I remember it so well, just got my first job the year it came out and thinking god that's way to expensive for a phone. I was using the Moto razr at the time. At my brothers wedding one of his friends got one from America on launch week and showed it to me, I was blown away. I couldn't believe someone had actually made a touch screen that worked, it wasn't a flimsy piece of plastic you had to 'push in'.. I still didn't have much money so I waited but I was already sold, when the 3GS came out I remember binning my phones and going to buy one it WAS ACTUALLY REVOLUTIONARY!! I couldn't put it down, I remember the very first game I got - Rolando. Just being able to tilt my phone to play someone was insane - like something I always wished for when I was a kid. Since then I've had 5 iPhones and while I still think it's way overpriced, it still has that magic, that feeling of blowing you away like holy cow someone made something I used to only see in Star Trek!! Now I have it in my pocket. I remember the first time I FaceTimed my kids when I was away, the first time twitter came out, the first time I used instagram, I could go on and on and on, the iPhone changed the whole world and everyone in it. Thank you Steve, you actually had the balls to pull it off and never expected much in return, only to push the world forward, to show people what is possible, to put a dent in universe!! RIP
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10 Years Ago Today, the Original iPhone Officially Launched
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Happy bday, iPhone. My favorite product of all time.
As others have said, yes, they existed. Take a look at the iPhone announcement. Steve Jobs even showed off a few to demonstrate how awful they were.
Also as to "people in most countries." The truth is before the iPhone you could travel the world and it was the U.S. that was stuck with boring cellphones. In Europe, parts of Asia, Australia you'd come across the most amazing -- for there time -- phones. The reason they never came to the U.S. is because the cell cos, not consumers, decided which phones would be sold here, and what software would go on it. Apple broke up that "conspiracy."
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You agree in false narratives then. iPhone was not the first smartphone.
Totally agree with the above comment especially for my beautiful eye catching and attention getter product red iphone.
Jumped on at the 3GS and haven't looked back. I tried an Xperia phone for a weekend but returned it. I dig Sony's hardware but can't get into googles OS. /pointless_story
I bought the original and it sucked big time in comparison. I kept it just to be part of the trend but I immediately went back to the Nokia E61 and my blackberry devices. However you could see the limitations of those and the upside on the iPhone was so big.
And 10 years later Apple has become a bland, establishment consumer electronics company that only sells iPhones and a few side products.
Heard a stat this morning - 10 years ago, less than 10% of people owned a smart phone. Today, 85% own a smart phone.
Palm OS and windows mobile cannot be compared with iPhone. They are so far below iPhone.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 bought one on launch day. I didn't wait in a line for hours-a local Apple Store had hundreds in stock. I recall asking if they could hold one while I was on my way.
"Don't worry," The rep said. "We have plenty."
They had stacks of them! I got the 8 gig model. I really enjoyed using it. After the buzz on the phone grew, I actually grew nervous taking it out in public. I was mobbed by a small group of teenage girls when I made a call in a convenience store parking lot. Coworkers swarmed me while I surfed the web on my lunch break. I learned to make an extra effort to only use it when no one was around. As iPhone (and smartphone) use grew, I didn't have to be so surreptitious. For a little while-the iPhone made me a rock star!
"Don't worry," The rep said. "We have plenty."
They had stacks of them! I got the 8 gig model. I really enjoyed using it. After the buzz on the phone grew, I actually grew nervous taking it out in public. I was mobbed by a small group of teenage girls when I made a call in a convenience store parking lot. Coworkers swarmed me while I surfed the web on my lunch break. I learned to make an extra effort to only use it when no one was around. As iPhone (and smartphone) use grew, I didn't have to be so surreptitious. For a little while-the iPhone made me a rock star!
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The most successful and important consumer product possibly ever? I think so
iPhone is the safest and most secured phone in the planet!!
Exactly 10 years ago today, on June 29, 2007, the original iPhone went on sale, six months after Steve Jobs stood onstage at Macworld Expo 2007 in San Francisco and told the world Apple was reinventing the phone, revolutionizing an entire industry like it had done with the Macintosh in 1984 and the iPod in 2001.
