Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple gave the world its first look at the iPhone — as well as a glimpse into a radically different future for personal computing and communications — on this day in history, January 1. 9, 2007.
“It’s not just the best-selling gadget ever: it’s probably the most influential, too,” Wired wrote in a 2018 look back at the first decade of the Iphone.
“Its influence goes far beyond other phones – the infrastructure that created the iPhone has also enabled drones, smart home gadgets, wearables and self-driving cars.”
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The iPhone offered a fingertip touchscreen, a powerful camera and easy internet access, among many other features, offering huge advancements over existing smartphones such as the Blackberry, Moto Q and Palm. Treo.
“Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything,” Jobs boasted, wearing his signature black turtleneck, at the Macworld Expo. in San Francisco.
Then-Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds the iPhone in San Francisco, California on January 29. 9, 2007.
(REUTERS/Kimberly White)
The Apple co-founder noted that the Macintosh in 1984 “changed everything”. computer industryand that the iPod (introduced on the same January 9 as the iPhone, but in 2001) “changed the entire music industry”.
He added, “Today we are launching three game-changing products.”
“Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.” —Steve Jobs
Apple’s new offerings included “a widescreen iPod with touch controls” and a “revolutionary communication device”.
However, Macworld audiences erupted when they mentioned that among the three new products was “a groundbreaking mobile phone.”
Apple had yet to enter the booming smartphone market at that time. Tech enthusiasts were therefore eagerly awaiting the dramatic entry of the pioneering computer giant into the segment.
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Jobs, who died in October 2011 after a long battle with cancerdelivered on drama.
“It’s not three separate devices,” he warned. “It’s a single device. And we call it the iPhone.”
“The first-generation iPhone was, in many days, quite different from the ones we see today. For one thing, it was small, just 4.5 inches by 2.4 inches. By comparison, the iPhone XS Max launched in 2018 measures 6.2 inches by 3.05 inches,” Steven Silver wrote for Apple Insider in 2018.
The latest model, the iPhone 14, comes with a 6.7-inch version.
Surrounded by cheers from Apple Store employees, one of the first iPhone buyers leaves the Fifth Avenue store in Manhattan June 29, 2007.
(REUTERS/Jeff Zelevansky)
Silver added that the first iPhone “also had no third-party apps, and exceeded 16GB of flash memory. reliable from AT&T.”
Still, the author and other experts noted, “That first iPhone was hugely important.”
It was also very popular.
“iPhone sales accounted for 52% of Apple’s $365 billion in sales in 2021.”
Apple sold 6.1 million first-generation iPhones between when it launched the product to the public on June 29, 2007, and discontinued it on July 15, 2008.
Greg Packer, then 59, a former Long Island highway maintenance worker, is credited with being the first person to buy an iPhone on June 29 at the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan after he apparently camped all week.
A general view of the audience during the Avril Lavigne concert with smartphones at Espaco Unimed on September 29. 7, 2022, in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
(Mauricio Santana/Getty Images)
Around 2 billion iPhones have been sold since its introduction, with almost 800 million in use worldwide today – around one for every 10 people on the planet, according to estimates by various tech analysts.
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The iPhone, and the technological advancements it has forced upon other smartphones, have had a profound impact on the way people live.
“Millions of people use an iPhone as their only computer,” Wired notes. “And their only camera, GPS device, music player, communicator, trip planner, sex detector and payment tool. It put the world in our pockets.”
Has it become a poor substitute for “real” relationships?
It has also spawned a whole new industry of app developers, accessory makers and social media giants.
The iPhone also had an immediate and profound impact on Apple’s bottom line.
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“Just under 40% of Apple’s revenue can now be attributed to the iPhone,” CNET reported in October 2008.
iPhone sales accounted for 52% of Apple’s $365 billion in sales in 2021, according to company reports.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs shows off the new iPhone at Macworld in San Francisco on Tuesday, January 19. 9, 2007.
(John Green, MediaNews Group/Bay Area News via Getty Images)
The impact of the iPhone on our lives has been profound.
The way humans attend concerts and sporting events, follow directions, and relate their daily lives has changed with the presence of the iPhone.
But whether the iPhone is a net positive for the company remains to be seen, some experts say.
“In 2007, when the iPhone debuted, people greeted it with anticipation, says sociologist Judy Wajcman,” author Heidi Hackford wrote for the Computer History Museum in 2018.
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“It was seen, like cellphones before it, as another useful way to sync up with family, friends and the community. eroded by the device? And has it become a poor substitute for “real” relationships?
The author also noted, “As with any new technology, reviews are mixed.”
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