Apple Reinvented the Smartphone 7 Years Ago

Although smartphones seem like it was always a part of our everyday lives, we have one company to thank for reinventing the smartphone, Apple. 7 years ago on January 9, 2007, former CEO Steve Jobs took to the stage and within a hour, he changed the world. At the Moscone Center in San Francisco, Steve Jobs claimed “Today, Apple is going to change the world”. They sure did.

Even before the release of the iPhone, Apple was wildly successful with its iPod and Mac lineups. Both products redefined how technology interacted with our everyday lives but Apple choose to revolutionize another device, the mobile phone. In 2007, Apple announced the first iPhone. Jobs stated in the iPhone press release that the "iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone." It was truly magical and revolutionary.

The iPhone was also one of the first phones of its kind. It had a 3.5’’ touch display, which was huge at the time, and had only four buttons which includes the ‘home’, volume, silent, and lock buttons. Also, instead of a physical keyboard, the keyboard was displayed on the screen. The iPhone was wildly different in every way from its competitors at the time.

It was a huge gamble for Apple since they have never made a phone before. But it paid off, with Apple selling a total of 150 million iPhones by September 29, 2013, which generated over $90 billion dollars in sales.

The iPhone is still very popular with consumers and with the newly released iPhone 5S and 5C, sales of these phones have been stronger than ever. Even though the company has not been innovating as much as before, the iPhone will remain as one of the most important innovations in technology history.



Source - Apple