I still remember the keynote and being marvelled by it. Though I was stubborn and refused to let go of my Blackberry. I loved my keyboard. I typed efficiently fast and accurate. I still do. When the iPod Touch came out, I got it, as I knew for sure they would make a phoneless iPhone. I did wish it had 3G option, but i digress. It took me waiting until iPhone 4 until I decided to join the bandwagon and while it is a fantastic phone, and the blackberry in retrospect was garbage, I can honestly say it does have a superior typing experience. I can still type faster and more accurately on it, with those tic tac keys over the iPhone. But the software experience is what makes iPhone truly magical. The proof is not just my computer illiterate mother and grandmother has no problems using it by figuring it out, my little nephew does as well!
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10 Years Ago Today, the Original iPhone Officially Launched
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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.
Affordable Android phones is what made smartphones more accessible, but the smartphone we know today is the result of the iPhone.
That is undeniable. The OG iPhone is the ancestor of every slab smartphone we use today.
I had my treo 750 at the time. But I thought wow 2G when 3G was out and it's too expensive since you couldn't get a contract, also there was no apps. But I jumped on board with the iPhone 3G and had every iPhone since except the iPhone 5s and sold the iPhone 5 within a month for android.
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!
I remember this. I would be walking around campus and strangers would approach me and ask me to see it. Same deal at parties. Was fun being the center of attention for a little while.
For sure! Having to support many small to medium sized businesses who relied on them was the bane of my existence back then. When their free server software worked, it worked very well but if you ran into any kind of trouble and the client didn’t want to pay for proper support good luck!!!
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I watched the keynote again a couple of days ago. To me it seems the Apple apps have lost their elegance and ease of use.
And Oh My God was Steve the Master of the Universe at that keynote. He knew........
And Oh My God was Steve the Master of the Universe at that keynote. He knew........
It took teams of people to build and perfect every aspect of this device. Thanking one person would be excluding dozens and the role they played in its development.
Feel free to go buy a 1st gen iPhone and use that. The only thing similar between my 6S Plus and the iPhone 1 is the rounded rectangular prism shape, a home button, and a grid of icons.
My old 3GS also still works fine, and my mother was still using up until a 1 year and a half ago.
You mean among the elementary school population? Otherwise that is a silly statement that could only have been made by someone who was a child 10 years ago and has zero personal or historical reference to the world before that time.
10 years ago "Crackberries" were so prevalent candidate Barack Obama jokingly lamented he didn't think he could live in the WH without one. The SS made had to get a special secured one for him. Palms were also quite common.
The big differentiators between the original iPhone and a Palm were the iPhone's keyboard/style-less touch screen, full Internet, and it was more pocketable. Both the Blackberry and Palm had apps. The original iPhone didn't even have SMS or 3G, both which were quite common in 2007.
What is amazing is how Steve Jobs singlehandedly changed how cellco's operate. Before the iPhone cellcos decided on the hardware specs, they decided on what software would come loaded. If anyone doesn't like Apple's "walled garden," they would have detested cellco's "iron prison" pre-iPhone. That was the real game changer of the first iPhone. Then Apple adjusted the price of the original iPhone. Then it started letting developers make apps for it and that was the end of Cellco control of phone hardware and software.
I don't if comments like this are made in jest or meant to troll. Obviously iPhone 7 experience is completely different than the original iPhone. I look at my original iPhone now and think "how did I use this. It's so tiny." Ultimately the iPhone is still a smartphone like it's always been. I wish people who were complaining "it hasn't changed" would be specific to what the iPhone is missing rather than just tossing mud.
I have had every single iPhone since launch except for the iPhone 5S. That was the one device I wasn't eager to upgrade too. I remember with the first iPhone crashing applications because the music was playing at the same time as internet browsing haha. Of course, the phone and software have improved greatly in the context of speed, features, security, and simplicity.
Granted there have been a few times that I have considered switching to Android (for the sake of trying something new) but I always come to the realization how hard it would be to switch. I know iOS like the back of my hand. I can find any setting or feature almost instantly without stopping to think. This device is indispensable. It's the first thing I look at in the morning and the last thing I look at in the evening.
I have also read comments from various folks who all claim that they switched back to iOS after trying Android saying the experience was not what they hoped for and that it was too inconsistent.
Yes, the iPhone and iOS may sometimes feel stale to some users, but make no mistake the ecosystem of services, apps, and products Apple has built around this device is nothing short of incredible.
Granted there have been a few times that I have considered switching to Android (for the sake of trying something new) but I always come to the realization how hard it would be to switch. I know iOS like the back of my hand. I can find any setting or feature almost instantly without stopping to think. This device is indispensable. It's the first thing I look at in the morning and the last thing I look at in the evening.
