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On this day in history, January 9, 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs gave the world its first peek at the iPhone and a glimpse into the future of personal computers and communications.
In a 2018 reflection of the first decade of the iPhone, Wired stated, “It’s not just the best-selling device ever made; it’s also probably the most influential.”
The infrastructure that made the iPhone possible also enabled drones, smart-home devices, wearables, and autonomous automobiles.
In comparison to prior cellphones such as the Blackberry, Moto Q, and Palm Treo, the iPhone featured a capacitive touch screen, a strong camera, and quick internet access, among many other innovations.
Jobs, dressed in his typical black mock turtleneck, boasted at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco, “Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything.”
The co-founder of Apple stated that the Macintosh in 1984 “changed the entire computer industry” and that the iPod (launched on the same day as the iPhone, January 9, 2001, but in 2001) “changed the entire music industry.”
Steve Jobs included the iPhone on his list of innovative items that have altered the world.
“Today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products,” he added.
Apple’s new products featured “a widescreen iPod with touch controls” and a “revolutionary communications device.”
However, the audience at Macworld roared when Steve stated that one of the three new items was a “revolutionary mobile phone.”
At that time, Apple had not yet entered the booming smartphone industry. Therefore, tech fans eagerly anticipated the pioneering computer company’s long-rumored spectacular launch into the market.
Jobs, who passed away in October 2011 following a protracted fight with illness, brought the drama.
Surrounded by jubilant Apple Store staff, one of the first iPhone buyers leaves the store on Fifth Avenue in New York, June 29, 2007.
He cautioned, “These are not three separate devices.” “This is a single gadget. And we have named it the iPhone.”
“The first-generation iPhone was, for many days, significantly different from the iPhones currently in use. It was little, measuring only 4.5 inches by 2.4 inches. Comparatively, the iPhone XS Max released in 2018 measures 6.2 inches by 3.05 inches,” Apple Insider’s Steven Silver said in 2018.
The most recent generation, the iPhone 14, is available in a 6.7-inch size.
Silver said that the first iPhone had no third-party applications and a maximum of 16GB of flash capacity. The original iPhone was proprietary to AT&T and ran exclusively on AT&T’s infamously slow and unreliable EDGE GSM network.”
Nonetheless, the author and several experts remarked, “The first iPhone was incredibly significant.”
A general view of the audience using smartphones at Avril Lavigne’s concert at Espaco Unimed on September 7, 2022 in Sao Paulo, Brazil
Apple sold 6.1 million iPhones of the first generation between the product’s release on June 29, 2007 and its discontinuation on July 15, 2008.
Greg Packer, age 59, a retired highway maintenance worker from Long Island, is credited with becoming the first person to purchase an iPhone at the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on June 29, after apparently camping out for a week.
Around 2 billion iPhones have been sold since its inception, with nearly 800 million in use around the world today — about one for every 10 people on the earth, according to estimates by various tech analysts.
The iPhone and the technological advancements it compelled in other devices have had a tremendous effect on how people live.
During his keynote address at Macworld at the Moscone Center in San Francisco on January 1, 2007, Steve Jobs showcases the primary features of the new iPhone.
Wired reports that “millions of people use an iPhone as their sole computer.” “It is also their only camera, GPS device, music player, communicator, trip planner, sex finder, and payment device.” It placed the world in our hands.”
In addition, it produced an entirely new sector of software developers, accessory manufacturers, and social media behemoths.
The iPhone had an immediate and significant effect on Apple’s financial performance.
In October 2008, CNET estimated that just under 40 percent of Apple’s income was attributable to the iPhone.
According to company figures, iPhone sales contributed for 52% of Apple’s $365 billion in revenue in 2021.
The impact of the iPhone on our lives has been enormous.
The iPhone altered the manner in which humans attend concerts and sporting events, follow directions, and record their daily activities.
However, academics disagree as to whether the iPhone has a net good impact on society.
In 2018, author Heidi Hackford wrote for the Computer History Museum, “When the iPhone debuted in 2007, people enthusiastically embraced it, according to sociologist Judy Wajcman,”
“Like mobile phones before it, it was considered as a handy means of synchronizing with family, friends, and community. But, has the smartphone further blurred the divide between work time and personal time? And has it become an inadequate replacement for’real’ relationships?”
As with any new technology, the author added, “Reviews are mixed.”
»Steve Jobs announces iPhone at Macworld on this day Jan. 9, 2007«