Did Steve get smarter?

By Dave Winer on 1/10/07; 11:32:36 AM.

I've read dozens of reports on the iPhone; two stand out. 

Paul Boutin notes that everything Apple announced is in vapor, and that's new for Apple (and disappointing for users), but all CES previews are vapor and Apple is, in every way, a consumer electronics vendor now. "By holding his own mini-CES 500 miles away, Jobs literally stole the show. As I sit here typing in a sulk, an NPR stringer in Vegas just messaged, 'CES is dead because iphone is all that mattered today. there is a mood of -- like everyone here went to the wrong party.'" 

Tom Evslin: "The design of the phone -- no hard buttons, all touch on screen, sounds like everything we expect from Steve and from Apple: it's all about the GUI and that part'll be fun. But the business relationship is as old school as it can get: exclusive US distributorship through Cingular." 

Tom has a point. Like many others, I was hoping that Apple would turn the cellphone business upside down. On the other hand, quoting from the essay I wrote yesterday, before the iPhone announcement, "Get in bed with the guy whose lunch you want to eat." Maybe Steve is more clever than we give him credit for?