2007 was an interesting time. South Africa was yet to embrace the madness that was load shedding, several (for some odd reason, probably money) popular music artists hadn’t appeared on the scene yet, dinosaurs roamed the Earth and Steve Job, who was still around, had yet to utter the words “And one more thing” in relation to a phone. All of that changed on 9 January 2007, when the first iPhone was announced.
Technically we’re looking at the tenth anniversary of the Apple iPhone, which was first announced on 9 January 2007. Little did we know that Apple’s first handset would usher in a global change to the way that cellular phones looked and operated. We also had no idea that the kinda wishy-washy (at first) iPhone would turn Apple from an already-solid company into the tech powerhouse it is today.
Since it’s the ten-year anniversary of the iPhone (a date that could also be 29 June, the day that the first handset launched, but we’re sticking with this one), we thought it would be a good idea to look back at that first announcement. The world was a very different place and massive changes were in store, everywhere. We don’t always see the full shape of what’s to come but, in hindsight, there was much more to that first Jobs-helmed keynote than anyone expected. At first, anyway.
Apple’s next challenge? Making a handset worthy of that first world-changing device for the iPhone’s tenth birthday. Everyone expects it to happen and there’s a lot of talk of radical redesigns for 2017, so Apple has a lot to live up to. They’ve set the bar and they’re going to have to clear it come September this year but in the meantime… Happy birthday, iPhone.