What you should know
- 17 years ago, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, a device that would revolutionize technology and change the world.
- The original iPhone, despite its flaws, laid the groundwork for the modern smartphone with its touchscreen interface and multi-touch functionality.
- Over the years, smartphones have evolved to include app storefronts, virtual assistants, high-quality cameras, long-lasting batteries, and faster connectivity speeds.
- While there have been issues with security, malware, smartphone addiction, and privacy, the iPhone has continued to improve and remains a significant and revolutionary product in the tech industry.
Full Story
Can you believe it’s been 17 years? Yep, 17 years ago today, Steve Jobs, the late great tech guru, took the stage at Macworld 2007. He had something up his sleeve that was about to shake the world to its core.
It was on this very day, all those years ago, that Jobs unveiled the iPhone to an excited crowd in San Francisco. And let’s not kid ourselves, he knew precisely what he was holding. “Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything,” he claimed, kicking off one of the most significant product launches in history.
Say what you want about Jobs, but the guy knew how to sell tech. Just watch the video of the iPhone launch on January 9th, 2007, still up on YouTube. Compare it to today’s pre-packaged, pre-recorded announcements. It’s a different world. By the end of that day, those lucky enough to be there, and those who caught the news on the networks, were salivating over the iPhone.
But let’s not forget, the original iPhone was far from perfect. It used EDGE instead of 3G, which was AT&T’s snail-paced cellular service. No cut and paste, no MMS for video; heck, you couldn’t even shoot video on the OG iPhone. And thanks to EDGE, you couldn’t take a call while browsing. But hey, they fixed all that, and by the next year, the iPhone had 3G.
The influence of that first model is still seen today. Everywhere you look, people are swiping, scrolling, and pinching to zoom on their touchscreen phones. It’s awe-inspiring to see how far the tech has come, with app stores, virtual assistants, incredible cameras, long-lasting and quick-charging batteries, and faster connectivity speeds.
Jobs wasn’t exaggerating that day 17 years ago. The OG iPhone was a game-changer, and his presentation showed us why smartphones would quickly become our most essential gadget. Today’s phones do so much more than make calls and video chats. They can save your life, call for help, entertain you with streaming content, and even navigate you from point “A” to point “B” quickly and safely.
Sure, there have been some downsides. We’ve had to deal with security issues, malware, smartphone addiction, and privacy concerns. But overall, 17 years on, the OG iPhone has lived up to Jobs’ hype—and then some. The iPhone has truly become a revolutionary product that just keeps getting better.
