Steve Jobs introduces the first iPhone.
(Credit:
CNET)
Steve Jobs was right when he declared the iPhone a revolutionary
product. It redefined the smartphone category and put a powerful
computer in the hands of more than a billion people around the world.
Seven years ago, on January 9, 2007, the late Apple CEO Steve Jobs
took the stage at the Moscone Center in San Francisco to introduce the
first iPhone. "Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone," Jobs
proclaimed:
This is a day I've been looking forward to for
two-and-a-half years. Every once in a while, a revolutionary product
comes along that changes everything. And Apple has been -- well, first
of all, one's very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in
your career. Apple's been very fortunate. It's been able to introduce a
few of these into the world. 1984, introduced the Macintosh. It didn't
just change Apple. It changed the whole computer industry. In 2001, we
introduced the first iPod, and it didn't just change the way we all
listen to music, it changed the entire music industry. Well, today,
we're introducing three revolutionary products of this class. The first
one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a
revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet
communications device. So, three things: a widescreen iPod with touch
controls; a revolutionary mobile phone; and a breakthrough Internet
communications device. An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator.
An iPod, a phone...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, and here it is. No, actually here it is,
but we're going to leave it there for now.
He wasn't kidding. The iPhone, like the Macintosh and
iPod
before it, redefined the category. The smartphone revolution started by
the iPhone has put a powerful computer into the hands of billions of
people around the world.
"iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone," said Jobs said in the press release.
"We are all born with the ultimate pointing device--our fingers--and
iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since
the mouse."
The iPhone didn't ship until June 29, 2007, however. On January 9,
the iPhone was still buggy and prone to crashes. Even after several days
of rehearsals, Jobs was walking a tightrope on stage, using prototype
iPhones set up with workarounds to avoid glitches and crashes.
"It's hard to overstate the gamble Jobs took when he decided to
unveil the iPhone back in January 2007. Not only was he introducing a
new kind of phone -- something Apple had never made before -- he was
doing so with a prototype that barely worked," wrote Fred Vogelstein in
his book, "Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution."
The crowd at the Apple store in San Francisco on June 29, 2007.
(Credit:
CNET)
But Jobs managed to get through the demos without embarrassment, and
Apple's engineers managed to eliminate the critical bugs over the next
several months. Nearly 1.4 million iPhones were sold in the first three
months of its existence. For its fiscal year ending September 29, 2013,
Apple sold more than 150 million iPhones worldwide and generated over
$90 billion in sales.
Despite a horde of worthy competitors and declining worldwide market
share, the iPhone still has a 40 to 50 percent share of the U.S.
smartphone market, led by the success of the
iPhone 5S. And, the
iPad,
which followed the iPhone as another breakthrough, category-redefining
product, maintains a strong market position. Whether Apple can continue
its streak of reinventing product categories remains to be seen, but
Jobs' January 9, 2007 introduction of the iPhone will remain one of the
important milestones in computing history.
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