With the new fourth generation iPhone (rumored) to be introduced at the upcoming World Wide Developer's Conference, why don't we take a trip down memory lane to the introduction of the first iPhone in 2007.
One of the first things you'll notice, as our own Brandon Miniman did when he assigned me this article, "Jobs was plump and healthy!" Beyond looking back at Steve Jobs 1.0, before the liver upgrade, it is interesting to see him jump through all the hoops of how it "reinvented" the phone. Okay, Steve, we know you love your hyperbole, but unless you also changed the way cellular data is communicated to the tower, and then transmitted to the receiver of the call, you did not "reinvent the phone." You simply changed the bells and whistles around the phone, but not the actual phone.
(I've been wanting to say that for three years … I feel much better now.)
It's funny when you think back to the first version, and while it was a nice product, only having the built-in apps didn't make it that compelling of a device. Yes, it was pretty, it did the Internet better than anything that was out on the market at the time, but it was still fairly limited when you look at that picture to the right and its sad little one screen of apps.
I will say I enjoyed Jobs actually making a little joke when he showed the first image of the phone … the rotary dial is the part that cracked me up.
Overall it felt a lot more upbeat than we see out of the Apple CEO these days. True he has been through health issues since this event, and while he still gets excited, it just isn't as hyped as he was here. He was, dare I say it, jovial? When you think of him these days, I don't think anyone would come close to using that word these days.
Even though we have a pretty good idea of what to expect from the new iPhone, you know we'll all still be tuning in to see what he says, and what little things we may not yet know.
What surprises are you hoping for from the next introduction?
If you'd like to see more of the original presentation, you can find it here on YouTube.
