Steve Jobs stood on a stage in 2007 and told us he was introducing three revolutionary products. A widescreen iPod with touch controls. A revolutionary mobile phone. A breakthrough internet communications device. Then he stopped. He did it again. He did it a third time until the audience finally caught on: these weren't three separate gadgets. It was one device. We call it the first generation iPhone, but back then, it was just "The iPhone." It changed everything.
Honestly, looking at it today, the original iPhone feels like a toy. It’s tiny. It’s thick. The 3.5-inch screen looks almost microscopic compared to the slab-sized Pro Max models we carry now. But if you hold one, there is still this weird, heavy sense of quality to the aluminum back and the chrome bezel. It felt like the future because, for the first time, a phone didn't feel like a tool made by a telecom company. It felt like a computer made by artists.
The Brutal Reality of the 2007 Launch
People forget how much the first generation iPhone actually sucked at being a phone. Seriously. It was stuck on AT&T’s "Edge" network, which was basically 2G. If you tried to load a webpage while walking down the street, you had enough time to go buy a coffee before the images appeared. There was no App Store. You were stuck with what Apple gave you. Notes, Weather, Stocks, and a very basic version of Google Maps.
No GPS.
Think about that. The most revolutionary phone in history couldn't actually tell you exactly where you were on a map using a satellite. It used cell tower triangulation, which was... okay-ish. It didn't have copy and paste. It couldn't record video. You couldn't even send a picture via text message (MMS). It was a "smart" phone that lacked half the features of a $50 Nokia flip phone from the same year.
So why did it win?
It won because of the scroll. Before the first generation iPhone, if you wanted to move down a list on a screen, you tapped a button or dragged a tiny scroll bar. Apple gave us inertial scrolling. You flicked your finger, and the list kept moving, gradually slowing down with a "rubber band" bounce at the bottom. It sounds stupidly simple now, but in 2007, it was magic. It made the digital world feel like it had physical weight.
The Gorilla Glass Gamble
There is a famous story about Steve Jobs carrying a prototype iPhone in his pocket with his keys. A few weeks before the launch, he noticed the plastic screen was covered in scratches. He went ballistic. He realized that if this thing was going to be in people's pockets, it couldn't be plastic. It had to be glass.
The problem? Nobody made glass thin and strong enough for a phone.
Jobs contacted Wendell Weeks at Corning. He told him he needed a massive supply of "Gorilla Glass"—a chemically strengthened glass Corning had developed in the 60s but never found a use for—within six months. Weeks told him it was impossible. Jobs, in his classic "reality distortion field" mode, basically said, "Yes, you can do it. Get your mind around it." Corning did it. They flipped an entire factory in Kentucky to make glass for a phone that hadn't even sold a single unit yet.
What the First Generation iPhone Got Right (And Wrong)
If we’re being real, the first generation iPhone was a beta test that we all paid $599 for. Actually, it was $499 for the 4GB model and $599 for the 8GB. Two months later, Apple dropped the price by $200 because they realized they had overpriced it. They had to give $100 store credits to the early adopters who were rightfully pissed off.
But look at the hardware.
The design was iconic. That black glass front and the silver aluminum back with the black plastic "butt" at the bottom (which was actually there so the radio signals could escape the metal casing) defined an era. It was the "Project Purple" design that Jony Ive and his team spent years obsessing over. They didn't just want a phone; they wanted an object that felt like it was "all screen."
- Processor: 412 MHz Samsung-made chip. Your modern toaster probably has more processing power.
- RAM: 128 MB. Not gigabytes. Megabytes.
- Camera: 2 megapixels. No flash. No autofocus. No video. It took photos that looked like they were shot through a basement window, but at the time, seeing them on that high-resolution (for 2007) 163 ppi screen was breathtaking.
The Lack of a Keyboard Was a Scandal
You have to remember that in 2007, BlackBerry was king. Business people loved their physical buttons. When the first generation iPhone arrived with a virtual keyboard, the tech world laughed. Physical feedback was considered essential. Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer famously laughed at the iPhone, saying it would never get any significant market share because it didn't have a keyboard and cost $500 with a subsidy.
