This recent article in Wired made me think about the New Directions project, and specifically about how we might rethink some of our paradigms.

Essentially, the article talks about how Apple got into the cell phone business and turned it upside down. Traditionally, telecommunications providers have run the industry, and handset manufacturers have had very little power. Handsets (i.e. the phones themselves) are bait-and-switch devices, massively subsidized by the telecommunications companies, who then make big profits off the contracts that customers sign. The features available on handsets haven't been driven by creative thinking at the manufacturer, but by what the wireless carriers have decided they want to support.

The iPhone, obviously, is a very different animal. It's elegant, user-friendly, multi-purpose, and highly desirable. Apple designed it that way to protect their business interests. And they did a good job; people will pay a lot of money for an iPhone.

The iPhone wasn't Apple's first cell phone, though. Their first stab at the market was a partnership with Motorola, to create the ROKR, a cell phone that also played digital tunes. It looked like this:

It only held 100 songs, even if it had storage space for more. And to upload songs, you had to connect it to your computer. Last but not least, as the Wired article puts it, it looks like it was designed by a committee.