8 years ago today, Steve Jobs introduced Apple's iPhone

January 11, 2015

8 years ago today Steve Jobs put sneaker to Macworld stage in what was arguably the greatest keynote in his and Apple's history of great keynotes. Following the industry-changing Mac and the iPod, Jobs claimed Apple was going to introduce 3 more revolutionary products — a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and revolutionary phone, and a breakthrough internet communicator. He asked if we got it. We did. We got the hell out of it. Not 3 products but 1. The iPhone.

Instantly everything that came before was rendered obsolete. Google pivoted on a dime and went from targeting Android at BlackBerry and Windows Mobile to targeting Apple. Palm rebooted with webOS and the Pre. BlackBerry tried to make a go of the Storm. Microsoft started over with Windows Phone 7, and then again with Windows Phone 8. BlackBerry 10 launched. Dozens and dozens of imitations hit the market, yet the entire industry was also reborn.

8 years ago screens were mostly square, keyboards were mostly hardware, web browsers were mostly unusable, the most basic of apps were $30 and crashed — a lot. Simply getting email to work on mobile was considered magic. Now we have computers in our pockets far more powerful than the ones on our laps and desks were back then.

Steve Jobs is no longer with us, but his 2007 keynote will live on forever. Here it is again. Watch it, and let me know — what phone were you using back then, and what did you think of the iPhone when you got it?