Reporting by XinZhiyuan
Edited by: David, Time
15 years ago, the first generation of iPhones turned out to be a complete subversion of people's impressions of mobile phones, and Apple "reinvented mobile phones". Looking back at the 2007 conference today, there is still a sense of surprise like watching a science fiction movie, just like the audience on stage.
This year, the iPhone is 15 years old!
Whether you are a fruit fan or not, whether you are using an iPhone or not, you are certainly no stranger to the epoch-making significance of the iPhone.
Before the birth of the iPhone, mobile phones were generally like this:
The physical keyboard basically occupies half of the space, the screen space is limited, and generally only the display function.
At that time, using mobile phones to access the Internet was still a luxury choice for a few people, most of the mobile phone traffic was also billed in KB, in addition to the mobile phone, the main communication method was text messaging, and the Internet mainly relied on computers.
For listening to music, people will most likely use an mp3 player alone.
To put it simply, the three functions of listening to songs, making calls, and surfing the Internet require three independent devices.
What did Jobs and Apple do?
At Apple's unprecedented product launch in 2007, Jobs said that he would release 3 new products at once, obviously to solve the above 3 problems.
The first is the iPod with touch function
The second is a revolutionary mobile phone
The third is a breakthrough Internet communication tool
After these 3 icons turned twice, the audience finally realized that the products that subverted the entire mobile phone industry were coming.
"Got it?" There are no 3 devices, only one device!"
That's right, the original iPhone looked like this!
(Jobs said that Pi was really happy.) ）
Since then, the mobile phone has completely changed its appearance, the large-area touch screen on the front has almost become the standard, the mobile phone with the small screen and the physical keyboard has declined rapidly, the "music mobile phone" can rarely become an independent selling point, and the convenient Internet access has become a necessary function of the mobile phone.
One product, disrupting the entire industry.
Jobs said: "The iPhone is a revolutionary, magical product, it is five years ahead of any other phone."
To this day, in the comment section of the Youtube Apple conference video, there are still people who recall the surprise and shock when they saw the original iPhone.
Even Apple itself will have a hard time making such a disruptive innovation on the iPhone itself. Some netizens said that watching the conference of the iPhone generation now feels like a mobile phone in popular science now.
Apple's 15 years: The iPhone has exceeded 1 billion and its market capitalization has exceeded $3 trillion
Since 2007, Apple has led the way in phone design, setting the bar for what smartphones must-have and inspiring other manufacturers to follow in its footsteps. Features like Touch ID, Face ID, sleek design, and incredible camera technology keep Apple competitive.
Apple said in January 2021 that the number of active iPhones worldwide exceeded 1 billion, a staggering number.
Not long ago, Apple became the world's first company with a market value of more than $3 trillion.
Now, the iPhone 14 is about to be released, which may bring some exciting updates, it may be the first iPhone with a bangs-free design, and Apple will feature a perforated display that offers more screen real estate available.
In addition, Apple is also exploring the future beyond the iPhone, preparing for the day when smartphones may be obsolete.
It is reported that Apple's first AR/VR headset will be released in 2022, although it is bulky, expensive, and focused on the VR experience, but we can expect Apple to iterate and improve on the headset until some headset becomes an indispensable product.
Jobs: To live is to change the world
Jobs was a revolutionary entrepreneur who spent his life in pursuit of the ultimate product. He revolutionized six industries: personal computers, animated films, music stores, mobile phones, tablets, and digital publishing. He only lived to be 56 years old because of pancreatic cancer, but his life was brilliant, and now Apple is the world's first trillion-dollar company.
Jobs's life is legendary: he was an abandoned child, adopted, his biological parents asked his adoptive parents to provide him with college, and he himself dropped out of Reed College; he was the founder of Apple, but he was expelled from the company board and fired from the company he founded; he successfully founded Next Animation Factory, but was bought by Apple, bringing him back to Apple.
His personality is full of contradictions: passionate and indifferent, sensitive and persistent, irritable and detached, perfect and minimalist, honest and cruel, restrained and indulgent. He has a reality-distorting force field, where reality is malleable when he is present, and he can convince anyone of anything he says. He meditated ascetically, valued intuition, believed that scarcity was abundance, and self-discipline produced joy.
Jobs was a model of the combination of science and art. He knows that the best way to create value in the 21st century is to combine creativity with technology, designers lead engineers, and design is his way to success.
Jobs's passion was to build a legacy business that was driven by products, not profits. Honesty is the corporate culture he is trying to create, and empathy, focus and indoctrination are his marketing philosophy. As Apple's 1997 "Extraordinary" ad declared: Only people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world can really change the world.
And he is the one who changed the world.
Happy 15th Birthday iPhone!
Resources:
https://9to5mac.com/2022/01/09/steve-jobs-original-iphone-announcement-15-years/
https://www.macrumors.com/2022/01/09/original-iphone-introduction-15-year-anniversary/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VQKMoT-6XSg
https://www.cnet.com/tech/mobile/the-iphone-at-15-steve-jobs-revealed-his-great-product-15-years-ago/