10 Years Ago Today, the Original iPhone Officially Launched

[lec0rsaire]

Every since I picked up an iPhone 3G in July of 2008, I haven't looked back. I was tired of replacing Moto Razrs that would break sometimes just after half a year of use. I went through 3 of them. I was looking at buying the still recent at the time Razr2 and then just said screw it. Let me give this iPhone thing a try. From the moment I bought it and activated it at Apple 5th ave., I couldn't believe what was in my hands. It was really an amazing experience. There was nothing like that screen at the time on a mobile device. Today we consider it ancient and pixelated, but at the time it was really something special. Multi-touch had never been implemented this way. Everything was smooth, fast and responsive. I told all my BB using friends at the time that RIM's days were numbered. They refused to believe me since BBM messenger was the hot thing at the time as well as having a physical keyboard. Very quickly one by one they all ended up buying an iPhone 3G, 3Gs or even the iPod touch. The App Store was just something that could not be ignored along with the superior social media experience on the iPhone at a time when FB & Twitter were exponentially growing.

And that Steve Jobs keynote in 2007? That was really a tour de force! I think it will go down as one of, if not, THE BEST presentation of all time. "An iPod, a phone and an internet communicator! An iPod, a phone and an internet communicator! AN IPOD, A PHONE AND AN INTERNET COMMUNICATOR! Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices! This is one device and we're calling it IPHONE!!!"

 

[LizKat]

And that Steve Jobs keynote in 2007? That was really a tour de force! I think it will go down as one of, if not, THE BEST presentation of all time. "An iPod, a phone and an internet communicator! An iPod, a phone and an internet communicator! AN IPOD, A PHONE AND AN INTERNET COMMUNICATOR! Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices! This is one device and we're calling it IPHONE!!!"

Yep, I definitely drank that Koolaid. I was so excited about the iPhone's debut that I drove 180 miles round trip from the boondocks to get to an Apple retail store and get one on launch day. It's the one and only time I've done anything like that for the launch of anything. So fun walking past a Verizon kiosk in a walkway of the mall on the way back to the parking lot.... poor guys watching this seemingly endless parade of people walking along with their iPhone bags in hand. The handwriting for end-of-growth-pattern was on the wall for all those clamshell and flip phones but of course no one was absolutely sure of that at the time. Those kiosk workers looked like they got the message though -- -- no smiles on their faces that day.

 

[akash.nu]

I've been a smartphone user since the Symbian days and then switched to windows mobile before finally getting a secondhand iPhone 3G to see what all the hype was all about. Never looked back since.

 

[lec0rsaire]

I've been a smartphone user since the Symbian days and then switched to windows mobile before finally getting a secondhand iPhone 3G to see what all the hype was all about. Never looked back since.

It became impossible to look back especially with the release of iPhone 4, which in my opinion was really one of Apple's finest hours. An example of beautiful industrial design bringing together form and function. I really felt like a high quality product along the lines of vintage Leica cameras. Even though screens have evolved and the phones have gotten thinner, the iPhone 4 is still one of the sexiest products Apple has ever made on par with the original aluminum iMac and the aluminum unibody MacBook Pro.

 

[akash.nu]

It became impossible to look back especially with the release of iPhone 4, which in my opinion was really one of Apple's finest hours. An example of beautiful industrial design bringing together form and function. I really felt like a high quality product along the lines of vintage Leica cameras. Even though screens have evolved and the phones have gotten thinner, the iPhone 4 is still one of the sexiest products Apple has ever made on par with the original aluminum iMac and the aluminum unibody MacBook Pro.

Completely agree.

 

[xitongzou]

Every since I picked up an iPhone 3G in July of 2008, I haven't looked back. I was tired of replacing Moto Razrs that would break sometimes just after half a year of use. I went through 3 of them. I was looking at buying the still recent at the time Razr2 and then just said screw it. Let me give this iPhone thing a try. From the moment I bought it and activated it at Apple 5th ave., I couldn't believe what was in my hands. It was really an amazing experience. There was nothing like that screen at the time on a mobile device. Today we consider it ancient and pixelated, but at the time it was really something special. Multi-touch had never been implemented this way. Everything was smooth, fast and responsive. I told all my BB using friends at the time that RIM's days were numbered. They refused to believe me since BBM messenger was the hot thing at the time as well as having a physical keyboard. Very quickly one by one they all ended up buying an iPhone 3G, 3Gs or even the iPod touch. The App Store was just something that could not be ignored along with the superior social media experience on the iPhone at a time when FB & Twitter were exponentially growing.

