SHALOM OLALEYE
Today marks 16 years since Apple CEO, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the world for the first time.
He stood on stage at the Macworld Expo in San Franciso, California, on January 9, 2007 and gave the world its first look at the iphone, a device that would go on to change everything.
Jobs described the iPhone as three revolutionary products in one, an iPod with touch controls, a phone, and a breakthrough internet communications device.
“Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone,” he said.
The device, which didn’t go on sale until June, started at $499 for a 4GB model, $599 for the 8GB version with a two-year contract and offered a 3.5-in. screen, a 2-megapixel camera and won plaudits for the then, new multitouch features. Critics, however, said the phone was too expensive to do well in the market.
Smartphones at the time relied on limited display area, hardware-based keyboards, and styluses for screen interaction, but the iPhone stood apart because it a limited number of physical buttons and instead relied on a multi-touch display, which was more intimate and interactive.