15 Years Ago Today, the iPhone Went On Sale

Garou · Jun 29, 2022

Fifteen years ago to this day, the iPhone, the revolutionary device presented to the world by the late Steve Jobs, officially went on sale.

The first ‌iPhone‌ was announced by Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, and went on sale on June 29, 2007. "An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator... these are not three separate devices," Jobs famously said. "Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone," he added.

Ever since its debut, the ‌iPhone‌ has gone on to change the world and the mobile technology industry forever. After its launch on June 29, 2007, it took only 74 days before Apple announced it had sold over 1 million iPhones. The first ‌iPhone‌ retailed for $499.

Fifteen years later, the ‌iPhone‌ has completely evolved, featuring advanced performance capabilities, and cameras, accompanied by iOS and the App Store, which the first ‌iPhone‌ did not have. In an interview that was published yesterday ahead of the anniversary, Apple's Greg Joswiak and other Apple executives involved in the development of the ‌iPhone‌ discussed what it was like launching the ‌iPhone‌ and how it defined the industry for years to come.

I still remember the changes it brought to everyday life. Previously the Internet was for people who were willing to mess with computers, now the internet is everywhere for everyone.
And it brought digital cameras in the hands of everyone.
And personal navigation via GPS became a thing, I still remembers navigating through cities with large paper maps in hand, now you just follow the arrow on your screen.

Captain Tuttle · Jun 29, 2022

Talk about an invention that changed the world

BasilZero · Jun 29, 2022

Crazy that it came out in 2007.

Got my first iPhone (5) back in 2012.

iPhone 6 plus in 2015

iPhone SE 2nd gen in 2020

iPhone 13 Pro Max in 2021

PeskyToaster · Jun 29, 2022

Usually it's pretty exaggerated but the first iPhone definitely changed the world. And Jobs' presentation is pretty legendary.

ann3nova. · Jun 29, 2022

The candy bar that changed the world. :)

bushmonkey · Jun 29, 2022

Garou said:
I still remember the changes it brought to everyday life. Previously the Internet was for people who were willing to mess with computers, now the internet is everywhere for everyone.
And it brought digital cameras in the hands of everyone.
And personal navigation via GPS became a thing, I still remembers navigating through cities with large paper maps in hand, now you just follow the arrow on your screen.

I love the iPhone. I have been in the Apple ecosystem for a while from iPhones, iPads and MacBooks but mobile internet, camera and GPS was available on Blackberry and other phones already, just not with such a good touch screen . That was the main revolution in my opinion.

Milennia · Jun 29, 2022

I had one of these about a year or so after initial release as a kid, and it changed my view on tech forever

Stat · Jun 29, 2022

That first reveal was insane. Just crazy.

bushmonkey said:
I love the iPhone. I have been in the Apple ecosystem for a while from iPhones, iPads and MacBooks but mobile internet, camera and GPS was available on Blackberry and other phones already, just not with such a good touch screen . That was the main revolution in my opinion.

Also, those phones were typically marketed towards business users first - not the general population.

Garou · Jun 29, 2022

bushmonkey said:
I love the iPhone. I have been in the Apple ecosystem for a while from iPhones, iPads and MacBooks but mobile internet, camera and GPS was available on Blackberry and other phones already, just not with such a good touch screen . That was the main revolution in my opinion.

Of course the features themselves existed in some form somewhere, but after the iPhone the actual real massmarket appeal came along. The number of people that got themselves a BlackBerry for their private phone was rather limited.

Fliesen · Jun 29, 2022

bushmonkey said:
I love the iPhone. I have been in the Apple ecosystem for a while from iPhones, iPads and MacBooks but mobile internet, camera and GPS was available on Blackberry and other phones already, just not with such a good touch screen . That was the main revolution in my opinion.