That might be the most expensive "laugh" in business history.
Apple bet that people would trade the tactile click of a button for the flexibility of a screen that could become anything. If you were watching a movie, the buttons disappeared. If you were typing, they appeared. It was a software-first approach in a hardware-obsessed world.
The Multi-Touch Revolution
The real "secret sauce" wasn't the phone or the music. It was Multi-Touch. Before the iPhone, touchscreens were "resistive." You had to press down hard, usually with a stylus, to get the screen to register a click. The iPhone used "capacitive" touch. It used the electrical conductivity of your skin.
This allowed for gestures. Pinch-to-zoom is the big one.
I remember seeing someone do this for the first time on an original iPhone. They opened a photo and just... pinched their fingers together to shrink it. The room went silent. It was a "Star Trek" moment. We take it for granted now, but that single gesture replaced a decade of "Zoom In" and "Zoom Out" buttons. It made the interface invisible.
Why Collectors are Obsessed with "OG" iPhones
If you have a first generation iPhone sitting in a drawer, don't throw it away. Especially if it's still in the box.
In recent years, factory-sealed original iPhones have been selling at auction for insane amounts. In 2023, a factory-sealed 4GB model—which is rarer than the 8GB because it was discontinued so quickly—sold for over $190,000. Even a used one in good condition can fetch a few hundred dollars from enthusiasts who want to "jailbreak" them or just keep a piece of tech history on their desk.
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There’s a nostalgia for the "skeuomorphic" design of the software, too. That’s the fancy word for making digital things look like real-world objects. The Notes app looked like a yellow legal pad. The Newsstand looked like a wood grain shelf. It was cozy. It was approachable. It was the training wheels we needed to learn how to use a computer that lived in our pockets.
Impact on the Industry
The first generation iPhone didn't just kill the BlackBerry. It killed the point-and-shoot camera. It killed the portable GPS unit. It eventually killed the iPod, which is ironic considering it was built on the iPod’s success.
It also changed how we pay for things. Before 2007, you bought a phone for $50 or $100 with a two-year contract. Apple forced carriers to change their entire business model. They demanded a slice of the monthly service fee—something no manufacturer had ever done. They also insisted on controlling the software updates. On a Motorola or a Samsung in 2007, you had to wait for Verizon or Sprint to "approve" an update, which usually never happened. Apple said, "No. We own the software. We'll update it when we want."
That shift in power from the carriers to the manufacturers is the reason your phone isn't loaded with "bloatware" from your cell provider today (well, mostly).
Actionable Insights: What to Do With This History
Whether you're a tech enthusiast or just someone who uses a phone, there are a few things to take away from the legacy of the first generation iPhone.
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- Check your drawers: If you find an original iPhone, do not try to "restore" it or wipe the software if you plan on selling it to a collector. The original software version (iPhone OS 1.0) is actually worth more to some people than the hardware itself.
- Understand the "v0" philosophy: The iPhone 1 is proof that a product doesn't have to be perfect to be revolutionary. It lacked 3G, copy-paste, and an App Store. If you are building a project or a business, remember that "shipping" is more important than "feature-complete."
- Appreciate the build: If you ever get a chance to hold an original iPhone, notice the weight. It was 4.8 ounces. It feels denser than modern phones because of the materials used. It reminds us that tactile feel matters as much as specs.
- Preserve the battery: If you are keeping one as a memento, try to charge it to about 50% and turn it off completely. Leaving a lithium-ion battery at 0% for years is a surefire way to make the battery swell and destroy the screen from the inside out.
The first generation iPhone wasn't the first smartphone. It wasn't even the first touchscreen phone (the LG Prada beat it to market by a few weeks). But it was the first phone that understood that software is the most important part of hardware. It stopped being a phone and became a window. We’ve been staring through that window ever since.