It’s hard to remember what life was actually like before we all had black mirrors in our pockets. Honestly, if you try to explain a T9 keyboard to a teenager today, they look at you like you’re describing how to operate a steam engine. But there was a specific moment when everything shifted.
If you’re wondering when was iphone introduced, the date you’re looking for is January 9, 2007.
Steve Jobs stood on stage at the Moscone Center in San Francisco during the Macworld Expo and basically pulled a fast one on the audience. He didn't just walk out and show a phone. He told everyone he was launching three products: a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communications device.
He repeated it like a mantra.
The crowd cheered for each one. Then, the penny dropped. He wasn't talking about three separate gadgets. He was talking about one.
"We are calling it iPhone," he said. And the world—kinda—broke.
The Day the World Saw the First iPhone
The atmosphere at that 2007 keynote was electric, but also weirdly tense. You see, the device Jobs was demoing was barely holding it together. It was a prototype. Behind the scenes, the engineering team was sweating bullets. If Jobs followed a very specific "golden path" of clicks—checking email first, then playing music, then making a call—the phone stayed on. If he did them out of order? It crashed.
Even with those high stakes, the announcement changed the trajectory of human communication.
- Announcement Date: January 9, 2007
- Release Date: June 29, 2007
- Original Price: $499 (4GB) and $599 (8GB)
- The Carrier: AT&T (back then it was still Cingular)
It’s funny to think about now, but the original iPhone didn't even have an App Store. You were stuck with what Apple gave you. No Instagram. No Uber. No Candy Crush. It didn't even have copy-and-paste. People forget that part. We all just accepted that if you made a typo, you basically had to delete the whole sentence.
Why the Timing of the iPhone Introduction Mattered
Before the iPhone showed up, "smartphones" were these clunky bricks with tiny screens and plastic buttons. Think BlackBerry or the Palm Treo. They were built for business people who wanted to check emails while waiting for a flight. They weren't fun.
Apple spent about $150 million on "Project Purple"—the secret codename for the iPhone. They were so obsessed with secrecy that even the cleaners weren't allowed into certain rooms.
Jobs originally wanted a plastic screen. But after carrying a prototype in his pocket with his keys, he realized it scratched too easily. He called up the CEO of Corning and demanded they produce a massive amount of "Gorilla Glass" in just a few weeks. It was a chaotic, last-minute pivot that defined the look of every phone we've used since.
The Reaction: Hype vs. Skepticism
Not everyone thought it was going to work. Microsoft’s then-CEO Steve Ballmer famously laughed at it. He called it the "most expensive phone in the world" and said it wouldn't appeal to business customers because it didn't have a keyboard.
Talk about a cold take.
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On the flip side, people literally camped out for days when the release finally happened on June 29, 2007. It took only 74 days for Apple to sell its millionth unit. For comparison, it took the iPod nearly two years to hit that same milestone.
What Most People Get Wrong About the Launch
A lot of people think the iPhone was an instant "everything" device. It wasn't. It used the EDGE network, which was painfully slow. If you tried to load a webpage while walking down the street, you might as well have gone to grab a coffee while you waited.
It also didn't have a front-facing camera. Selfies weren't a thing yet because you’d have to turn the phone around and hope for the best.
And the camera it did have? Two megapixels. No flash. No video recording. It was basically a digital polaroid compared to what we have now. But the "pinch-to-zoom" and the inertial scrolling—where the list keeps moving after you flick it—felt like magic. That was the hook.
Impact on Other Industries
When the iPhone was introduced, it didn't just kill the BlackBerry. It started a slow execution for:
- Point-and-shoot cameras: Why carry a Nikon when your phone is right there?
- GPS units: Garmin and TomTom took a massive hit once Google Maps became a staple.
- Portable MP3 players: The iPod was Apple's darling, but the iPhone was its replacement.
Apple actually cannibalized its own best-selling product (the iPod) to make the iPhone work. That’s a gutsy move that most companies are too scared to try.
Key Facts About the 2007 iPhone Introduction
| Feature | The Original 2007 iPhone |
|---|---|
| Screen Size | 3.5 inches (Tiny by today's standards) |
| Storage | 4GB or 8GB |
| Connectivity | 2G (EDGE), Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 |
| Operating System | iPhone OS 1 (Later renamed iOS) |
| App Store | Non-existent (Launched in 2008) |
Moving Forward: Why It Still Matters
The introduction of the iPhone wasn't just about a piece of hardware. It was the moment the internet became a portable utility rather than a destination you visited on a desk.
If you want to understand the history of tech, you have to look at that January 9th date as the "Year Zero" of the modern era. Everything from the "creator economy" to the way we order pizza stems from that one presentation in San Francisco.
Actionable Next Steps
If you’re a tech enthusiast or just curious about how we got here, there are a few things you should actually do to see the impact yourself:
- Watch the original keynote: It’s on YouTube. Even 19 years later, Steve Jobs’ delivery is a masterclass in marketing. Look for the part where he prank-calls a Starbucks and orders 4,000 lattes.
- Check your screen time: Go into your settings and see how much that 2007 invention now dominates your day. It’s a sobering look at how "revolutionary" it actually became.
- Research "Project Purple": Look into the internal struggles between the Mac team and the iPod team at Apple. They basically fought a civil war to decide if the iPhone should run a version of macOS or a "super-iPod" software.
The iPhone didn't just change the phone; it changed us. Knowing when it started helps make sense of where we're going next.