Believe it or not, there was life before iPhones—although many Apple enthusiasts would argue differently. It was about two decades ago that Steve Jobs and his groundbreaking device would change the way the world stayed connected.
The First iPhone (2007)
On January 9, 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone at Macworld in San Francisco. A few months later on June 29, 2007, it hit the market. Jobs described the groundbreaking phone—since there wasn't much else to compare it to—as a three-in-one device that combined the functionality of an iPod, with a mobile phone, with an internet communicator—all in one little sleek and lightweight package. For the first time, you could access your email and contacts on the go, not to mention take pictures, browse the web and make your way around town with maps (minus the turn-by-turn instructions, of course). Best of all, you could use your finger to control it all! No other device on the market could do what it did. Here's how Jobs described it:
"iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone… We are all born with the ultimate pointing device—our fingers—and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse."
Steve Jobs
Understandably, thousands of people lined up across the country to get their hands on this coveted new device—waiting in line for hours, even days (with a heavy police presence) outside Apple and other retail stores just to have one of their own.
No sharing or texting your pics. No app store yet. No pretty wallpapers. No Siri. No alternate color or design choices. It was just a tiny, chunky, silver phone with a black background—but no one knew what they were missing. After all, the phone had cutting-edge features at the time! Here are just a few of the first iPhone's specs:
- iPhone OS 1
- 3.5-inch Diagonal Display (320 x 480 pixels at 163ppi)
- 2-Megapixel Camera
- 4GB ($499) or 8GB ($599) Options
- 1,400mAh battery (8 hours of talk time)
- Visual Voicemail
- Safari Web Browser (with built-in Google and Yahoo! Search)
- SMS Application with full QWERTY soft keyboard
- Rich HTML email client
- Support for Quad-Band GSM, EDGE (2G) Wireless and Bluetooth 2.0
Of course, that's downright hilarious compared to what's baked-in to today's newest iPhones, including artificial intelligence (AI) and 5G capabilities, the latest and greatest Apple chips, professional-level cameras and video features, tons of storage, long-lasting batteries, not to mention huge, colorful displays, sleek designs, plus games and apps galore.
So, what can we expect from Apple iPhones as we look ahead to the next decade or two? No one's exactly sure yet. But you can bet we'll be looking back and laughing about what we didn't have.
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Sources:
https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2007/01/09Apple-Reinvents-the-Phone-with-iPhone/
https://www.thestreet.com/video/june-29-2007-apple-releases-the-iphone