And that Steve Jobs keynote in 2007? That was really a tour de force! I think it will go down as one of, if not, THE BEST presentation of all time. "An iPod, a phone and an internet communicator! An iPod, a phone and an internet communicator! AN IPOD, A PHONE AND AN INTERNET COMMUNICATOR! Are you getting it? These are not three separate devices! This is one device and we're calling it IPHONE!!!"

Jobs was a master of presentation. Remember taking the Macbook Air out of a paper envelope? remember taking the iPod Nano out of the tiny extra pocket on his jeans? He was brilliant ,and unfortunately none of Apple's presentations have been the same since his passing

 

[akash.nu]

Jobs was a master of presentation. Remember taking the Macbook Air out of a paper envelope? remember taking the iPod Nano out of the tiny extra pocket on his jeans? He was brilliant ,and unfortunately none of Apple's presentations have been the same since his passing

He just knew exactly how to put the punchline straight. Taking the MacBook Air out of the envelope was one of those killer moments.

 

[AZ63]

Palm, Blackberry, Windows Mobile.

These were nice Feature phones for their day but certainly nowhere close to the Smart phones we have today.

 

[akash.nu]

These were nice Feature phones for their day but certainly nowhere close to the Smart phones we have today.

All of them were proper smartphones even back in the days. They were not feature phones to say the least.

 

[kdarling]

These were nice Feature phones for their day but certainly nowhere close to the Smart phones we have today.

That's a strange claim. In what way?

While all were capable, some 2007 smartphones were quite powerful. They had combinations of retina display, fast CPUs, Power VR GPU, fingerprint sensor, extendable storage, front and rear cameras for video calling, IR remote, GPS, 3G and WiFi.

They ran Google search and Maps, had some nice browsers available, had navigation, MPEG players with cover art, banking and medical apps and games, even Shazam music recognition and a Starbucks app. Basically everything we have now. (I'm convinced there's only about 3,000 unique apps. Everything else is just a variation.)

 

[Jimmy James]

These were nice Feature phones for their day but certainly nowhere close to the Smart phones we have today.

Some did much of what we can do today, just very poorly.

Calls, texts, pictures, surf the web, play games, watch videos.

 

[admob71]

Was this rule written by you? lol. You haters can try to belittle the iPhone you want, history says otherwise. Must really tear you guys up inside. Keep posting if it makes you feel better!

Nope this is a standard definition of the difference between a feature phone and a smartphone. Not my rules. Why is it smart if you can't add to its existing skills set? Don't be bitter fella, it was a good building block to what is a decent device these days. But let's not let the koolaid cloud our judgements eh..

 

[MacHead84]

Apple didn't release the IPhone 8 on June 29th 2017 feels really disappointing.

 

[Dahl]

I remember it well.

Me too.

Funny to think about all the people on Macrumors that doubted the product and smartphones as a whole.

 

[norbinhouston]

These were nice Feature phones for their day but certainly nowhere close to the Smart phones we have today.

Well duh, no one back then foresaw what smartphones would be capable of today. But those and the original iPhone were smartphones of their day. You guys will do anything to put down the iPhone. lol.

I guess we can add "feature phone" onto the list of words the Apple haters will use against the iphone.

 

[guy508]

I was giddy with excitement when I saw the keynote. I was mesmerized by the phone that I had dreamed about - one big screen with no buttons. How did Steve Jobs know this was the phone I wanted?? I too waited in line (a very short line in New Hamphire) to pick up my 8gb iPhone and to surrender my beloved Palm Treo. I was like a kid in a candy store loving that everyone noticed and commented on the phone. My love affair with the iPhone began in 2007 and continues to this day. Thank you Steve Jobs!!!

