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Today Marks 15 Years Since Steve Jobs Unveiled the Original iPhone

Thank you Korean Android brands for introducing phablets. Steve Jobs was famously against large screen phones.

Really wish I bought into that with the iPhone 6s Plus when upgrading from the iPhone 5s. Now I'm enjoying the iPhone 13 Pro Max! I did not realize that bigger phones = bigger batteries.

I am thankful with Apple's direction of thicker & heavier iPhones that have ever growing battery mAh. The iPhone 6 was under 7mm thin and the 13 Pro Max being nearly 8mm thick.
 
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jmeltzer said:
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.
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The iPhone was subsidized and required a 2-year AT&T contract to get it. It would've been even more expensive otherwise. However, Apple and AT&T seemed to quickly recognize that it was too high priced and reduced the cost from $599 to $399 for the 8GB and $499 to $299 for any remaining (it was dropped once supply was gone) 4GB within just a few months. Further price reductions would follow in the coming years.

Due to the uproar over the significant price reduction, Apple had to give $100 store credits to early buyers who had paid the higher prices.
 
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Any society has since gone to ****. It would have happened no matter what so I don't blame the iPhone, but the social media and mobile always-connected tech is destroying modern culture.
 
I remember when I saw the original iPhone I wanted one but AT&T did not have a store where I lived at but funny now 15 years later and I own three iPhones 12 mini se2 and the 8?
 
Right now I have two phones. One for everyday and my primary job. The other I carry for my second job because of all of the clock in/out apps, covid check screening, scheduling apps etc. that they use.

That is the only thing I use it for.

So I bought a cheap Android for that for that. I just put it in airplane mode, put in in a faraday pouch and put it in my backpack or locker when I am not using it. I charge it while at work.

I would so buy a modern iPhone the size of an iPhone 4 for that purpose.
 
mashdots said:
wow, looking through the announcement post you linked and then going down the rabbit hole of post #500 where they talk about the iPod . . . lots of excitement but a ton of skepticism too.
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It really puts a lot of the armchair criticism you read here in perspective. There's always someone talking about how [thing they don't like] is the worst thing Apple's ever designed and is going to be a huge failure and a bunch of people should be fired, etc etc :rolleyes:
 
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MedRed said:
I remember there was a little iPhone cut out you could print and make into a 3d version. I did that immediately and hung it up in my workspace in anticipation of the new phone. I don't think I've ever been so excited for a new piece of technology as I was after this phone was unveiled
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LOL, I totally forgot about those. I remember making one while I was waiting for mine. Good times.
 
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I’m a big Apple fan, and have owned multiple iPhones over the years, together with loads of other Apple kit.

What’s even more surprising for me, though, is that 30 years ago this year, Apple introduced the Newton MessagePad! I was a young 20-something at the time. Into technology and avid reader of Byte magazine, amongst others lol.

In 1992 - a year before Apple shipped any actual units, Byte ran a five page spread on Newton Technology and from then, I was hooked. I actually still have those pages from the original article, which described how Newton tech worked, and how handwriting could be transcribed into text, etc. It was fascinating at the time, and I vowed to get a Newton as soon as they were released.

I did, too, and it cost me £900 at the time which was a lot – especially as I had recently got married in 92! (yes - I told a little white lie about the cost, and yes – it’s my 30th wedding anniversary this year, too) :)

I owned multiple Newtons (100, 120, 2000, etc.) and was sad when Steve Jobs came back to Apple in 1998 and decided to kill off the Newton line. I still have them all in my Apple collection – together with my iPods, iPhones, and Apple Watches. I guess I’m technically a sad person, lol.

I believe the spirit of Newton still lives on in iPhone. I wonder what the iPhone will be like in its 30th anniversary year…

EDIT: For anyone who is interested, you can see the original Byte Magazine article in the archives, here: https://archive.org/details/byte-magazine-1992-07/mode/2up?q=newton

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RodThePlod said:
What’s even more surprising for me, though, is that 30 years ago this year, Apple introduced the Newton MessagePad! I was a young 20-something at the time. Into technology and avid reader of Byte magazine, amongst others lol.
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The Apple Newton, Casio/Tandy Zoomer and AT&T EO Personal Communicator were all similar and came out around the same time. They basically kicked off the whole PDA era. The EO could even come with phone capabilities but was pricey.

This was also around the time AT&T was selling its VideoPhone.

These technologies have come a long way in the last 30 years, and they're so much less expensive too!
 
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The world was a much better place before smartphones. Not to mention their pathetic battery life
 
webkit said:
The Apple Newton, Casio/Tandy Zoomer and AT&T EO Personal Communicator were all similar and came out around the same time. They basically kicked off the whole PDA era. The EO could even come with phone capabilities but was pricey.

This was also around the time AT&T was selling its VideoPhone.

These technologies have come a long way in the last 30 years, and they're so much less expensive too!
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Yes - back then there was a whole host of devices vying for the top spot, including the various Palms and their spin-offs such as Handspring/Visor, etc. PDAs were the new kids on the block at that time, and dealt a hefty blow to the traditional 'organiser' market which consisted of devices such as the Psion Organisers, etc. (of which I also had lol).

EO sounded like a good proposition at the time but, as you say, it was pricey and clunky, too - from what I recall it was a fair bit bigger than the normal handheld PDAs of the time. Then there was General Magic, who created Magic Cap. So many great and interesting stories about each of these, how they came about, and how many of them failed in the market.

I played with and used many of those devices during the 90s due to the work I did at that time, and the only one that I can truly say I hated using was the Windows CE based devices. Dreadful. And the one that I loved was Newton!

<sigh> great times. But it makes me feel so old lol.
 
While introducing the iPhone, Jobs said "And boy have we patented it!"

That didn't stop every other line of smartphones from evolving into iPhone lookalikes. But that competition was a benefit for consumers.

On the flipside, over time there's been less and less competition for smartphone operating systems, as Windows Phone and now Blackberry bit the dust.
 
now i see it said:
“a phone, an iPod and a breakthrough internet communications device”

He forgot one other minor detail:
“the most invasive personal tracking device the world has ever known”
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Indeed. For better or worse, it was the day privacy died. The social media addiction that it spawned has changed the world.
 
Warped9 said:
Ballmer didn’t see the train coming.
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I don't think he thought Apple/AT&T would be so quick to drop prices. If the iPhone had launched for $200 less, Ballmer’s reaction may have been slightly different. Having said that, MS/Ballmer certainly didn’t do well in the phone game.
 
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