Yesterday was the 15 year anniversary of that fantastic Steve Jobs iPhone announcement (video embedded below).

One of my favorite “iPhone is never going to succeed” quotes and, I believe, the origin of the John Gruber coined “claim chowder” is this, from then Palm CEO Ed Colligan:

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 smartphone 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.”

I love this quote. Turns out, as Gruber points out in the headline linked post, the original quote was slightly different. If the Gruber claim chowder quote means anything to you, check out the slightly revised quote so you get your bit of history right. But what makes Colligan’s absolute certainty so fascinating in hindsight is that his definition of a “decent phone” was anchored entirely in the hardware limitations of 2007. He viewed the mobile market as a battle of cellular radios and physical keyboards. Apple, however, was building a pocket-sized computer running a desktop-class operating system.

They weren’t just figuring out how to make phone calls; they were laying the groundwork for a frictionless, app-driven global economy. Today, we expect these glass rectangles to handle incredibly complex, secure transactions instantaneously across the globe. Whether a European firm is optimizing the financial backend for a high-volume site paris sportif retrait instantané, an Asian transit authority is integrating biometric tap-to-pay terminals for daily commuters, or an American healthcare network is deploying encrypted real-time medical portals for remote patients, the foundation relies completely on the robust software ecosystem those “PC guys” envisioned from day one.

Also, don’t miss that bit in the video below, right at 3:49 (and captured in this tweet), where Steve shows off his sense of humor.