So, basically, what you're saying it wasn't available for everyone, but rather, only for weird business folks or people who bought bleeding edge PDA style phones.

plain · Jun 29, 2022

I remember trying to convice myself that my Pocket PC was better at the time. Then I got to use Safari with pinch gestures on that glorious capacitive touch sceen. Blew my fucking mind.

Shit was a gamechanger. People on the XDA-dev forums were in complete denial. lol

bushmonkey · Jun 29, 2022

Stat said:
That first reveal was insane. Just crazy.

Also, those phones were typically marketed towards business users first - not the general population.

That's not true. Everyone I knew had the Motorola Razr or a Blackberry before the iPhone.

Sanjuro · Jun 29, 2022

Pfft. It was no Newton

bushmonkey said:
That's not true. Everyone I knew had the Motorola Razr or a Blackberry before the iPhone.

Pretty much. I had some Nokia when they were still a thing and the stupid bumblebee Nextel walkie talkie wannabe

Stat · Jun 29, 2022

bushmonkey said:
That's not true. Everyone I knew had the Motorola Razr or a Blackberry before the iPhone.

Ahh yes, using the internet on your Razor was super easy.

peppermints · Jun 29, 2022

Garou said:
The number of people that got themselves a BlackBerry for their private phone was rather limited.

I think this is a bit revisionist. Blackberry Messenger was huge and very popular especially if you were in college in the mid-late 2000s. Where things started to shift was when the App Store came along.

Realyst · Jun 29, 2022

bushmonkey said:
I love the iPhone. I have been in the Apple ecosystem for a while from iPhones, iPads and MacBooks but mobile internet, camera and GPS was available on Blackberry and other phones already, just not with such a good touch screen . That was the main revolution in my opinion.

But not the actual internet though. Steve Jobs invented that.

bushmonkey · Jun 29, 2022

Stat said:
Ahh yes, using the internet on your Razor was super easy.

I'm not taking anything away from the iPhone but saying that it was the first consumer phone to have a digital camera (The first iPhone didn't even record videos when other phones had been doing that for years), GPS and internet is crazy.

Tobor · Jun 29, 2022

I have never owned another brand of phone since. And probably never will!

Huntersknoll · Jun 29, 2022

I remember getting an iPhone 3G (Which I think was the iPhone 2.. someone correct me if I am wrong) and I was blown away.

I was in high school and my parent's wouldn't pay for one (I dont blame them) so I got a job and worked for awhile and saved up to get it. Life changing.
I think it was $299.

sfedai0 · Jun 29, 2022

I dont really remember if I was blown away at the introduction but I did know that I didnt really have any use for a smartphone and it wasnt until I think 2012 or 2013 that I got a basic one. What I do remember is getting the first iPod touch and being pretty impressed by it.

hiryu2015 · Jun 29, 2022

My boss at the time got the original phone right around release, and showed/demonstrated it to everyone. I remember being interested but skeptical of getting good coverage everywhere, especially since I grew up in a rural area where even basic utilities are sparse and public/office/dorm wifi was still rare and usually with poor signal even in large cities.

Now my mother gets 5G signal in the most rural location possible and streams movies and music endlessly on the latest iPad lol.

Crazymoogle · Jun 29, 2022

The announcement of the iPhone was a huge deal, moreso than adoption. The exclusivity deal in the US and the general lack of support internationally meant that the steamroller didn't really begin until the 3G. For a few gens there iPhone just dominated everything.

Kromis · Jun 29, 2022

I remember being an Apple hater back then...but now as an investor, I feel much differently, of course :)

antispin · Jun 29, 2022

I used to use Treo back in the day. And Windows Mobile phones on the side. Suffice to say, this totally blew me away. That introduction by Jobs was inspired.

Joeyjoejoeshabadoo · Jun 29, 2022

I remember my first time seeing one in person and was blown away. I ended up getting one when ATT ended up subsidizing most of the cost.

Vector · Jun 29, 2022

Really goes to show how user experience is the single most important thing about a product - you can have all the cutting edge tech inside the thing, if it's not pleasant or intuitive to use, it's not going to do well.

iPhone didn't really invent anything, but it took a bunch of existing technologies and packaged them in a very pleasant way for the average consumer.

