Apple Released the iPhone Eight Years Ago Today

[joelovesapple]

I've had so many phones but nothing, NOTHING comes *remotely* close to my iPhones 5 and 6. The usability is unparalleled and the way they just work. No crashing, no memory errors, nothing. And beautiful to hold and to look at. I've taken mine out of it's case at the moment just to see how gorgeous it is. Not joking.

I guess that's why I'm an Apple customer. I will never, ever, ever buy a crappy Android again.

 

[Daedalus65]

I just had a very entertaining thought... What did they use to capture that video?

Today video clips of every day happenings are common place (thanks iPhone). But back then, somebody actually had to drag along a camcorder.

Indeed, our world has changed.

 

[Andres Cantu]

Man, I remember the first iPhone was such a status symbol. Even the 3G and 3GS were, but that was way back when only AT&T offered it.

 

[nviz22]

The iPhone has been so iconic. It had its ups and downs, bwiw, it really innovated the market at the start and caused others to push their games to create two powerful OSes that we had today.

 

[ipadpro]

always something original look the best forever ,,,,,

can apple bring next iphone look amazing like original iphone ,,,,

 

[sbm]

I remember wanting to trade in my HP smartphone in for one. Didn't do it until the 3G.
Samsung is celebrating the birthday, without the iPhone there'd be nothing to copy. LG, on the other hand, is not celebrating because without the Prada phone released a year earlier, there'd been no smartphone design for Apple to copy.

 

[ironpw]

 

[judethat]

I remember queueing up outside of O2 in the UK for this back in 2007. A lot of friends and family made fun of me for buying one. Fast forward to today and everyone of them are using iPhones lol.

This didn't even have 3G back then lol EDGE only.

Since its launch I have purchased the new model every year and this year will be no different. iPhone 6 Plus in rose gold please!

I queued up too outside O2 and my friends made fun of me too but years later most of them have iPhones. Got most every other one too since on launch day, part of the excitement.

 

[scoobydoo99]

The 8GB model initially cost $599 on a two-year contract until Apple dropped the price to $399 in September 2007, far more expensive than today's starting price of $199.

wrong. The original iPhone was unsubsidized. There was no 2-year contract. Steve made this quite clear when introducing the iPhone as being part of Apple's plan to revolutionize the industry. They quickly caved and moved to the traditional subsidized phone purchase model, which continues today.

 

[scoobydoo99]

I don't think it was ever sold off contract.

It was ONLY sold off contract!

 

[scoobydoo99]

It came with a two year contract in the US.

No, it did not.

 

[Tech198]

and of course with the original iPhone u don't have near as many default out of the box apps u get today by far.

(Dinky little pecker though by today's standards)

 

[OllyW]

It was ONLY sold off contract!

But you couldn't activate it unless you signed up to a special iPhone contract (until Jailbreaks arrived).

 

[JackieInCo]

No, it did not.

It was only on AT&T in the US which involved signing up for a two year contract.

You bought it in store, came home and activated it in iTunes and agreed to a two year contract.

 

[KJL3000]

 

[AFDoc]

Is it worth buying one of these? They go for over £1000 on ebay at this point, does anyone think they'll just keep rising?

No. Too many of them were made... this isn't an original mac after all. PLUS if anyone is paying 1K for an oiPhone they are really really dumb.

Yeah this video just proves how big a douche he was.

 

[drlunanerd]

I don't think it was ever sold off contract.

It was in the UK. O2 had a fire sale on them just before the 3G came out. That's when I bought mine for £169 I think it was! Regretted not buying another as I preferred it over the 3G. Many years later my sister got it wet in the rain on Hogmanay in Edinburgh and that spelt the death of a great phone.

 

[diamond.g]

wrong. The original iPhone was unsubsidized. There was no 2-year contract. Steve made this quite clear when introducing the iPhone as being part of Apple's plan to revolutionize the industry. They quickly caved and moved to the traditional subsidized phone purchase model, which continues today.

I was really bummed when they caved too. If they hadn't maybe the subsidy system would have died earlier.

 

[Macdick]

I remember excitedly watching a demo of Google's experimental mobile OS, Android, a few months before the iPhone's release. I saw it on this wacky YouTube site, which hosted many low quality videos to be played in boxes with large gradated buttons. The experimental OS was running on some BlackBerry device using button-based navigation. The iPhone just blew me away.

I still have my and is working flawless! like new!

 

[JackieInCo]

But you couldn't activate it unless you signed up to a special iPhone contract (until Jailbreaks arrived).

This was true. If you couldn't pass the AT&T credit check, you could get put on pay as you go. People discovered that they could get around the two year contract and get put on pre paid by entering I think all 9s or all 0s for the SS#.

 

[reivinz]

I decided to break out the 1st gen phone and charge it. I'm reminded how much bigger the packaging was.

 

[diamond.g]

View attachment 565113 I decided to break out the 1st gen phone and charge it. I'm reminded how much bigger the packaging was.

Back when they gave us a book, and a dock for the device....

 

[OneMike]

I remember going to the fifth avenue store to buy the 4GB model. A couple weeks later they dropped the price so I went back to get the credit.

Funny how, if not for my friend showing me the emulator with it running Mario and such I probably wouldn't have gotten an iPhone. If not for that same friend a few years back. I probably wouldn't have gotten into apple computers.

 

[manu chao]

We had plenty of use cases for unlimited data.

Thanks to the App Store, you know have about 1000x more use cases.

In the US, most if not all carriers require a data plan if you want to activate a smartphone even for voice. That used to be unnecessary before the iPhone changed things.

Blame the lack of competition in the US (partly due to technical fragmentation) for the ability of carriers to pull such tricks. Or missing laws that would force carriers to activate any phone. The American carrier situation was akin to oil companies controlling which type of gasoline you put into your car (ie, expensive cars would be forced to use gasoline that was twice as expensive) and having to allow cars to use their gas stations.

It was in fact pretty ironic that Steve Jobs complained about carrier walled gardens, when his own intentions turned out to be to build an even higher walled garden.

But having one (or three if we were to count Android and Windows Phone) instead of several hundreds worldwide is a much better situation. Get into Apple's garden and you could address a global market, with carrier gardens you would have to negotiate hundreds of garden 'doors'. These two types of gardens are very, very different.

 

[6129(15)]

I don't think it was ever sold off contract.

It was for a little while in Germany due to some weird subtle consumer legislation thing. So they had to offer iPhones off contract. The price was 999 EUR.