On January 9, 2024, 17 years have already passed since the first presentation of the iPhone. When Apple’s first phone went on sale, it was a significantly simpler device than today’s smartphones.
Steve Jobs introduced Apple’s first phone in January 2007. Jobs, who died in 2011, was one of Apple’s founders and the company’s CEO.
Standing on the stage before the big reveal, Jobs said he would introduce three new products; with a touch-screen iPod widescreen and a revolutionary mobile phone – taking a long pause at this point for applause – and a ground-breaking internet communicator.
– Ipod. The phone. Internet communicator, he underlined.
Jobs repeated his words again, causing the audience to burst into applause again.
– Do you understand already, Jobs asked the audience.
– These are not three separate devices. There is only one device and we call it iPhone.
There had already been plenty of rumors about Apple’s phone, and the premiere of the iPhone was not really a surprise.
That wasn’t even its name, because Apple had already registered the iPhone trademark in 2002, and the name of the device had already been widely used in the media before the announcement.
The story continues below the picture.
The first iPhone caught the attention of the public at the Macworld event in 2007. All Over Press
The original iPhone went on sale in the United States in the summer of 2007. The original phone was never officially sold in Finland, but the first iPhone to go on sale in Finland was the iPhone 3G, which came to stores in the summer of 2008.
Watch below how Apple introduced its first iPhone. The story continues below the video.
These functions were missing from the iPhone in 2007
The first iPhone – or other early smartphones – didn’t have nearly as many functions as today’s devices.
They lacked many features that we take for granted today.
Macrumors compiled a list of 10 features that were missing from the iPhone when it went on sale.
Copy and paste – When the iPhone went on sale, the user could not copy or paste text. The function was only added in 2009.
Front camera – The first iPhones only had a camera on the back of the device. The so-called selfie camera only came to the iPhone 4 in 2010.
App Store – Apple’s application store was only opened in the summer of 2008. Before that, the user had to be satisfied with the applications that came with the phone.
Video recording – Even though you could take photos with the first iPhone, you couldn’t shoot video with it. The function was only added to the 3GS model introduced in 2009.
Flashlight – The phone did not have a flash that could have been used as a substitute for a flashlight. When the App Store opened, “flashlight applications” became available, which displayed a white image on the screen at full brightness.
Picture messages – On the first iPhone, you couldn’t send photos as multimedia messages. The feature only came in the operating system version introduced in 2009, but even then it was limited to the 3G and 3GS models.
GPS – The first iPhone had Google Maps pre-installed, but it was not used as a navigator. GPS was only added to the iPhone 3G in 2008.
Home screen wallpaper – iPhone users have only been able to change the wallpaper displayed behind applications on the phone’s home screen since 2010. Before this, you could only change the background image of the lock screen.
Retina display – High-resolution screens became commonplace in the iPhone world only with the iPhone 4, which was introduced in 2010. The screen known as Retina marketing was at the time the most accurate screen ever seen in a mobile phone.
3G – The first iPhone had no 3G connection at all, but relied on the EDGE network, which was a slightly faster version of GPRS.
Source: Macrumors