 

[DeepIn2U]

I think one of the things I will miss about pre-iphone phones were how unique they looked. You had phones that flipped, transformed, slid (sometimes in 2 or more ways), there was some phones that swiveled in a circle, rotated, etc. They were cool and unique. What were the chances of someone having the same phone as you back then? Now everyone and their grandma carries an iPhone or Galaxy. Now every phone is a giant black slab. Its really boring, to say the least. plus - cellphone charms! People (especially in Asia) liked to customize their phones with cellphone charms. Now that's gone away and replaced with smarphone cases - which isn't as cool IMO. Nokia and HTC had some of the coolest designs.

Broken Mirror Episode 1 you REALLY need to watch that on NetFlix ... with the redhead girl flicking for likes and sharing to get popular and how the entire neighbourhood is so FAKE and SHILLING just to get rentals, purchases, flights etc. FRAK man I fear the world is getting to this stage REALLY quickly. You ALL have to watch it ... I'm not kidding it's funny at first ... then you see just how parallel to iOS with IG, FB, etc it is.


Yeah man Nokia REALLY pushed the boundries of what a phone and smartphone could look like:

Taco design: NGage and NGage QD (a new platform even gaming phone)
- some of those games where really fun even Infinite Dreams migrated some games to iOS/Android. Unfortunately no app store really showed vulnerability in security and screwed major house developers!
E63 above I think
Lipstick fashion phone with rotary dialing.
Dual Slider:
N95, N96, N86, N85
Modular Point & Shot: N90 N92
etc etc etc.

I always thought this was a better 'pocket computer' until the iPhone 3GS, although you needed quite big pockets

Nokia's last real hero phone of the Communicator lineup! Funny Ericsson beat them to market with a true Psion (evolved to Symbian) OS smartphone with the R386. The OG Communicator did not run on Psion/Symbian but C+.
[doublepost=1499006893][/doublepost]

I had used S60, Pocket PC, Palm etc. extensively prior to the iPhone. They are totally not in the same league. Installing apps to the Symbian system was a complete joke.
[doublepost=1498802734][/doublepost]
Even for a DSLR you need to switch to manual mode with "shutter cards" to take good firework photos. This is not the problem of the camera on the iPhone.

you mentioned ... 'to the symbian system' ... which system are you referring to?
S60 2nd Ed
S60 3rd Ed
Symbian III (after Nokia open-sourced it)?

I had no issues installing apps nor games on S60 2nd/3rd edition from the Nokia 6620 onward to the E71/N86. Only NGage games (S60 2ND Edition) which had different target resolutions that did not support he E71 or a newer OS with S60 3rd Edition) of the N86 had given me issues. Plus like this forum Symbain-Freak forums provided a LOT of insight and support for those that had issues.

iOS and Apple made things a LOT easier they studied the market intensely. That was not my argument ... my argument was smartphones existed long before, where powerful, had applications of any type, touch screens, and most importantly the more powerful ones where ignored so that Apple could focus their point. The USA market never took off well for ANY smartphone platform - even windows because USA was LATE to the smartphone game ... they just could not comprehend work/play on a phone beyond just having a fashion Flip (RAZR) or Slider (Nokia & Samsung aka Matrix 2 phone).

The idea of iOS was K.I.S.S.

 

[morganBH]

That's not true. I had a Palm Treo. There were even two versions, one that ran Palm OS and another that ran Windows Mobile. I had the Palm OS version, and it sucked ass. But it was a smart phone.

I had a Treo 650 and a Blackberry 7105t. I actually loved my Treo

 

[pantherfalcon2332]

Wow. 10 years goes by fast. I remember my mother buying me a iphone 4 as an 8th grade graduation present (that was shortly after verizon finally got the iphone) and i remember being blown away with both the design and tech behind it. Its truly amazing how much an impact that iphones have had on me personally and society as whole

 

[the johnmc]

Broken Mirror Episode 1 you REALLY need to watch that on NetFlix ... with the redhead girl flicking for likes and sharing to get popular and how the entire neighbourhood is so FAKE and SHILLING just to get rentals, purchases, flights etc. FRAK man I fear the world is getting to this stage REALLY quickly. You ALL have to watch it ... I'm not kidding it's funny at first ... then you see just how parallel to iOS with IG, FB, etc it is.