I have also read comments from various folks who all claim that they switched back to iOS after trying Android saying the experience was not what they hoped for and that it was too inconsistent.
Yes, the iPhone and iOS may sometimes feel stale to some users, but make no mistake the ecosystem of services, apps, and products Apple has built around this device is nothing short of incredible.
Nonsense. That's like saying "You can't compare a Dacia Sandero to a Mercedes S-Class saloon, Dacia are so far below Mercedes". They're still both cars.
Right?!Here's to another 10 years, wondering where technology will be then!
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Put it in a safe deposit box because some day it'll be worth your weight in gold.
So, yes, jet engines are cool, but hardly a consumer electronic. At least my local BestBuy doesn't carry them. GE does make consumer goods though, most of which are pretty snoozy.
My brother was the first person I knew to understand the real value of the first iPhone, and when he got one, I remember saying I would never need something like that.
Famous last words.
I eventually started with the 3G, and haven't looked back since. Thank you, Apple!
Famous last words.
I eventually started with the 3G, and haven't looked back since. Thank you, Apple!
Tears in my eyes watching Steve introduce this magical device that changed the world.
That doesn't dispute his post.
Happy Birthday, mate!The iPhone launched 10 years ago today... but there's something even more important (to me) that happened on June 29 that you forgot to mention in the article, MR!
On this day, eighteen years ago - I came into the world!
Wow, 10 years! Where has the time gone. I do remember when it was launched. I was using my HTC 8525 at the time. I will say, when the iPhone was announced I wasn't overly impressed. My HTC could watch TV with the Sling TV app (the old box you had to plug into your cable box, not the new service). It also had a decent browser. I liked the keyboard as well. It had a fairly robust app system (not an app store), you could get emulators and such which were great.
But the iPhone did have three great features that I wanted.
First a foremost a good web browser, sure it wasn't great by today's standards, but compared to what we had 10 years ago, it was amazing!
Second, The screen, it was glorious. Only .5" bigger then the LCD screen I was using, yet it was clear and more functional in that touch actually worked well without a stylus!
Third, the app store. Having one place to get all your apps was super nice. Jail breaking was also more necessary back then as Apple really had more things locked down originally then they do now. Like tethering for example.
I didn't buy the iPhone when it first came out mainly because it lacked 3G. That was the number 1 fault of the first iPhone. I did however buy a refurbed one later on and ever since then I have owned everyone since. I wish I had kept my original, but back then I could sell it for more then I paid for the next phone (on contract) and I needed money more then a year old phone at the time. I do still have the next model, a 3G, pretty similar minus the aluminum back. It's nice to be able to go back and see what technology was like 9-10 years ago I also still have my HTC 8525 and many other phones like a Palm Pre 2. Very cool to see how all these companies innovated over the years and copied from each other (some more then others).
In the end I still think the iPhone is the best phone today. The iPhone 10 or whatever it will be called will be amazing I feel as well. That said Android has come a long way, and with Google making their own phones now the competition hasn't died down at all and we all win!
But the iPhone did have three great features that I wanted.
First a foremost a good web browser, sure it wasn't great by today's standards, but compared to what we had 10 years ago, it was amazing!
Second, The screen, it was glorious. Only .5" bigger then the LCD screen I was using, yet it was clear and more functional in that touch actually worked well without a stylus!
Third, the app store. Having one place to get all your apps was super nice. Jail breaking was also more necessary back then as Apple really had more things locked down originally then they do now. Like tethering for example.
I didn't buy the iPhone when it first came out mainly because it lacked 3G. That was the number 1 fault of the first iPhone. I did however buy a refurbed one later on and ever since then I have owned everyone since. I wish I had kept my original, but back then I could sell it for more then I paid for the next phone (on contract) and I needed money more then a year old phone at the time. I do still have the next model, a 3G, pretty similar minus the aluminum back. It's nice to be able to go back and see what technology was like 9-10 years ago
I also still have my HTC 8525 and many other phones like a Palm Pre 2. Very cool to see how all these companies innovated over the years and copied from each other (some more then others).In the end I still think the iPhone is the best phone today. The iPhone 10 or whatever it will be called will be amazing I feel as well. That said Android has come a long way, and with Google making their own phones now the competition hasn't died down at all and we all win!
I remember my initial reaction to the iPhone that it will distract people from driving as they have to look down to rule the phone number. But from there, I have been with iPhone until iPhone 6. I just traded in my iPhone 3g you get galaxy s8. I think SJ was the best when it comes to designing hardware that's so beyond our imagination. And now it's a different story. I cringe every time I see those airpods!