The iPhone, with its 3.5-inch display, lack of a physical keyboard, Apple-designed touch-based user interface, and multi-touch support, was unique among phones of that era, and as Jobs promised, it changed everything. The product that some speculated would fail miserably shaped the smartphone industry and made Apple one of the most valuable companies in the world.Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
Even before the public had touched an iPhone, there was incredible hype, just like there is today with each new iteration. In the days leading up to the iPhone's release, MacRumors shared dozens of stories, like sightings out in the wild, photos of training manuals, benchmarks, in-store displays, and banners outside of stores. And of course, before the first iPhone launched, there were already rumors of an iPhone 2.
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Article Link: 10 Years Ago Today, the Original iPhone Officially Launched
It had to happen, the main cellphone manufacturers were well past their sell-by date, milking the market for all it was worth with endless repeats of the same old tired story, when all the so-called new tech was there and available for them to implement in their devices but they never did. In other words, the iPhone was a mass public shaming.
Reminds me of the first digital camera I bought, made by Nikon. 1.5 Megapixel, delay between pressing the button and the shutter closing at least a second. Absolutely abysmal, I felt totally ripped off, it was obvious they could sell far, far better kit and history has proved that.
Reminds me of the first digital camera I bought, made by Nikon. 1.5 Megapixel, delay between pressing the button and the shutter closing at least a second. Absolutely abysmal, I felt totally ripped off, it was obvious they could sell far, far better kit and history has proved that.
I was amazed by the iPhone when I bought it. I had received my first bonus from my first job out of college and spent it ($600) on the first iPhone. I had never seen anything like it and I certainly believe it will be regarded as a turning point for civilization as we know it (good and bad).
oh man - what a time to be alive. I miss that phone, wish i would have kept it. i bought mine a little after they lowered the price and a lot of people were pissed. although after i got it - looking back now i'm not sure what i did on it. no apps, other than some internet surfing which was slowwww but fast to us at the time. main use was listening to my music on there rather than my iPod.
Here's my original iPhone, in mint condition, not a scratch on it, along with the original bag and box it came it.
I never owned an original iPhone. In fact I didn't own an Apple product at the time. I jumped on board when the 3G came out on O2 and upgraded from my Nokia N95. I used to own Palm organisers and the iPhone captured the feeling of those with it's home screen and apps. It's just a shame, in my view, nothing beats the hype around the iPhone 4 to this day
10 years later, the original iPhone still looks fresh, clean and classy. Like an Eames chair or a finely tailored suit, it's the sign of a timeless design.
Blackberries are the perfect example.
They started getting more and more behind when it comes to navigation, multimedia, and even work.
Sure. And the 5 years before it was a bland establishment company that sold iPods. And 5 years before that it was a niche company that only sold colored all-in-one computers and silver laptops. And 5 years before that it was a shell of a company on it's death knell.
Yes it's true Apple is "establishment" if you mean its a large company with enormous cash reserves and a leading market cap. But compare Apple to Dell, Samsung, Sony, LG. Apple is doing a lot more exciting things in electronics than any of them combined. I have plenty of beefs with Apple but GE they are not.
The smartphone market had been around for years and was growing.
By late 2006, over 100 million smartphones were being sold annually worldwide. The introduction of the iPhone in 2007 made barely a blip on the smartphone market's growth rate. A radical increase in sales didn't happen until affordable Android phones came out.
All those preceding smartphones were the reason why carriers worldwide had data networks. And why Google was able to provide smartphone crowd-sourced cell tower positioning for the initially GPS-less iPhone. And mobile search and maps, which other smartphones already had.
This ready made smartphone infrastructure and market is why Apple wanted (and was able) to jump in, albeit years late. Apple rarely invents a product. They wait until the infrastructure and manufacturing and chips and consumers are all hitting the right notes, and then jump in with something not held back by legacy issues (at least, not at first).
True, at least from a major consumer electronic company. Smaller companies had made finger friendly UIs before, with orientation sensors, and had even announced pinch zoom, but few had paid attention because they were not as well known as Apple.
Interestingly, 2007 was the year that several analysts had predicted that capacitive touchscreen finger friendly phones would become popular. That, plus public demos and concepts of such smartphones, is undoubtedly what made Jobs break secrecy and show off the iPhone a half year before it was ready for sale, using prototypes that couldn't even work for more than a few minutes at a time.
As others have pointed out, people outside the US had better smartphones for a long time. They were already doing video calling over 3G, for example.
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