iPhone Was Revealed 16 Years Ago Today: Here's The Presentation That Started It All

Today marks the 16th anniversary of Steve Jobs announcing the first iPhone. In an iconic Macworld keynote on January 9, 2007, in San Francisco, the late Apple CEO introduced the innovative smartphone that continues to thrive today. The invention of the iPhone was a defining moment in the history of smartphones and mobile devices. Let's look back at the keynote and how much the iPhone has changed since then.

"Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything," said Steve Jobs. "Today, we're introducing three revolutionary products." Jobs moved on to describe the devices. He talked about a "widescreen iPod with touch controls," a "revolutionary mobile phone," and a "breakthrough internet communications device." This led the audience to believe that Apple was releasing three different gadgets, but all of these were just one device — the iPhone.

"Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone," Jobs said as he discussed the iPhone in greater detail. He highlighted the main difference between the iPhone and the competition at the time, which included the Moto Q, the BlackBerry, the Palm Treo, and the Nokia E62— the iPhone didn't feature a physical keyboard and, as a result, had much more screen real estate.

The lack of a physical keyboard wasn't new, similar (and unsuccessful) devices had been released, but the original iPhone featured a large multi-touch screen, the first of its kind in a phone and the thing that truly changed the game (via Forbes). In the keynote, Steve Jobs touted the phone's 3.5-inch screen by saying, "It's really big." The audience cheered when Jobs teased the 2-megapixel camera at the back of the phone. It's not that impressive now, but it was a big deal at the time.

Since the initial version of the iPhone made such a splash on the mobile device market, 16 years have passed, and we're now on the 14th iteration of the iPhone. The iPhone 14 is much bigger, brighter, thinner, and faster than its first-gen counterpart, with a 6-inch screen and internals capable of running much more complex tasks than the first iPhone could have ever dreamed of. However, it's amusing that the smartphone's functionality has remained unchanged from Apple's original vision.

The iPhone 1 and the iPhone 14 support phone calls, texts, iTunes, internet access, and taking photos. Of course, more recent phones can do much more, so the similarities end there, but it's incredible to think about how much potential was unlocked with the invention of the iPhone.