Today Marks the 13th Anniversary of When Steve Jobs Unveiled the Original iPhone

13 years ago today, then Apple CEO Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld in San Francisco and surprised the world with the very first iPhone.

Jobs introduced the iPhone as if it were three separate products: an iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communications device. Today, the iPhone is still all of those things, but also so much more.


Apple has sold well over a billion iPhones since 2007, and as of last January, the company's active installed base had hit 1.4 billion devices. Though iPhone sales were down last year, the iPhone continues to be Apple's single most successful product.

original iphone
Apple has steadily improved the iPhone over the years, refining the design over and over again, updating the camera, and adding new biometric features, and all of these changes have made the iPhone even more indispensable in our daily lives. Improvements over the years:

  • 2008: App Store and 3G network support
  • 2009: Personal Hotspot and video recording capabilities
  • 2010: New form factor and Retina display
  • 2011: Siri and iCloud
  • 2012: 4-inch display, Lightning connector, and LTE
  • 2013: Touch ID fingerprint sensor
  • 2014: 4.7-inch and 5.5-inch displays
  • 2015: 3D Touch, Live Photos, and 4K video recording
  • 2016: Waterproofing, dual-lens camera for iPhone 7 Plus, no headphone jack
  • 2017: No Home button, 5.8-inch OLED full screen display, wireless charging, fast charging, Face ID
  • 2018: 5.8 and 6.5-inch OLED screen sizes, three iPhone lineup
  • 2019: Night mode, triple-lens cameras

Rumors suggest the iPhone is going to see a major overhaul in 2020, with Apple set to debut 5G connectivity, a revamped iPhone 4-style frame design, 5.4, 6.1, and 6.7-inch iPhone sizes, and a time-of-flight laser-based camera system for better depth calculations and AR capabilities.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Launching Later This Year With These 10 New Features

Sunday March 23, 2025 10:00 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are not expected to launch until September, there are already plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of March 2025: Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone ...
macbook pro blue green

When Will Apple Release the M5 MacBook Pro?

Wednesday March 26, 2025 4:53 pm PDT by
Apple regularly refreshes the MacBook Pro models, and a new version that uses M5 series chips is in the works. Apple just finished refreshing most of the Mac lineup with M4 chips, and now it's time for the M5. Rumors suggest that we could see the first M5 MacBook Pro models this fall. Design There have been no rumors of a design update for the M5 MacBook Pro models that are coming this...
Apple Lumon Terminal Pro

Apple's Mac Site Features Fictional 'Lumon Terminal Pro'

Wednesday March 26, 2025 12:19 pm PDT by
Apple is going all out with promotions for the popular Severance Apple TV+ show today, and as of right now, you'll find a new "Lumon Terminal Pro" listed on Apple's Mac site. The Lumon Terminal Pro is designed to look similar to the machines that Severance employees like Mark S. and Helly R. use for macrodata refinement. The Terminal features a blue keyboard, a small display with wide...
Facebook Feature

Facebook's New iPhone App Feature Turns the Clock Back to 2007

Thursday March 27, 2025 1:59 pm PDT by
In the mid-to-late 2000s, Facebook was all about staying connected with friends and family. However, as the social media platform added new features and grew over time, that core experience began to get drowned out. That changes starting now, according to Meta, which today introduced a new feature that will "bring back the joy" of classic Facebook. Specifically, Meta has redesigned the...
Generic iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Coming Soon With These New Features for Your iPhone

Tuesday March 25, 2025 6:45 am PDT by
Apple is expected to release iOS 18.4 to the general public as soon as next week, following more than a month of beta testing. Apple's website says some iOS 18.4 features will be released in "early April," so the update should be out as early as Tuesday, April 1. Apple this week seeded the iOS 18.4 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, barring the discovery of any...
iPhone 17 Pro 34ths Perspective

iPhone 17 Pro Supports 8K Video Recording, Suggests Leaker [Updated]