Correction: Black Mirror, Season 3 Episode 1.

 

[DeepIn2U]

That's not true. I had a Palm Treo. There were even two versions, one that ran Palm OS and another that ran Windows Mobile. I had the Palm OS version, and it sucked ass. But it was a smart phone.

You do know there where a LOT of Treo's right?

230/270 Greyscale and colour with clamshell design - peek through window. Then the 650 and then the 750 (Windows) I still hated all versions - Palm never should've been a phone.
[doublepost=1499105242][/doublepost]

Correction: Black Mirror, Season 3 Episode 1.

Thank you kind sir!!

 

[Wanted797]

This phone was a gift from god himself. I remember bit**ing to and whining to everyone how Nokias are overrated and how their UI is a total garbage, and everybody was like "what? No way, Nokias are the best!". And then the iPhone came and people finally saw what a good phone should look and have. Minus the camera quality - but let's be honest, general camera quality back then was crap anyways.

When I first used the iPhone 3G I knew I was going to lose MMS, a video camera etc. none of it bothered me. Using it I knew it had the seed of a brilliant idea for usability and experience. The other things came later anyway.

 

[pezkiln]

Wow ten years already. It seems like time flies by so quickly.

 

[sidewinder3000]

Please tell me how it was "different" any more than iPhone OS 1 was to iOS 10. Obviously things get better over the years. But it was a phone that allowed you to type and install apps. It was a smartphone by any definition... except yours, apparently.

Just because you don't understand is no excuse to get snippy. Viewed at a distance, opposable thumbs might not seem like that big of a deal either. But for those who divine their importance, it is a category defining feature.

The iPhone was a seismic change because the entire device was a multitouch screen, allowing an order of magnitude more possibilities for apps and functionality. The lack of hardware dependency for buttons and interaction meant that a single device could be transformed, by nothing but software, into hundreds/thousands of different devices. Which allowed software development on a scale that had never been seen before on our planet. That's how it was "different".
[doublepost=1499281753][/doublepost]

I care about little things. Just not paper bags.

I care about little things. Just not paper bags.

If begrudging people their excitement over the beautiful, breakthrough packaging of a beautiful, breakthrough product makes you feel superior or otherwise props up your self-image, go for it.

 

[TimUSCA]

You do know there where a LOT of Treo's right?

230/270 Greyscale and colour with clamshell design - peek through window. Then the 650 and then the 750 (Windows) I still hated all versions - Palm never should've been a phone.
[doublepost=1499105242][/doublepost]

Thank you kind sir!!

Yes, I do know that. I obviously meant "two versions" as in two completely different types of software.
[doublepost=1499354564][/doublepost]

Just because you don't understand is no excuse to get snippy. Viewed at a distance, opposable thumbs might not seem like that big of a deal either. But for those who divine their importance, it is a category defining feature.

The iPhone was a seismic change because the entire device was a multitouch screen, allowing an order of magnitude more possibilities for apps and functionality. The lack of hardware dependency for buttons and interaction meant that a single device could be transformed, by nothing but software, into hundreds/thousands of different devices. Which allowed software development on a scale that had never been seen before on our planet. That's how it was "different".
[doublepost=1499281753][/doublepost]

If begrudging people their excitement over the beautiful, breakthrough packaging of a beautiful, breakthrough product makes you feel superior or otherwise props up your self-image, go for it.

I understand perfectly... you seem to have this ridiculous definition of what constitutes a smartphone, and then you say I don't understand like it somehow makes it true. Nobody is arguing that the iPhone wasn't a "seismic change". But multitouch and hardware that is driven almost completely by software doesn't make a smartphone. Having a keyboard and no multitouch doesn't make it a feature phone.

The iPhone was certainly a new phase of smartphones. Again, nobody is saying otherwise. But when you have a phone with user-installable apps and a web browser... I'm sorry, but that's a smartphone. It doesn't make it a good one or a modern one, but it's a smart phone.

We obviously don't agree on this, so there's no need for me to reply again. But don't call me snippy when you're sitting here talking down to people like I'm too stupid to understand you're insane definition of a smartphone.