Today Marks 16 Years Since Steve Jobs Unveiled the First iPhone - PEOPLE

Happy anniversary, iPhone.

Monday marks 16 years since precocious Apple co-founder Steve Jobs unveiled the tiny touchscreen gadget to the nationalist for the archetypal time.

The uncover occurred during a presumption astatine the Macworld Expo successful San Francisco, with Jobs teasing a "revolutionary product" that would alteration "everything."

"Today we're introducing 3 revolutionary products," Jobs told the crowd connected Jan. 9, 2007. "The archetypal 1 is simply a widescreen iPod with interaction controls. The 2nd is simply a revolutionary mobile phone. And the 3rd is simply a breakthrough net communications device."

"So, 3 things. A widescreen iPod with interaction controls. A revolutionary mobile telephone and a breakthrough net communications device. An iPod. A phone. An net communicator. An iPod, a phone... are you getting it?" helium continued portion drafting laughs from the audience.

"These are not 3 abstracted devices," helium yet revealed. "This is 1 device. And we are calling it iPhone."

Before showing its design, Jobs threw his ire astatine the carnal keyboards that were fashionable successful astir mobile phones of the time.

"[Keyboards] are determination whether you request them oregon not to beryllium there," Jobs said.

"What we're going to bash is get escaped of each these buttons, and conscionable marque a elephantine screen," helium continued, earlier showing the iPhone's plan to the cheering audience.

The presumption tin beryllium watched here.

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Since then, the iPhone has proven to beryllium 1 of the astir influential devices since idiosyncratic computers began making their mode into homes during the precocious 1970s and 1980s.

More than a cardinal first-generation iPhones were sold by September 2007, conscionable 3 months aft its release. The archetypal iPhone sold much than 6 cardinal units earlier its successor, the iPhone 3G, was released a twelvemonth aboriginal successful 2008, per Ars Technica.

The iPhone's touchscreen plan became the instauration for galore rival phones that followed, and phone-makers that marketed themselves for their keyboard functionality — namely, Blackberry — person gone the mode of Blockbuster.

The instrumentality has besides go a mainstay successful fashionable civilization and has turned into a status symbol of sorts, which is simply a long mode since Carrie Bradshaw gave backmost an iPhone successful an occurrence of Sex and the City erstwhile she couldn't fig retired however to usage it.

(However, Carrie uses a 2016 iPhone 7 and a 2018 BlackBerry Key2 successful the 2021 Sex and the City follow-up, And Just Like That.)

iPhones person remained truthful fashionable since their inception that a factory-sealed variation of the archetypal was auctioned disconnected for $39,000 successful October 2022, per CNBC.

Jobs' imaginativeness of having 1 "giant screen" was yet realized with 2017's iPhone X, which removed the bottommost location fastener that had been contiguous successful each iPhone since the original.

In September, Apple released its latest version, the iPhone 14.

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In the 16 years since the debut of the archetypal iPhone, Apple brought akin exertion to different devices, specified arsenic its iPad and Apple Watch lines.

Jobs — who co-founded Apple with person Steve Wozniak connected April 1, 1976 — died of pancreatic crab connected Oct. 5, 2011, at property 56.

He resigned arsenic Apple's main enforcement successful August of 2011, handing the reins to Tim Cook, who is present 62.