I've take a look at the blog () I wrote after being escorted into a briefing room at the Moscone Centre following Steve Jobs keynote so that I and other journalists could get a chance to play with the a prototype iPhone.

My scepticism about the iPhone was unusual, at least for a Apple-centric journalist - in those days Apple wasn't as well liked as it is now, so we Mac journalists were some of the few that defended the company. So why did I go against the trend, and why am I admitting it now.

I had a few theories about why the market would be a tough one for Apple to enter. At that point the smartphone everyone associated with the category was the Blackberry. The Blackberry back then was a phone used by professionals who needed to check email at all times of the day and night (it's only in recent years that it's become , and look where ). There were also phones from the likes of HTV that ran Word and Excel. What could Apple possibly bring to this market.

Having given up on the business market, I looked at the newly emerging consumer market for the iPhone. If Apple was right and ordinary people wanted to have access to email on their phone, then there might be a market for the iPhone, which crucially, was far easier to use than the Blackberry handsets and Windows phones.

Except I though that there was a problem with the consumer market. At that time 3G was just starting to make an impression on the UK, companies like 3 were spending a lot of money telling us about it. I wasn't all that keen on paying more money for my mobile so 3G just didn't interest me. So what if I could make a video call, or send a photo to a friend. Data costs money. I suggested that: "The only way the networks can get us to use these features is by giving them away."