But Apple had a two years leap in front of everyone else shipping a useable touch interface.
I remember the BlackBerry Storm, the first touch screen phone by RIM launching at the same time as the iPhone 3G. No Wifi, slow janky scrolling, no apps (well, sure, if you don't mind downloading some random .jar that have to be recompiled for the custom fork they ran on that device). Felt like a rushed beta.
Meanwhile the iPhone just worked. Smooth scrolling, fast browser especially on Wifi. You could get apps from the AppStore, no friction.
The thing I remember about non-iPhone touchscreens in those days is seeing the little mouse icon jump to where you pressed, and tiny scrollbars. And having to get out the stylus to better hit the targets. And seeing the cross-hatch X-windows background while the phone was booting up. It felt like using a handheld oscilloscope. At least the UI was not done in Tcl/Tk :-)
I remember the BlackBerry Storm, the first touch screen phone by RIM launching at the same time as the iPhone 3G. No Wifi, slow janky scrolling, no apps (well, sure, if you don't mind downloading some random .jar that have to be recompiled for the custom fork they ran on that device). Felt like a rushed beta.
Meanwhile the iPhone just worked. Smooth scrolling, fast browser especially on Wifi. You could get apps from the AppStore, no friction.