Today Marks the 13th Anniversary of When Steve Jobs Unveiled the Original iPhone
13 years ago today, then Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld in San Francisco and surprised the world with the very first iPhone.
Jobs introduced the iPhone as if it were three separate products: an iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communications device. Today, the iPhone is still all of those things, but also so much more.
Apple has sold well over a billion iPhones since 2007, and as of last January, the company's active installed base had hit 1.4 billion devices. Though iPhone sales were down last year, the iPhone continues to be Apple's single most successful product.
Apple has steadily improved the iPhone over the years, refining the design over and over again, updating the camera, and adding new biometric features, and all of these changes have made the iPhone even more indispensable in our daily lives. Improvements over the years:
- 2008: App Store and 3G network support
- 2009: Personal Hotspot and video recording capabilities
- 2010: New form factor and Retina display
- 2011: Siri and iCloud
- 2012: 4-inch display, Lightning connector, and LTE
- 2013: Touch ID fingerprint sensor
- 2014: 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays
- 2015: 3D Touch, Live Photos, and 4K video recording
- 2016: Waterproofing, dual-lens camera for iPhone 7 Plus, no headphone jack
- 2017: No Home button, 5.8-inch OLED full screen display, wireless charging, fast charging, Face ID
- 2018: 5.8 and 6.5-inch OLED screen sizes, three iPhone lineup
- 2019: Night mode, triple-lens cameras
Rumors suggest the iPhone is going to see a major overhaul in 2020, with Apple set to debut 5G connectivity, a revamped iPhone 4-style frame design, 5.4, 6.1, and 6.7-inch iPhone sizes, and a time-of-flight laser-based camera system for better depth calculations and AR capabilities.
Popular Stories
YouTuber Unbox Therapy has shared a hands-on look at the iPhone 14 Pro Max using what he claims is a one-to-one replica created by third-party case makers with access to detailed schematics and dimensions for Apple's new upcoming flagship smartphone.
As with the iPhone 13 Pro lineup, in 2022, we are expecting a 6.1-inch iPhone 14 Pro and a 6.7-inch iPhone 14 Pro Max, but this time the Pro...
Apple today released macOS Monterey 12.4, the fourth major update to the macOS Monterey operating system that launched in October 2021. macOS Monterey 12.4 comes over two months after the launch of macOS Monterey 12.3, an update that added Universal Control.
The macOS Monterey 12.4 update can be downloaded on all eligible Macs using the Software Update section of System...
Apple today released iOS 15.5 and iPadOS 15.5, the fifth major updates to the iOS and iPadOS 15 operating systems that were initially released in September 2021. iOS and iPadOS 15.5 come a little over two months after the launch of iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4.
The iOS 15.5 and iPadOS 15.5 updates can be downloaded for free and the software is available on all eligible devices over-the-air in...
iOS 16 will include new ways of interacting with the system and some "fresh Apple apps," Bloomberg's Mark Gurman has said, offering some more detail on what Apple has in store for the upcoming release of iOS and iPadOS set to be announced in a few weeks at WWDC. In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman wrote that while iOS 16 is not likely to introduce a major face-lift to...
The Apple Watch Series 8 could feature an all-new design with a flat display, according to the leaker known as "ShrimpApplePro."
In his latest video on the YouTube channel Front Page Tech, Jon Prosser highlighted information from ShrimpApplePro that suggests the Apple Watch Series 8 could feature a flat display in what seems to be a design originally rumored for the Apple Watch Series 7. ...
WhatsApp is working on a new feature that will allow users to "silently" leave group chats hosted by the messaging platform instead of all members of the group being notified when they do.
As it stands, when someone leaves a group chat, WhatsApp announces their exit to the entire group, making the act of leaving very public. It's not possible right now to leave a group quietly, but WhatsApp...
Apple today released tvOS 15.5, the fifth major update to the tvOS operating system that first launched in September 2021. tvOS 15.5 comes more than two months after the release of tvOS 15.4, an update that brought support for captive WiFi networks.
tvOS 15.5 can be downloaded over the air on the Apple TV through the Settings app by going to System > Software Update. Apple...
Top Rated Comments
The original iPhone was not released in Canada but that did not stop a number of my friends from acquiring one. I will never forget four of us crowding around the devise, just wanting to play with it; we were all blown away. The owner then reminded us this was version 1.0 and try to imagine what it would be like going into the future. The world has changed because of the iPhone.
"There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance."
-Steve Ballmer, Microsoft
“It’s kind of one more entrant into an already very busy space with lots of choice for consumers. But in terms of a sort of a sea-change for BlackBerry, I would think that’s overstating it.”
-Jim Balsillie, BlackBerry
“The development of mobile phones will be similar in PCs. Even with the Mac, Apple has attracted much attention at first, but they have still remained a niche manufacturer. That will be in mobile phones as well,”
-Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia
"We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."
-Ed Colligan, Palm
"There is no likelihood that Apple can be successful in a business this competitive.”
“What Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong.”
“If it's smart it will call the iPhone a ‘reference design’ and pass it to some suckers to build with someone else's marketing budget. Then it can wash its hands of any marketplace failures.”
- John C. Dvorak, in his column Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone
"I'm never going to pay $500 for a phone."
- Me, owner of an iPhone 3G, 4, 5S, 6S, and 8
Keynotes haven’t been the same since.
But i guess it works...
Funny that same day they released Gen-1 AirPods:
https://appleinsider.com/articles/07/07/30/review_apple_iphone_bluetooth_headset
Taken the next day...it was a weird age of iPod accessories back then: