I was 24 and still remember seeing the commercial for it on tv. I looked over at my dad who has been an Apple user since 1986, and we were both amazed. We’ve been using iPhones for over a decade now and I’m still amazed when I do certain things with my 13 Pro.
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Today Marks 15 Years Since Steve Jobs Unveiled the Original iPhone
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I still have mine. Is it worth a lot of money yet?
I remember watching this while visiting my grandparents in Florida on the beach during winter break. It was on about the crappiest DSL imaginable, maybe 512Kbps at the most. The video was terrible quality, but I watched it live. I was in college and had been saving up almost two years already to buy it after lurking on MacRumors reading about it. I had the Motorola ROKR E1 iTunes phone, lol. It was a POS. If the iPhone 13 Pro is one order of magnitude better than the original iPhone, the iPhone was at least two, maybe three orders of magnitude better than the ROKR.
If you’re young and reading this, the thing I want you to understand the most is how big of a deal the iPhone was at the time. There was nothing even remotely close, it was a phone that fell out of the future. And people would stop you in the street to look at it. I had women ask me out because I had an iPhone (I was dating someone else at the time so I politely declined). I have a hard time imagining another consumer electronic device that will ever top that kind of hype and complete follow through. Sure it wasn’t perfect and it’s easy to dissect that looking back from 2022. But it was damn near perfect and the closest thing to real magic in 2007.
I remember watching this while visiting my grandparents in Florida on the beach during winter break. It was on about the crappiest DSL imaginable, maybe 512Kbps at the most. The video was terrible quality, but I watched it live. I was in college and had been saving up almost two years already to buy it after lurking on MacRumors reading about it. I had the Motorola ROKR E1 iTunes phone, lol. It was a POS. If the iPhone 13 Pro is one order of magnitude better than the original iPhone, the iPhone was at least two, maybe three orders of magnitude better than the ROKR.
If you’re young and reading this, the thing I want you to understand the most is how big of a deal the iPhone was at the time. There was nothing even remotely close, it was a phone that fell out of the future. And people would stop you in the street to look at it. I had women ask me out because I had an iPhone (I was dating someone else at the time so I politely declined). I have a hard time imagining another consumer electronic device that will ever top that kind of hype and complete follow through. Sure it wasn’t perfect and it’s easy to dissect that looking back from 2022. But it was damn near perfect and the closest thing to real magic in 2007.
After I saw the reveal, I thought "this is going to be revolutionary". And, "I need to buy some Apple stock" -
Today is January 9, which means it's been 15 years since Apple CEO Steve Jobs stood on stage at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, California and gave the world its first look at the iPhone, a device that would go on to change everything.
The original iPhone was a tiny little thing with a 3.5-inch LCD display, a plain old Home button, a thick chassis, huge bezels, a Samsung processor, and a 2-megapixel camera, but it was still unlike anything else that was on the market at the time.
Smartphones at the time relied on limited display area, hardware-based keyboards, and styluses for screen interaction, but the iPhone stood apart because it a limited number of physical buttons and instead relied on a multi-touch display, which was more intimate and interactive.
Jobs described the iPhone as three revolutionary products in one: an iPod with touch controls, a phone, and a breakthrough internet communications device. "Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone," Jobs famously said, and he couldn't have been more right.
Since 2007, Apple has led mobile phone design, dictating the features and capabilities that are must-haves for smartphones and inspiring other manufacturers to follow in its footsteps. Features like Touch ID, Face ID, sleek designs, and incredible camera technology have kept Apple competitive, as have other improvements over the years. Earlier this week, we highlighted 15 changes that Apple has made since introducing the original iPhone.
No other smartphone maker has been able to match Apple's deep integration of hardware and software or its unparalleled chip designs, and that's why iPhones continue to be the smartphone of choice for a huge number of people worldwide.
Apple in January 2021 said that there were more than 1 billion active iPhones worldwide, which is a staggering number, and the success of the iPhone has driven Apple to become the world's first company to surpass a $3 trillion valuation.
Every year, Apple manages to make us excited about an iteration on a 15-year-old product. There are promising updates in store for the iPhone 14, including the first notchless design that will see Apple adopting a hole-punch display that will provide more available screen space.
We're also expecting faster performance than ever with the A16, improvements to 5G, and innovative safety features like car crash detection and satellite support for reporting emergencies when cellular signal is unavailable.
Apple is exploring the future beyond the iPhone as well, preparing for the day when the smartphone might be obsolete. The first AR/VR headset is could be unveiled in 2022, and while it will be bulky, expensive, and focused on VR experiences, we can expect Apple to iterate and improve on the headset experience until some kind of head-worn wearable becomes indispensable.
We don't know what the iPhone will look like when Apple's 30th iPhone anniversary rolls around, but we at MacRumors will be here to tell you all about it. What do you think Apple has in store for the distant future? Let us know in the comments.
Article Link: Today Marks 15 Years Since Steve Jobs Unveiled the Original iPhone
Best decision I ever made.
