, shown in
1994 as a future device to consume media produced by the company.
The most substantial development was the launch of Microsoft’s Tablet
PC operating system on devices made by original equipment manufacturers such as Hewlett-Packard, pen-driven devices that, however, were
too bulky and plagued by display and power issues that made them unsuccessful in the market place. Such were the precursors to Apple’s iPad
that when, in 2011, it sued Samsung for bringing a similar device to
the market, the Korean company argued that the original prototype for
tablet computers was the device shown in Stanley Kubrick’s 1968 movie,
2001: A Space Odyssey.
77
Regardless of the patentable origins of tablet computers, with the iPad,
Apple managed to bring together a number of factors that made the device an incredible success. While underpowered in comparison with later
tablets, being particularly constrained by only having 256Mb of RAM,
nonetheless it offered up to ten-hour battery life and its screen, while a
low resolution compared to subsequent devices, was bright, clear, and
responsive. Most of all, pricing for the iPad began $499, much less than
Microsoft’s early devices. In its press release to accompany the launch,
Apple described the iPad as “A magical and revolutionary device at an