Eight years ago today, Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage during the keynote of the Macworld Expo 2007 in San Francisco, and introduced the original iPhone, a device that would forever change the way the world looked at mobile devices.
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 revolutionarymobile 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.
Apple initially offered two iPhone models, a 4 GB model for US $499 and a 8 GB model at US $599. They didn’t go on sale in the United States until just over six months later, on June 29, 2007, at 6:00 pm local time 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.
(I was one of those customers. At first I just didn’t see the attraction of the device, but once I got some hands-on time with the iPhone, I was frantically waving to get the attention of an Apple Store employee. I haven’t looked back since.)
While Apple had reportedly been working on a tablet first, it began work on a phone when developers realized how a touch interface could revolutionize the smartphone industry. The iPad tablet would be released three years later, in April 2010.
The revolutionary design of the iPhone reportedly sent the group working on Google’s first Android device back to the drawing board, as they came to realize that the introduction of the iPhone changed everything.