Wednesday March 26, 2025 4:06 am PDT by
Update 7:25 pm: Based on comments from our forums, it appears the original Weibo post may have been mistranslated and "8K" actually refers to the high price of the device rather than 8K video recording capabilities. The iPhone 16 Pro currently starts at 7,999 yuan in China. Our original article follows below. Apple's forthcoming iPhone 17 Pro models are capable of shooting 8K video, up...
iOS 18

iOS 18.4 Expected Next Week - Here Are the Release Notes

Friday March 28, 2025 2:01 pm PDT by
With the second release candidate of iOS 18.4 that Apple seeded out today, the company finally provided us with release notes that give a full rundown on what to expect. There's an Apple Vision Pro app, new Apple Intelligence features for notifications and additional language support, plus an Apple News Food feature for Apple News+ subscribers, and several updates that should improve the...
iOS 18 4 Ambient Music Control Center

How to Use iOS 18.4's New Ambient Music Feature in Control Center

Thursday March 27, 2025 7:45 am PDT by
The upcoming iOS 18.4 update for the iPhone adds an Ambient Music feature to Control Center. Below, we take a closer look at how it works. iOS 18.4 is currently in beta, so the Ambient Music feature is not widely available yet. The update will likely be released to the general public next week. To use the feature on iOS 18.4, open Control Center and tap on the plus sign in the top-left...
Foldable iPhone 2023 Feature 1

'iPhone Fold' to Feature Metallic Glass Hinge That Resists Deformation

Thursday March 27, 2025 4:21 am PDT by
Last week, we covered a report claiming that Apple's book-style foldable iPhone (or "iPhone Fold," as we are provisionally calling it here) will use liquid metal hinges to improve durability and help minimize screen creasing. Today, a Chinese leaker provided more details on the properties of this hinge material that help to clarify why Apple chose it for its first foldable device. According...

Top Rated Comments

Duane Martin Avatar
68 months ago

I played with one of the first gen iPhones when it came out. While it was unique, it was also painfully slow and had a tiny low res screen. It was obvious Apple would sell millions of them, but I didn't want one.
Painfully slow? Tiny low res screen? Compared to what?

The original iPhone was not released in Canada but that did not stop a number of my friends from acquiring one. I will never forget four of us crowding around the devise, just wanting to play with it; we were all blown away. The owner then reminded us this was version 1.0 and try to imagine what it would be like going into the future. The world has changed because of the iPhone.
Score: 25 Votes (Like | Disagree)
ActionableMango Avatar
68 months ago
Notable quotes from 2007:

"There’s no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share. No chance."
-Steve Ballmer, Microsoft

“It’s kind of one more entrant into an already very busy space with lots of choice for consumers. But in terms of a sort of a sea-change for BlackBerry, I would think that’s overstating it.”
-Jim Balsillie, BlackBerry

“The development of mobile phones will be similar in PCs. Even with the Mac, Apple has attracted much attention at first, but they have still remained a niche manufacturer. That will be in mobile phones as well,”
-Anssi Vanjoki, Nokia

"We've learned and struggled for a few years here figuring out how to make a decent phone. PC guys are not going to just figure this out. They're not going to just walk in."
-Ed Colligan, Palm

"There is no likelihood that Apple can be successful in a business this competitive.”
“What Apple risks here is its reputation as a hot company that can do no wrong.”
“If it's smart it will call the iPhone a ‘reference design’ and pass it to some suckers to build with someone else's marketing budget. Then it can wash its hands of any marketplace failures.”

- John C. Dvorak, in his column Apple should pull the plug on the iPhone

"I'm never going to pay $500 for a phone."
- Me, owner of an iPhone 3G, 4, 5S, 6S, and 8
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
iapplelove Avatar
68 months ago
I swear Steve Jobs was the reason why I loved Apple so much back in the day.

Keynotes haven’t been the same since.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
MisterSavage Avatar
68 months ago
I vividly remember watching this keynote and being amazed. At the time I had a clamshell phone with a tiny screen.
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Nozuka Avatar
68 months ago
Interesting how the home screen basically stayed the same. Not sure what to think about that.

But i guess it works...
Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)
adamjackson Avatar
68 months ago
Here are a few photos I took that day:


Funny that same day they released Gen-1 AirPods:
https://appleinsider.com/articles/07/07/30/review_apple_iphone_bluetooth_headset


Taken the next day...it was a weird age of iPod accessories back then:
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)