I had a witty reply to post but, once I tapped on reply, I forgot what it was.
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15 Years Ago Today, the iPhone Went On Sale
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I know it's easy to pick it apart these days for its lack of 3G/Video camera/etc. but everything it did do on day 1, it did very well. YouTube on a phone especially was a novelty and that it a lot more fun for me at least. Either way I've been stuck on the iPhone since, don't think things will ever be as exciting as they were back then but that's just how these things go I suppose. I try to keep my phones and boxes now to record my journey. 😎
I had a PocketPC device back around the time the iPhone came out and it was utter *******. Buggy as hell, terrible browser, froze all the time, keyboard took literal seconds to register text, awful screen, slideshow-like video playback, and I could go on and on.
Apple didn't invent the smartphone, just the usable smartphone.
I have very fond memories about the OG iPhone. It was so much better at some things and yet so much worse at others.
The design, touch interface, text messages that were a tusk continuous conversations, web browsing, iPod, wifi and email were fantastic, but no 3G, no apps to install, no GPS (nor, as was still quite common at the time, connect an external receiver) were really quite a bummer.
It all got better over the years, of course, and it really did feel like the beginning of a new era, but let's never forget that it also sucked quite a bit in some respects.
The design, touch interface, text messages that were a tusk continuous conversations, web browsing, iPod, wifi and email were fantastic, but no 3G, no apps to install, no GPS (nor, as was still quite common at the time, connect an external receiver) were really quite a bummer.
It all got better over the years, of course, and it really did feel like the beginning of a new era, but let's never forget that it also sucked quite a bit in some respects.
Actually it’s Ebay and they go way higher too. There iPhone 2Gs with original box going for thousands.
The iPhone 4S is the biggest disappointment of any iPhone release. Everyone was expecting the iPhone 5 with 5G, a larger screen, and other amazing features.
What we got instead, a year and a half later nonetheless, was a repackaged iPhone 4 with a half-baked Siri software system that's still half baked to this day. Whoopty do.
I didn't quite see the need for a "smart" phone until the 3G came out and had a vastly better camera. Since then I've only skipped upgrading once. Just glad I started buying AAPL in the iPod days. 
Can we do any other anniversary in 2 months for when the price was reduced by $200?
Apple always alternated between new designs one year and performance refinements the next so we were expecting a better iPhone 4 which is what we got. And it fixed the 4's dumb antenna issue. We got the 5 the next year which is what was expected.
Nobody was expecting a better iPhone 4.
At the time, it was iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, and iPhone 4. There wasn't the established pattern we have today. The antenna issue, I will give you.
By that logic, people weren't expecting a new design iPhone 5 either since Apple had just done an S version of the 3G.
There wasn't an iPhone "S" after the 1st iPhone. There was no reason to think there would be a 4S just because there was a 3GS. The unveiling of the 4S was also pushed back farther than it's yearly cycle, which contributed to the thoughts the next phone would be the iPhone 5.
If you watched the Keynote for the iPhone 4S, you could tell even the crowd wasn't that excited. The 4S was the most disappointing launch ever. In a year and a half, Apple basically moved the antenna, added a newer processor, and put a half-baked software feature (Siri) into the phone.
I'm not saying every "S" upgrade is exciting -- just that the 4S was by far the worst due to how long it took and how unpolished the product was.
Have to admit it, I went total Larry David when I saw the iPhone 15 years ago:
- eh, I don't get it
- why do I want to touch the screen? I'll spend all my time just cleaning it. I don't touch my TV screen!
- maps? why do I need maps? I got it all in my head baybee!
- email? I check my emails at home every Wed.
- camera? why do I need a camera in my phone? I don't have a phone in my camera!
- where are all the buttons? how do make a call without any buttons?
- iPhone? what a stupid name. Should be My Phone. Nobody is gonna go "where's my iPhone?"
- how do I close this thing?
I remember watching the keynote back then. It was the first one after Steve Jobs and the energy was way down. The 4S also had a pretty big camera upgrade.
For some reason, Bloomberg memory-holed this gem:
Apple iPhone Will Fail in a Late, Defensive Move
It wasn’t a quote.
just thought it was funny considering how much people will pay for a phone now and do it over and over.
Something that always kicks me is when Steve was doing the "three revolutionary products" lead in, everyone gasped/roared with glee at the second "revolutionary mobile phone" point, and yet the third "breakthrough internet communications device" point got a much more muted response.
At the time, I felt it was a strange choice of sequencing. Everyone was literally frothing over the idea of Apple doing a mobile phone for years at this point, so why Jobs wouldn't make it his ultimate, crowd pleaser point? Really seemed weird and bizarre back then.
Of course 15 years on, we now know. I doubt anyone including Steve could grasp then exactly how revolutionary that "Internet Communicator" aspect would become over time, but perhaps he could see a day where the 'mobile phone' part of a mobile phone would be a fairly minor feature.
At the time, I felt it was a strange choice of sequencing. Everyone was literally frothing over the idea of Apple doing a mobile phone for years at this point, so why Jobs wouldn't make it his ultimate, crowd pleaser point? Really seemed weird and bizarre back then.
Of course 15 years on, we now know. I doubt anyone including Steve could grasp then exactly how revolutionary that "Internet Communicator" aspect would become over time, but perhaps he could see a day where the 'mobile phone' part of a mobile phone would be a fairly minor feature.
A couple of mints later my boss was drooling over his new iPhone. To ruin his day I demonstrated an app on my iPod Touch that made it look like it was a working iPhone. I told him that my option was just as good but cheaper than his phone. He was not happy until I told him it was a joke.
Despite being in mid high school in 2007, I wish I could say I remembered the buzz, but I don't...
The trouble was that iPhones took a long time to become popular here, and it didn't happen until the iPhone 4 and 4s.
I rember having heard of the iPhone when I started university, and the first model I saw was my friend's black iPhone 4, in 2011, which was out of this world.
Never having owned a smartphone myself back then, it was twice as magical to interact with his phone.
One good thing is that I jumped on the smartphone bandwagon quite late, in early 2015, therefore I skipped the first years of beta testing and arcaic Operative Systems; my smartphone experience (despite being android at the time), was already quite polished.
My first iPhone was the matte black 7 I got from my sister, that had moved to the iPhone Xr, and then I inherited her Xr when she got the 11.
The first iPhone I actually purchased with my money is the white 13(regular) I'm writing from and I remember I was so proud of my purchase as it meant I finally reached a point in my life to be able, via my earnings, to get something like this.
I'll surely get more iPhones in the future, but this 13 will surely have a big place in my heart, as it symbolized something more than its purchase.
The trouble was that iPhones took a long time to become popular here, and it didn't happen until the iPhone 4 and 4s.
I rember having heard of the iPhone when I started university, and the first model I saw was my friend's black iPhone 4, in 2011, which was out of this world.
Never having owned a smartphone myself back then, it was twice as magical to interact with his phone.
One good thing is that I jumped on the smartphone bandwagon quite late, in early 2015, therefore I skipped the first years of beta testing and arcaic Operative Systems; my smartphone experience (despite being android at the time), was already quite polished.
My first iPhone was the matte black 7 I got from my sister, that had moved to the iPhone Xr, and then I inherited her Xr when she got the 11.
The first iPhone I actually purchased with my money is the white 13(regular) I'm writing from and I remember I was so proud of my purchase as it meant I finally reached a point in my life to be able, via my earnings, to get something like this.
I'll surely get more iPhones in the future, but this 13 will surely have a big place in my heart, as it symbolized something more than its purchase.