Seven years ago today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage during the keynote of the Macworld Expo 2007 in San Francisco, and introduced a device that would revolutionize the mobile device industry.
Today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device. So, three things: a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough Internet communications device. An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator. An iPod, a phone…are you getting it? These are not three separate devices. This is one device. And we are calling it iPhone. Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone.
Two models were offered, a 4 GB model for US $499 and a 8 GB model at US $599. They went on sale in the United States over six month later, on June 29, 2007, at 6:00 pm local time, with hundreds of customers lined up outside the stores ready to meet their new passion. Almost 1.4 million iPhones were sold in the first three months of its life.
Apple had reportedly been working on a tablet first, but went in the direction of a phone handset when developers realized how a touch interface could revolutionize the smartphone industry. A tablet, the iPad, would not hit the market until three years later, in April 2010.
The revolutionary design of the iPhone at its introduction is said to have sent the group working on Google’s first Android device back to the drawing board, as they realized the introduction of the iPhone changed everything.
