The iPhone is now 9 years old, and it has proven naysayers wrong

9 years ago in 2007, Steve Jobs went on stage at MacWorld to introduce the iPhone. The device that aims to reinvent the phone with its 3 in 1 proposition – an iPod, a phone and an Internet communications device. At the same time, Apple had also dropped the word “Computer” from its company name, to better reflect its growing product portfolio that goes beyond Macs.

The move of getting into the phone business was timely. Close to a billion mobile phones was sold in 2006 worldwide. That’s about 5X more than PCs, over 7X the number of MP3 players and 10X more than digital cameras at that time. Steve Jobs was targeting just 1% market share with a goal of selling 10 million iPhones for 2008.

The iPhone was revolutionary back then with its full touch-screen capacitive display with its multi-touch technology. Browsing the web was smooth and there were no cluttered keys or buttons that get in the way. Steve Jobs even mocked the use of a stylus as the iPhone was intuitive enough to be used with your bare fingers. Compared to today’s iPhones, the original model was very barebones. At a time when smartphone makers are moving towards 3G, the iPhone was only a 2G device supporting up to EDGE. There was no AppStore, meaning you’re stuck with its native apps, and the common copy and paste feature was only introduced with iOS 3.0, 2 years later.

At the time, many had doubts on the iPhone. The base 4GB model was priced from US$499 (RM1,746 at that time) on a 2-year contract. If you want more storage, the 8GB version was going for US$599 (about RM2096), also on contract. Even Steve Ballmer of Microsoft had a laugh about it and this was a time when Windows Mobile and Nokia Symbian phones reign supreme.

When it was eventually released in 2008, Apple sold over 10 million phones, surpassing its original goal and the rest is history. For Malaysia, the first iPhone to reach here officially was the iPhone 3G via Maxis. It was priced at RM2,540 for 8GB and RM2,960 for 16GB models.

Until this very day, the iPhone is still considered as the de facto benchmark for the smartphone industry. It changed the way we interact with touch-screen devices and how we consume content and services on a mobile device. However, after Steve Job’s departure, it seems that Apple hasn’t been innovating as much as before, with the competition offering compelling choices at a much competitive price point.

For Steve Baller, he regretted not moving into the hardware business earlier, which saw themselves overtaken by Apple and Samsung.

Did you own the original model? Let us know what was your most memorable moment from your first iPhone.

[ SOURCE 2 ]