So here's a question who invented all this Smart technology? I'm guessing that a lot of people will say Apple as the first thing you usually think of is the iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and iPlayer, but you would of course be wrong.
The worlds first Smartphone Simon was developed by IBM in 1992 and went on sale in 1994. In addition to making phone calls Simon could receive faxes and emails and included 'apps' like address book, calendar, appointment scheduler, calculator, world time clock, and note pad via a touch screen display. It was the worlds first phone to incorporate the features of a PDA.
Its hard to believe now that back in the 1990's many people carried a separate PDA as well as a smartphone (My Palm's gathering dust somewhere) and up until the last quarter of 2010 the most popular operating system for smartphones was Symbian. In fact the first mass market smartphones were a mix of Nokia's running Symbian, Blackberry's and Windows Mobile phones.
At least till Apple came along with the first iPhone in 2007. They wrapped up the smartphone in a sexy new premium priced package and the rest as they say is history. Its an interesting business model and one that's worked for them many times.
The first MP3 player emerged in the early 1990's, but was unsuccessful. The first commercially viable model was AMP MP3 Playback Engine and the first production volume model was the The Audible Player. A host of others from Creative (Makers of PC sound cards), Archos, Diamond Rio, etc. followed. While in 2000 Samsung produced the first phone capable of MP3 playback.
Then in October 2001 Apple produced the iPod. Apple had also purchased SoundJam MP in 2000 which they rebranded as iTunes. Locking purchases from iTunes into the cool new iPod was a master stroke creating a walled-garden to shut out competing MP3 players and the success of the iPod helped fund the iPhone.
Tablets have a far muddier history, having been around since the 1980's, with numerous prototypes being shown, such as Hindsight's 1986 Letterbug developed for the education market, but not entering production. Apples first attempt at a tablet, the Newton, came in 1987, although it didn't enter production until 1993 and was discontinued in 1998. Compaq also produced a Windows tablet in 1993.
In 2000 Microsoft tried to revive the tablet market by introducing "Microsoft Tablet PC" specification and several OEM models based on this specification appeared in 2002 aimed at the business market. Nokia's MeeGo and HP's WebOS also tried and failed to crack the tablet market.
Then Apple launched the iPad in 2010. Breaking the PC tradition of third party software software support with a locked down operating system, it had a 'walled-garden app store' where only Apple approved apps could be installed. It did however address many of the design flaws that had bedevilled earlier attempts to create a viable tablet computer.
As for smartwatches they've been the next big thing since 1980's. Pulsar NL C01 stored just 24 digits of information, later models had a dock that boasted a thermal printer and a memory cartridge slot. Seiko's RC-1000 could sync with a variety of 80's home computers such as the C-64. Then in in 1990 came Seiko's Receptor which doubled as a pager. Samsung's first smartwatch in 1998 or rather phonewatch was the SPH-WP10 which was huge weighing 50 grams (1.78 ounces) with a talk time of 90 minutes.
IBM and Citizen tried and failed to crack the market with Linux smartwatches and Fossil rammed Palm's PDA OS into various watches between 2002 and 2005. Microsoft also tried and failed with Smart Personal Object Technology, or SPOT watches for short. They used FM broadcasts to update subscribers' data in major US cities. SPOT watches were sold between 2004 and 2008, and SPOT subscription services discontinued in 2012.
By 2010 a raft of wearable devices that synced with Smartphones were beginning to appear, Nike+ Fuelbands, fitbits and Jawbones, and my own personal favourite the crowd funded Pebble smartwatch. Samsung has released at least 6 Galaxy Gear models since 2013. While Google has developed Android Wear as a standard platform for Android smartwatches.
The Apple Watch made its debut in 2015. Once again its a premium product that seeks to take the best of its competitors features and wrap them up in a compelling new package.
As you've probably gathered from the above I'm not Apples biggest fan, but the first to market with a new product is seldom the winner. Far better to let someone else take the risk of validating that a market exists for a new product and what features consumers want. Then wrapping all that up in your own unique brand.
The problem is that all new technologies eventually become commodified so you have to move on to the next big thing (whatever that is) to keep the brand fresh and appealing. Also we're seeing the ultimate commodification of technology with it increasingly disappearing into everyday products to form the basis of the IoT. Will for instance anyone really care if their car is an iCar, an Android Car or powered by Garmin, or who provides the software for their Smart House, so long as it works? Which I suspect is going to be an issue for all big technology companies in years to come.