Tobor · Jun 29, 2022

Job's iPhone presentation is the greatest tech presentation of all time. Maybe second to Douglas Engelbart's "The Mother of All Demos", but it's debatable.

TooBusyLookinGud · Jun 29, 2022

Revolutionary invention.

I remember looking at it in disbelief. I told wife(friend at the time) that this can't be real and if it is, phones will never be the same again.

Tobor said:
Job's iPhone presentation is the greatest tech presentation of all time. Maybe second to Douglas Engelbart's "The Mother of All Demos", but it's debatable.

Jobs laid it down and you are correct, it is the greatest tech speech ever imo too. His Stanford commencement speech is a close second for me as far as his speeches go.

donkey · Jun 29, 2022

Damn, I remember having an HTC PDA phone w/ Windows Mobile before the iPhone came out and holy shit was that experience pure trash in comparison to my ex-wife's iPhone 1. Switched over when the 3G came along and haven't looked back since.

Tobor · Jun 29, 2022

Never forget:

J_ToSaveTheDay · Jun 29, 2022

I look back to the stretch between the first iPhone and the iPhone 4 where I was hyper dismissive of the smartphone and wonder what the fuck was wrong with me.

Not only did I actually LOVE my first smartphone, I'm at a point where it feels like life would actually be a lot more complicated without mine. It's such an incredible tool, and yes I believe that while smartphones existed before the iPhone, I think the iPhone finally broke it through to the mainstream thanks to finally nailing the user experience for the mass market consumer.

I was dismissive of both the iPhone and the iPad at their debuts. In retrospect, I feel like a dumbass -- both are satisfactory daily drivers in my life nowadays and I'm hooked.

thewienke · Jun 29, 2022

I mostly remember thinking it was bananas that your cell phone plan had to basically double or triple if you wanted one of these. I was paying something like $40-50 per month for a cell phone and a data plan was somewhere around that. I think you then had to pay yet another $40-50 per month to buy the phone?

My broke ass was like "nah I'm good"

Lots of rich kids that were on their parent's plan tended to have these though

dallow_bg · Jun 29, 2022

I used a lot of those phones with internet back then. Neat novelties.
Nothing came close to the usability of that first iPhone. It was incredible to use.

Kensation · Jun 29, 2022

Tobor said:
Job's iPhone presentation is the greatest tech presentation of all time. Maybe second to Douglas Engelbart's "The Mother of All Demos", but it's debatable.

The audible gasps in the audience when Jobs demonstrates pinch-to-zoom.

Turnbl · Jun 29, 2022

Still have mine, and it still works!

offtopic · Jun 29, 2022

3G was the first real iphone but, yeah, changed the entire game.

Tobor · Jun 29, 2022

Kensation said:
The audible gasps in the audience when Jobs demonstrates pinch-to-zoom.

Yep. My jaw hit the floor when I saw it.

I was also blown away by the visual voicemail. That had literally never been done before. Apple had to work with Cingular(AT&T) to get it done.

There were a ton of mind benders in that presentation.

RetroRunner · Jun 29, 2022

In partial defense of the naysayers at the time, the "demos" at the refresh speech were faked. Each app shown was a different iPhone running different SW, obviously they figured that out by launch though

Kensation · Jun 29, 2022

RetroRunner said:
In partial defense of the naysayers at the time, the "demos" at the refresh speech were faked. Each app shown was a different iPhone running different SW, obviously they figured that out by launch though

And the screen of the demo units were plastic.

mztik · Jun 29, 2022

I was floored by the keynote presentation, but I'll never forget once I saw and use one briefly in person. It was a genuine "this is the future. this is truly amazing" moment. The next year, I got the iPhone 3G and it definitely changed my life.

lunarworks · Jun 29, 2022

I remember watching the keynote for it. Who would have thought the impact it would have at the time. I wasn't totally sold on the lack of a keyboard, but I still wanted one.

