You probably think you know the answer. June 29, 2007. That’s the day the first iPhone went on sale, right? People camped out. Lines wrapped around glass cubes in Manhattan. It was a whole thing. But if you’re asking when were iPhones invented, the calendar doesn’t just start at a keynote speech in San Francisco.
Steve Jobs didn't just wake up one morning in late 2006 and decide to kill the BlackBerry.
The real birth of the iPhone happened years earlier, buried in secret labs and failed experiments. It wasn't a phone at first. It was a tablet.
The Purple Project and the phone that wasn't
Back in 2004, Apple was riding high on the iPod. But Jobs was paranoid. He saw mobile phones adding music players and realized that if a phone could play MP3s, nobody would carry a separate iPod. This realization kicked off what became known as "Project Purple."
It was a nightmare to develop.
Apple actually tried to partner with Motorola first. Remember the ROKR? Probably not, because it was terrible. It could only hold 100 songs, and the interface was basically a regular phone with a "Music" button slapped on it. Jobs hated it. That failure was the spark. He realized Apple had to build the whole thing—hardware, software, everything—from scratch.
About 1,000 employees were sucked into Project Purple. It was so secret that the people working on the hardware weren't allowed to see the software, and the software guys weren't allowed to see the hardware. They worked in a building where you had to badge in multiple times just to get to your desk. Some engineers stayed for days, sleeping on the floor.
What most people get wrong about the multi-touch screen
We take it for granted now. You pinch to zoom. You swipe to scroll. In 2005, that was science fiction.
The technology for the iPhone's screen actually started as a tablet project. Jobs wanted a way to type on a glass display without a physical keyboard. When he saw a prototype of the multi-touch technology—originally developed by a company called FingerWorks, which Apple quietly bought—he had a "eureka" moment. He told his team to put the tablet on hold and figure out how to put that interface on a phone.
So, technically, the iPhone was "invented" as a concept between 2003 and 2005. The formal announcement didn't happen until January 9, 2007, at Macworld.
Jobs stood on that stage and told everyone he was introducing three products: a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet communications device. Then he did the reveal. It wasn't three devices. It was one.
The crowd lost their minds.
The 2007 reality check
The first iPhone was actually kinda bad by today’s standards. Honestly.
It didn't have 3G. It ran on AT&T’s "Edge" network, which was painfully slow. You couldn't even record video. There was no App Store. You were stuck with the apps Apple gave you, like Stocks and Weather. If you wanted a third-party app, you had to use Safari and a "web app," which basically meant a mobile-optimized website.
Hackers hated this. This is why "jailbreaking" became so popular immediately. People wanted to make the phone do more than Apple allowed.
How the invention timeline shifted over the years
After the 2007 launch, the "invention" of the iPhone didn't stop. It evolved in bursts.
- 2008: The iPhone 3G. This added GPS and, more importantly, the App Store. That changed the world. Suddenly, your phone wasn't just a phone; it was a flashlight, a game console, and a bank.
- 2010: The iPhone 4. This brought the Retina display and the "Antennagate" controversy. It was also the first time we saw a front-facing camera for FaceTime.
- 2013: The iPhone 5s. Touch ID arrived. Biometrics went mainstream.
- 2017: The iPhone X. They killed the home button and gave us Face ID.
Every few years, the iPhone is essentially re-invented. The hardware we use today bears almost no resemblance to the original "2G" model, which was thick, silver, and had a tiny 3.5-inch screen.
Why the exact date matters for patent law
If you want to be pedantic about when were iPhones invented, you have to look at the patents.
💡 You might also like: Go To Apps On My Phone: What Really Matters in 2026
Apple filed for the "ornamental design" of the iPhone (Patent D593,087) years before it hit shelves. In the massive legal wars between Apple and Samsung that lasted for nearly a decade, these dates were everything. Apple had to prove they owned the idea of a "rectangular device with rounded corners" and a grid of colorful icons.
The courts eventually agreed that Apple’s invention was a transformative moment in technology. It wasn't just a new phone; it was a new way for humans to interact with machines.
The social impact nobody saw coming
When the iPhone was being invented, the engineers thought they were making a better iPod. They didn't realize they were killing the map industry, the point-and-shoot camera industry, and the alarm clock industry.
They also didn't realize they were fundamentally changing human psychology.
Before 2007, if you were bored at a bus stop, you just... were bored. You looked at the trees. After the iPhone, "boredom" died. We all became permanently tethered to a stream of information. Whether that’s good or bad is still being debated by sociologists, but the invention of the iPhone is the clear "Patient Zero" for the smartphone era.
Fact-checking the milestones
- December 2004: The project officially gets the green light from Steve Jobs.
- January 2007: The first public demo.
- June 29, 2007: The US release date.
- July 2008: The App Store opens, turning the phone into a platform.
- 2012: Apple ditches Google Maps for its own (very buggy) Maps app, showing their desire for total control.
Putting it all in perspective
So, if someone asks you when were iPhones invented, tell them 2007 for the release, but 2004 for the actual work. It took two and a half years of grueling, secret development to make something that looked "simple."
✨ Don't miss: Samsung 4K Smart TV 65: What Most People Get Wrong Before Buying
The genius wasn't just in the hardware. It was in the OS. Apple took a desktop-class operating system (OS X) and shrunk it down. Nobody else was doing that. Windows Mobile was a clunky version of Windows with tiny menus. BlackBerry was just a glorified pager. Apple made a computer that fit in your pocket and actually worked.
Actionable steps for the curious
If you want to see the evolution of this invention for yourself, there are a few things you can do.
First, check out the "Every iPhone" comparison videos on YouTube. Seeing the original iPhone next to an iPhone 15 or 16 is jarring. The old ones look like toys.
Second, if you still have an old iPhone 3G or 4 in a drawer, try to turn it on. Most of them won't even connect to the internet anymore because the security protocols are too old. It’s a great lesson in "planned obsolescence" and how fast tech moves.
Third, read The One Device by Brian Merchant. It’s the most thorough account of the "Purple Project" and features interviews with the actual engineers who spent their lives in that secret lab. It debunks the myth that Steve Jobs did it all himself.
The iPhone wasn't just a moment in 2007. It was a massive, expensive, and risky gamble that started years earlier and hasn't really stopped since. Every time you unlock your phone with your face or pay for groceries with a tap, you're using an invention that is still very much in progress.