Ahead of iPhone 16 launch, take a look back at how the original iPhone changed the world
The iPhone, which combined the iPod, mobile phone and the internet communicator into one device, with the additional benefit of a large touch screen changed the game forever, even before the competition realised what hit them. In the very first year, Apple sold around 1.4 million smartphones.
The era of smartphones can be divided into two - before iPhone and after iPhone. When Apple CEO Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone to the world on January 9, 2007, even he couldn't have predicted the impact of the device, let alone other phone-makers who brushed it off.
CREDIT: AP
'Apple is going to reinvent the phone'
Today, fifteen years and seventeen iPhone series later, what Jobs said in 2007 lives true to its every word - ¡°Apple is going to reinvent the phone¡±.
World of mobile phones before iPhone
Until then the mobile phone market was dominated by feature phones, that had basic functionalities like calls, texts and multimedia playback. There was also a small segment of smartphones, led by the likes of Blackberry, HTC, Palm, etc that made business phones focused on executives who are constantly on the move. These were expensive devices for a niche market, with email connectivity and a trackball for scrolling as their main selling points.
CREDIT: APPLE
What Apple did different
However, the iPhone, which combined the iPod, mobile phone and the internet communicator into one device, with the additional benefit of a large touch screen changed the game forever, even before the competition realised what hit them. In the very first year, Apple sold around 1.4 million smartphones, and the numbers have only gone up exponentially since.
17 years ago today, the first iPhone was introduced by Steve Jobs.
¡ª Alvin (@sondesix) January 9, 2024
People made fun of Steve, Apple, and the iPhone itself.
"$500 for a phone? It will never succeed."
But, just look at the iPhone now. It looks as if "everyone" uses an iPhone today. pic.twitter.com/8MridD0KRE
CREDIT: APPLE
Specs of first iPhone
So what was the impressive spec sheet of the original iPhone?
3.5-inch display
2-megapixel rear camera (front cameras were non-existent then)
Multi-touch interface
iPhone OS
128 mb ram
4,8 and 16 GB memory options
$499 starting price
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Bobins Abraham is the Assistant News Editor at Indiatimes. He has more than twelve years of experience in TV and digital journalism. An avid student of history and geopolitics, he is a conservationist and environmentalist at heart. He writes on environment, sustainability, human-animal conflict and more.
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