My first one was the 4S. Before that, I was all Nokia.

Kensation said:
The audible gasps in the audience when Jobs demonstrates pinch-to-zoom.

I'd seen that a couple of years earlier, but that was on a bulky concept setup using a projector. To get it down to something the size of a deck of cards was impressive.

0ptimusPayne · Jun 29, 2022

Goated for sure.

ChaosXVI · Jun 29, 2022

I remember seeing stuff from the presentation at the time and thinking it looked so weird. It didn't look anything like a phone. Just a weird rectangle thing. I thought most would reject it for poor ergonomics. And also holy shit the price!

I couldn't have been more wrong. I didn't get my first smartphone until 2011, and that was a cheap straight talk Android. Got an iPhone 6s in 2016 and I'll never go back. It really did change the entire way the world interacts with each other and the internet as a whole. It made the whole concept of "going online" seamless. No more sitting at a desktop chatting for hours on Yahoo messenger while occasionally refreshing Facebook…it's all right there on your phone. I feel like my age group (I'm 31) got the front-row seat to the world changing almost overnight.

Pocky4Th3Win · Jun 29, 2022

Garou said:
I still remember the changes it brought to everyday life. Previously the Internet was for people who were willing to mess with computers, now the internet is everywhere for everyone.
And it brought digital cameras in the hands of everyone.
And personal navigation via GPS became a thing, I still remembers navigating through cities with large paper maps in hand, now you just follow the arrow on your screen.

I mean it wasn't the first to do any of those things. Just the one to do it the easiest for the average consumer. I had Windows Phones and Blackberry's that could do all that. In reality, the first release was a step back due to no 3G when 3G was growing fast. I worked at cingular when it launched and remember the craze around it and people buying spots in line in the rich area I worked at.

Hilarious_Bearious · Jun 29, 2022

I remember hating the OG model when I first used one. I lined up on launch day for a 3GS. Wild to think how far phones have come since.

Gwarm · Jun 29, 2022

I was skeptical of it at the time, but for some reason I was a mobile phone luddite. I basically had to be forced to get a cell phone of any kind back then. It wasn't until 4G was coming out that I really saw the value of a smartphone.

That was probably the most wrong I've ever been about anything technology related. Limitless information in the palm of your hand.

Realyst · Jun 29, 2022

I remember standing in line for the 2G iPhone outside my local AT&T store for the…was it 8 GB or 16 GB…whichever had the most space. Anyway, it was sooo worth it. That Jobs presentation had me hyped for a phone PREORDER, which was not the norm for consumer electronics (outside of gaming) at the time.

I showed it off to my coworkers at the time, which convinced at least two folks to buy one eventually.

aevanhoe · Jun 29, 2022

I remember hearing about iPhone when it came out - didn't care much about phones then. Few years later, I started getting interested in smartphones, and then I got an iPod Touch which pushed me to get an iPhone 4 quickly after. Never looked back, been on the iPhone train ever since. And this led to iPads, switching from PC to Mac (+ consoles for gaming), getting the Apple Watch....

TheAggroCraig · Jun 29, 2022

For some reason I thought it released in 2006, I guess my memory was off. I jumped in with the iPhone 3GS in 2009 which is crazy to think about. I jumped ship to Android for a bit but have gone back to the iPhone and plan to stick with it for the forseeable future.

Tobor · Jun 29, 2022

RetroRunner said:
In partial defense of the naysayers at the time, the "demos" at the refresh speech were faked. Each app shown was a different iPhone running different SW, obviously they figured that out by launch though

The naysayers were still wrong.

Famously, Google saw that presentation and rebooted the Android project immediately. They knew what was coming.

Microsoft, Nokia, and Blackberry all sat on their hands or naysayed. And the rest is history.

15 Years Ago Today, the iPhone Went On Sale

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