Why the iPhone proved so disruptive

The iPhone recently celebrated its fifth birthday. In the brief span of 5 years it has truly been revolutionary, and is now selling at the rate of more than one million per day. The always-perceptive John Gruber explains why:

What’s happened over the last five years shows not that Apple disrupted the phone handset industry, but rather that Apple destroyed the handset industry — by disrupting the computer industry. Today, cell phones are apps, not devices. The companies that were the most successful at selling cell phones pre-iPhone are now dead or dying. “App” is now a household word.

Indeed. The iPhone was never just a better phone, it was a better computer—totally portable and always on. Making and receiving phone calls is just one of the amazing things this pocket computer can do.