To this day, I still dislike the virtual keyboard. There's a reason why the still-flawed autocorrect exists: because the virtual keyboard remains inferior to a hardwired keyboard, even fifteen years later. The last pre-iPhone phone that I used was seriously flawed by current standards--I fondly refer to it as an "intellectually-impaired" (instead of "smart-") phone--but it did have a superior hardwired keyboard.
They probably bought Android phones too and are miserable as hell.
The iPhone would've never happened if that MBA suit Tim Cook was CEO 15 years ago. Cook's mediocrity is excellent for Apple shareholders, but it's bad for the Apple customers who value the innovative and user-friendly tools that were introduced under Steve Jobs.
It’s like your post is a bad sales pitch to discreetly lambaste Tim Cook and how you’re highlighting Steve Jobs to be some ‘tech god-send’. Yeah, well… I could make the counter argument, Jobs wasn’t without his flaws with products either that weren’t exactly ‘innovative or user-friendly’. But that’s neither here nor there.
The technology has changed and matured, take a second to give the necessary credit with products that have been released under Cook that have been just as ‘user-friendly’, like the Apple Watch, AirPods, etc. Are you trying to insinuate those products aren’t ‘innovative’.
Yes, I am trying to insinuate those products aren't innovative to anywhere near the same degree as the products released under Steve Jobs's reign as CEO. The Apple Watch is the only new product category released under Tim Cook. That should say something right there about his mediocrity. Also, Cook killed off innovative product categories like the Airport Wi-Fi routers and consumer-level standalone displays (the latter will be coming back sometime in the future). Cook is all about doing what's best for Apple shareholders, not what's best for Apple users.
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I remember the announcement very vividly. I knew at the time Apple had a special product with the iPhone.
The iPhone really did completely reinvent the entire computing industry.
The iPhone really did completely reinvent the entire computing industry.
Not even close. Cook is a suit that is okay at running a business. He has no creativity or vision. To even mention him in the same sentence as Jobs is kinda silly. But not everyone understands vision. Consumers tend to find any remotely average product acceptable. They don't really understand good UX or visionary design. They'll buy anything. Under Steve, the products were revolutionary.
Nice!! I’d love to get my hands on one again. Long after moving on to the 3G, 4S, etc., I still proudly displayed my ‘07 launch day iPhone on my desk like a prized collector’s item. It sat in one of those white docks Apple made. It was an important device in both tech history and my own little journey. Of my mostly sentimental collection of random things over the years, it was the thing I cherished most.
I returned from a week-long trip, to a ransacked house. They kicked in a back window and made out with mostly replaceable junk. When I got to my office, I was crushed to see they swiped my precious. To this day, I’ll think about her from time to time…
I’m glad you still have yours. That 2-tone was so radical, so cool. And the thing was impossibly small compared to where we are now. I still have my 3Gs - which is basically the same size. They feel rediculous in-hand. Yet at the time, their all-screen face seemed so big! Hard to believe it’s been 15 years. Yet in some ways, it feels like 3 lifetimes.
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15 years… holy sh**
I was in high school and working at McDonald’s at the time. I didn’t even know the iPhone was a rumor. I had a Nextel, but it wasn’t on because my brother didn’t pay the bill LOL so I told my mom I can hold off until the iPhone comes out.
That reveal has to be the best reveal of all time. I joined MacRumors soon after and salivated everyday until launch.
I was in high school and working at McDonald’s at the time. I didn’t even know the iPhone was a rumor. I had a Nextel, but it wasn’t on because my brother didn’t pay the bill LOL so I told my mom I can hold off until the iPhone comes out.
That reveal has to be the best reveal of all time. I joined MacRumors soon after and salivated everyday until launch.
The iPhone 1 was great, but IMO the iPhone 4 was and is probably the most amazing mass-produced object ever. I still handle it every once in a while. It's truly just a wonderful thing.
This sums how much (Or lack there of) knowledge you must have understanding the roles of business/commerce, or even the sheer intelligence-level of education of what it takes to coordinate-operate a $3 trillion company.
I understand it’s all-to-easy to be very critical anonymously on a random discussion tech-board, but your above sentence that I’m quoting, ultimately; I would be embarrassed to post what you said.
I had a similar experience with the iPod touch, aka iPhone lite. I don’t remember January 2007, but I remember June 2007 very well when the iPhone came out for sale. I was taking a summer class at miracosta for 10/11th grade. Steve Jobs introduced The iPod touch the next month, and I was convinced to get it.
With the iPod touch. All the other students I never talked with in class were curious enough to jump over desks while the teacher wasn’t looking. The teachers were absolutely clueless of its cheating potential, although I never abused it like that.
I even did the original jailbreak, which is entirely game-changing even by today's standards
The iPhone 3G was my first iPhone after a few years of using the Sony Ericsson k and w series candy bar phones, followed by the 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, XR, 11 and currently 12 Pro. My entire family was running with various generations of my hand me down iPhones at one point.
