stevenberlinjohnson.com: The iPhone

I don't think I have ever felt such an overwhelming desire to own -- no, just to touch -- a product in my life. It really looks extraordinary. All I can think of is this ludicrous quote from the Palm CEO from a few weeks back:

Responding to questions from New York Times correspondent John Markoff at a Churchill Club breakfast gathering Thursday morning, Colligan laughed off the idea that any company -- including the wildly popular Apple Computer -- could easily win customers in the finicky smart-phone sector. ``We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone,'' he said. ``PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in.''

Yeah, right.

Added 1/11/07: A few more thoughts after a day or two to reflect. Fred Wilson writes in the comments here: "i think the lack of a keyboard will render it useless to those of us who have gotten used to a treo or a blackberry." That may well be true -- I'm not a Treo or Blackberry user, so I don't really have an issue with this. It does seem to me that the decision to go with a touchscreen was ultimately a smart one, because it buys them so much space and flexibility on the screen, and I can imagine a scenario where all the benefits that come from that would outweigh the slower typing time, at least for some Treo and Blackberry users. It reminds me a little of adjusting to the lower bit-rate audio quality of the iTunes store music selection. I used to go out of my way to buy albums I knew I was going to really love on CD for the better audio, but eventually the speed and convenience of just clicking on a "buy this album" button won out. I haven't bought a CD in at least a year, I'd say.

Of course there's another option here. I was talking to a good friend last night who is a Treo fan, and he was raving about the iPhone, and I brought up Fred's reservations, and he said: "Oh, it's already clear what I'm going to do. I'm going to have a Treo *and* and iPhone."

I think the core point is here that there is just a giant unknown lurking in the multitouch interface. I was thinking yesterday that the last time I felt so overwhelmed with a desire to have a product it was with the Newton -- something about the idea of writing on the screen and having it recognize your handwriting just seemed so insanely magical that I became obsessed with it. And then, well, it actually didn't work very well once I got my hands on it. Clearly Jobs thinks they've made a major breakthrough with this -- that it's the kind of thing that once you've tried it, you can't go back. Philosophically, I'm with him: you put the complexity on the screen, and make the input device as simple as possible. But the proof is in the touching.

The Basics

I'm a father of three boys, husband of one wife, and author of seven books, and co-founder of three web sites. We spend most of the year in Marin County, California though I'm on the road a lot giving talks. (You can see the full story here.) Personal correspondence should go to sbeej at earthlink dot net. Media requests should go to Matthew.Venzon at us.penguingroup dot com. If you're interested in having me speak at an event, drop a line to Wesley Neff at the Leigh Bureau (WesN at Leighbureau dot com.)

My Books

Where Good Ideas Come From: The Natural History of Innovation
An exploration of environments that lead to breakthrough innovation, in science, technology, business, and the arts. I conceived it as the closing book in a trilogy on innovative thinking, after Ghost Map and Invention. But in a way, it completes an investigation that runs through all the books. Sold more copies in hardcover than anything else I've written.
The Invention of Air
The story of the British radical chemist Joseph Priestley, who ended up having a Zelig-like role in the American Revolution. My version of a founding fathers book, and a reminder that most of the Enlightenment was driven by open source ideals.
The Ghost Map
The latest: the story of a terrifying outbreak of cholera in 1854 London 1854 that ended up changing the world. An idea book wrapped around a page-turner. I like to think of it as a sequel to Emergence if Emergence had been a disease thriller. You can see a trailer for the book here.
Everything Bad Is Good for You: How Today's Popular Culture Is Actually Making Us Smarter
The title says it all. This one sparked a slightly insane international conversation about the state of pop culture -- and particularly games. There were more than a few dissenters, but the response was more positive than I had expected. And it got me on The Daily Show, which made it all worthwhile.
Mind Wide Open : Your Brain and the Neuroscience of Everyday Life
My first best-seller, and the only book I've written in which I appear as a recurring character, subjecting myself to a battery of humiliating brain scans. The last chapter on Freud and the neuroscientific model of the mind is one of my personal favorites.
Emergence: The Connected Lives of Ants, Brains, Cities, and Software
The story of bottom-up intelligence, from slime mold to Slashdot. Probably the most critically well-received all my books, and the one that has influenced the most eclectic mix of fields: political campaigns, web business models, urban planning, the war on terror.
Interface Culture : How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate
My first. The book I wrote instead of finishing my dissertation. Still in print almost a decade later, and still relevant, I think. But I haven't read it in a while, so who knows what's in there!