The story of the iPhone, beginning with the original in 2007, which wowed the world with multitouch… and locked the U.S. to AT&T
On January 9, 2007 the late Steve Jobs put sneaker to Macworld stage to give one of the most incredible keynote presentations of his life – a life filled with incredible keynotes – and in the history of consumer electronics. There, he said he would be introducing a wide-screen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet device. But it wasn’t three products. It was one product. We got it. It was the iPhone.
After setting up and knocking down everything from the physical keyboard and stylus pens that dominated BlackBerry, Motorola, and Palm smartphones of the day, Jobs went over the multitouch interface that let the iPhone smoothly pinch-to-zoom, and the delightful interface that included touches like inertia and rubber banding in the scrolling, and the multitasking that let him move seamlessly from music to call to web to email and back. Apple:
“iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “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.”
Technology alone isn’t enough
The original iPhone, code named M68, had a 3.5-inch screen at 320×480 and 163ppi, a quad-band 2G EDGE data radio, 802.11b.g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, and a 2 megapixel camera. It was powered by an ARM-based Samsung 1176JZ(F)-S processor, with an 1400 mAh battery, and had 128MB of RAM on board, as well as 4GB or 8GB of NAND Flash storage. The iPhone could also be charged – and synced to iTunes – via the same 30-pin Dock connector as Apple’s incredibly popular iPod.
The iPhone did include several sensors to enhance the user experience, including an accelerometer that could automatically rotate the screen to match device orientation, a proximity sensor that could automatically turn off the screen when close to the face, and an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust brightness. It also had a remarkably good web browser and rendering engine, especially for its time, in Safari and WebKit.
What the original iPhone didn’t have was CDMA and EVDO rev A network compatibly. That meant it couldn’t work on two of the U.S.’ big four carriers, Verizon and Sprint. Not that it mattered; the original iPhone was exclusive to AT&T. It also lacked GPS, or support for faster 3G UTMS/HSPA data speeds. In addition to no hardware keyboard or stylus, the iPhone also didn’t have a removable, user-replaceable battery. None of that pleased existing power users of the time. Nor did the absence of features like MMS (multi-media messaging), an exposed file system, copy and paste or any form of advanced text editing, and, critically to many, support for third party apps.
The original iPhone’s price was also high. It debuted at $499 for the 4GB and $599 for the 8GB model – on-contract. Those prices weren’t unheard of at the time; early Motorola RAZR flip phones were pricey in their day as well. However, it meant Apple couldn’t penetrate the mainstream market.
Less for more
On June 6, 2007 Steve Jobs again took the stage at Moscone West, this time for Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference, again showed off the original iPhone, and announced the launch date: June 29, 2007.
At Apple Stores, especially flagship stores like the glass cube in New York City, lineups formed and people waited for hours. It was an event. The novelty and experience were so good, many people simply didn’t care about missing features or high price tags. Walt Mossberg and Katherine Boehret of The Wall Street Journal