Apple, World Celebrate The iPhone's 10th Birthday
On Jan. 9, 2007, Apple announced the first iPhone, forever changing the smartphone industry. We take a look back as we celebrate iPhone’s 10th birthday.
An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator…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.
- Steve Jobs, January 2007, MacWorldAnnounced on Jan. 9, 2007 and released on June 29, 2007, the first iPhone was pricey ($599 for an 8GB model) and available exclusively through AT&T/Cingular. It also arrived without support for third-party apps. At the time, no one cared about this omission since there was no App Store or an API for developers. Nor did anyone complain that the iPhone ran only on AT&T’s extremely slow EDGE network.
It also included built-in support for Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) and Bluetooth 2.0, as well as an integrated (and often criticized) 2.0-megapixel camera.
On the first day of its release, the iPhone included visual voice mail, multi-touch gestures, HTML email, mobile Safari, and threaded text messaging. Additionally, Google was well represented, having helped create native Maps and YouTube apps.
However, many features like MMS and copy and paste were not supported at the time of the phone’s release.
When iPhone OS 2.0 was released in 2008, users received Exchange support, push email, and other enhancements.
In 2009, iPhone OS 3.0 offered original iPhone owners copy and paste and new YouTube features. By this point, however, many users had already moved on to the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS.
With the arrival of iOS 4.0 in 2010, the original iPhone’s time in the spotlight officially ended. From that point forward, customers could no longer update the handset.
In total, 6.1 million iPhones were sold between June 2007 and June 2008.
Memory Lane, iPhone's 10th birthday
The first iPhone commercial ran during the Academy Awards in January 2007:
Who best to talk about the first iPhone, but Steve Jobs. Here’s the late Apple co-founder announcing the company’s first handset:
Looking Ahead
Apple has released new iPhones each year since 2007. The company’s 2017 lineup is expected to launch in September.