To understand the magnitude of first iPhone, we must look at the smartphone landscape around the time of its release. If we simply compare the original iPhone to other smartphones from that, it quickly becomes evident how groundbreaking Apple’s concept was.
Looking at pictures of the original iPhone, I’m astounded by how different and courageous the thinking behind it must have been.
The first iPhone, released in 2007, marked a new era for cellphones. This device changed how we use personal technology, and its impact is felt across the tech industry to this day. It leapt ahead of its time and created a standard that other manufacturers could only dream of at the time.
To understand the magnitude of first iPhone, we must look at the smartphone landscape around the time of its release. If we simply compare the original iPhone to other smartphones from that, it quickly becomes evident how groundbreaking Apple’s concept was. Unfortunately, these days Apple’s vision for the iPhone is nowhere near as bold, but that is a story for another day.
i against the world
The first iPhone wasn’t just a step forward; it was a quantum leap, that much needs to be clear. It transformed smartphones from clunky, unwieldy, and perplexing gadgets to sleek, intuitive, and powerful companions. Before the iPhone, smartphones were primarily tools for business professionals, complete with physical keyboards, complicated menus systems, and tiny resistive screens, at best. They were more about function than form, and their user interfaces were a nightmare for anyone who wasn’t a true tech enthusiast.
Consider the 2006 HTC TyTN, a popular smartphone released just a year before the iPhone. The TyTN was a large smartphone featuring a slide-out QWERTY keyboard and a resistive touchscreen that required a stylus to be used with any precision. Windows Mobile, the platform it operated on, looked like a simplified desktop OS rather than something conceived as a mobile-first platform.
Original iPhone and HTC TyTN – these products must have come from two different planets. Navigating through the menus was basically a chore, and the overall experience was very far from the fluid nature of today’s mobile OS’s.