I remember the iPhone, I didn't like it much tbh at launch, I was still using a Nokia N95 8GB with a Carl Zeiss Lens and it even had MSN messenger on it back then (I feel old) I loved that phone because it was small and the lens had shutters to protect it, and Symbian was pretty robust at that point. I bought the iPhone 3GS and kind of wondered what I had done, I could not just download a ring tome or do half of the stuff I could with my Nokia or even my Sony Ericsson P910i but I kept it and now I rock a iPhone 13 Pro and I would never turn back, I had every update apart from the 6 and 6S. I loved the 4/4SS the most (no bumper needed on the S model) and I still think it was along with the 5 series Apples best looking iPhones. My new one annoys me a bit by being buggy and having I feel a bloated OS which I was hoping iOS would not become as they keep trying to reinvent the wheel it feels like to myself at least.
Oddly I still miss the proper mechanical keyboard of my Nokia N95 8GB and T9 as the auto correct was amazing, boy could I type faster then compared to the not so great auto correct that the iPhone has. That needs some work on it big time. Did it change phones, well yes of course, but tbh back then there was so many phones to choose with some great ideas and some not so great, but you had so much choice, now its iOS or Android, don't get me wrong I like my iPhone alot but not as much as I used to for some reason.
Oddly I still miss the proper mechanical keyboard of my Nokia N95 8GB and T9 as the auto correct was amazing, boy could I type faster then compared to the not so great auto correct that the iPhone has. That needs some work on it big time. Did it change phones, well yes of course, but tbh back then there was so many phones to choose with some great ideas and some not so great, but you had so much choice, now its iOS or Android, don't get me wrong I like my iPhone alot but not as much as I used to for some reason.
He was right on the price. Apple dropped it very quickly and credited people who had already purchased it.
Yeah I was in Japan (there was no 2G there anymore + they had their own awesome phones with lotsa unique features) so I didn't see one until a year or so later.
TBH I wasn't blown away as I'd had a jailbroke iPod Touch for a while (so was used to lots of JB features being standard) and I was REALLY happy with my Japanese phone.
Call me whatever but I still kinda miss that phone as it had:
- Roughly a week worth of batteries on 3G + the ability go get a substantial recharge on-the-go by plugging in a few AA batteries
- A TV antenna (could watch TV on the train)
- A translator (worked through the camera to translate difficult Japanese characters...etc)
- A simple web browser (based on Opera I think) that blocked all ads and stuff
- An e-mail system that only accepted e-mails from other Japanese people (i.e. their private phone's e-mails) + people on my whitelist... call it insular but I NEVER got spam
- User-replaceable battery and SD cards
- REALLY cute ringtones, alerts and emojis
Don't get me wrong, I love my iPhone. However, I think these flaws need some consideration. The simplicity (plus battery life) of my old phone was pretty awesome compared with any phone I can think of today.
I never has the original iPhone as I was with another carrier at the time and when it was time for my upgrade I moved to O2 which was the first carrier in the UK to have the iPhone. My first iPhone was the 3G. I remember around the time the OG iPhone came out I'd wanted a phone that could do exactly what the iPhone could do. Send emails, browse the internet properly, listen to my music and watch YouTube videos. I'd already had several iPods at that point. I foolishly listened to a friend who said a blackberry could do what I wanted. It was the first and last blackberry I ever had and I hated it. The next year I switched to the iPhone.
you say that... but this is actually how it was VERY first introduced. (@6m24s) Pretty lacklustre... a few claps and there you go. No flashy advert ( which they were more than capable of then )
I remember the keynote that Jobs gave. I definitely watched it a few times. I was waiting for a new iPod announcement that day and when he unveiled that we were getting three new devices I was excited. When he then unveiled that all three new devices were the same device, I was floored!
I was in college at the time and I so badly wanted to get one, but $600 for a phone was kinda unheard of, mainly because paying upfront and in full for it was just not a thing. Sure there were other phones that also cost a lot (maybe not quite as much) but you could get other phones at cell phone stores for subsidized prices. The iPhone wasn’t able to do that when it came out in June 2007. So I had to make peace with the fact that I wasn’t going to get one.
Then in December 2007 my parents surprised me with an iPhone. They found a store that was able to get it at a lower price and when they gave it to me I literally jumped up and down with joy a la N64 Kid. I was 20 years old at the time.
The phone was truly revolutionary, instantly iconic, and was a head turner. People would see it and go, “oh, you have an iPhone!” You could do things on there that no one else could do, but it was incredibly frustrating when the 2G network would load things so slowly that it made it almost impossible to use when out. Still, one of the most incredible products I’ve ever owned and used.
I was in college at the time and I so badly wanted to get one, but $600 for a phone was kinda unheard of, mainly because paying upfront and in full for it was just not a thing. Sure there were other phones that also cost a lot (maybe not quite as much) but you could get other phones at cell phone stores for subsidized prices. The iPhone wasn’t able to do that when it came out in June 2007. So I had to make peace with the fact that I wasn’t going to get one.
Then in December 2007 my parents surprised me with an iPhone. They found a store that was able to get it at a lower price and when they gave it to me I literally jumped up and down with joy a la N64 Kid. I was 20 years old at the time.
The phone was truly revolutionary, instantly iconic, and was a head turner. People would see it and go, “oh, you have an iPhone!” You could do things on there that no one else could do, but it was incredibly frustrating when the 2G network would load things so slowly that it made it almost impossible to use when out. Still, one of the most incredible products I’ve ever owned and used.
