Today is the 10th anniversary of the iPhone. That got us thinking about what cell phones we were using 10 years ago today. All three editors of Apple World Today offer their thoughts and memories of the iPhone announcement on January 9, 2007.
Marty:
On January 9, 2007 I was actually carrying two phones. One was a Nokia candy bar phone with our regional carrier for voice and the other was a Palm Treo 650 for data since our local carrier had no smart phones. I not only have fond memories of the Treo, but I still have the Treo, as well as the Nokia. The Treo had no Wi-Fi and all connectivity was via cellular. It had a 1GB memory card, extruding antenna, physical keyboard, 0.3 megapixel camera and was probably about 3x as thick as today’s iPhone. It ran the Palm OS which was very responsive and stable.
I didn’t get excited the day the iPhone was announced. I was aware of it since I’ve always followed tech closely. But I had not been using Apple products before so I didn’t plan on purchasing it.
What phone would I have today if the iPhone did not exist? I would probably have an Android. After the Treo I went to a Blackberry, a Windows 6 phone, Android and finally the iPhone. My first iPhone was the 4s but I did return it after a couple of days. But, on the day they announced the iPhone 5s would be 64-bit, I bought it as quickly as possibly and have had an iPhone ever since.
January 9, 2007 changed my tech life. I would not be writing here if not for the announcement that day. It seems like yesterday but also a lifetime ago.
Steve:
Like Marty, I had a Palm Treo; in my case it was the Treo 680. That was like the 650, but without the “bump antenna”. At the time I was a happy customer of T-Mobile; that would change on June 29, 2007 when I switched over to AT&T so that I could have an iPhone.
Since I was a hardcore Apple user at the time the iPhone was announced and had been at the Macworld Expo keynote where Steve Jobs unveiled it, I was completely excited about the possibilities. I still have my first iPhone, and here it is next to that Treo 680, an iPhone 5s, and my current iPhone 7 Plus.
Previous to the Treo and iPhone I had used a number of “smart” phones that ran the original Microsoft PocketPC 2002 operating system and its successors up to Windows Mobile 6, but always found them frustratingly annoying to use.
Will I ever stop using an iPhone? That depends on what Apple does in the future. If the iPhone platform continues to evolve the way that it has, I’ll probably buy one every year (I’m on the iPhone Upgrade Program now). It would take a revolutionary change as big as the move from Treo to iPhone to make me consider dropping the iPhone.
Dennis:
To be honest, I can’t remember what cell phone I had prior to the iPhone. I guess that’s how un-impressive it was.
However, I didn’t purchase an iPhone until February 2011 when it was available to Verizon customers. After Steve Jobs unveiled Apple’s smartphone, I wanted one — very badly — but the AT&T cell service in my neck of the woods at that time was terrible, so there didn’t seem much point in paying for an expensive tphone that I couldn’t use to make calls at my home/home business.
Once the iPhone came to Verizon, I scooped one up (an iPhone 4) and have never looked back. I don’t foresee myself using anything different (which sorta makes sense, as I work at a site called APPLE World Today).
