On this day ten years ago Steve Jobs took the stage and revealed the cell phone that would quite literally change everything about mobile devices. Originally mocked as a $500 phone, Apple’s iPhone totally redefined what a smart phone even was. Prior to waiting in line to buy mine, I had a variety of different wacky Windows smartphones and a few different Palm Treos, and it’s hard to really describe just how magical the first time you did the “Slide to Unlock" gesture on the iPhone compared to everything you’ve used before. All of the things that made the iPhone so revolutionary just seem obvious now, but it’s hard to overstate just how crazy watching this keynote was back in 2007:
What feels like an even bigger blast from the past is Apple’s web site on this same day, which (maybe because of the Aqua header bar) seems like it’s way older than the iPhone reveal presentation itself:
Courtesy of the Internet Archive, here's Apple's original January 2007 iPhone site. https://t.co/1y4fyXtSCj pic.twitter.com/6HsqmUSv64
— Harry McCracken (@harrymccracken) January 9, 2017
Over the years, the iPhone has seen incredible improvements, as detailed by our sister-site MacRumors:
• 2008: App Store and 3G network support
• 2009: Video recording and Personal Hotspot
• 2010: Retina display
• 2011: Siri and iCloud
• 2012: Taller 4-inch screen, Lightning connector, and LTE
• 2013: Touch ID
• 2014: Larger 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch screens
• 2015: 3D Touch, Live Photos, and 4K video recording
• 2016: Waterproofing and dual-lens camera on iPhone 7 Plus
The rumor mill is still going strong that we’ll see a special 10th anniversary edition iPhone this year, which seems reasonable, but, who knows. If nothing else, “The 10th Anniversary iPhone" sounds a hell of a lot cooler than the iPhone 7s. Either way, it has been an incredible decade, and it’s hard to overstate the historical importance of the announcement of the original iPhone.
