iPhone turns 15: a story of revolution, campers, haters and a smartphone
It’s a milestone birthday! iPhone is 15 years old. Reason enough to talk about fans, emotions, one man’s vision and his critics.
«There's no chance that the iPhone is going to get any significant market share,» says Microsoft’s CEO Steve Ballmer back in 2007 about the device Apple’s former CEO Steve jobs unveiled shortly before. He couldn’t have been more wrong.
On 9 January 2007, Steve Jobs takes the stage at the Macworld Conference & Expo and introduces a device that’s an iPod, phone and Internet communicator all rolled into one. He calls it «iPhone» without using an article. To this day, you wouldn’t hear an Apple employee say: «How do you like the iPhone?», but «How do you like iPhone?»
Not only did the iPhone manage to get «a significant market share» in just a few years, it also revolutionised the world of smartphones and, by extension, mobile technology.
The hardware: the keys to good software
Steve Jobs comes across as pensive on the day he’d been looking forward to for two and a half years, as he says. Already a cancer sufferer at the time, he talks about the new gadget, which was still just a rumour at the time, and looks back on his life’s work: on the first Mac, the iPod and their impact on the industry.
«We are calling it iPhone,» Steve Jobs says. The next part of his sentence is drowned out by a cheering audience. The journalists present forget to type up their news and clap instead. They laugh at the bogus design study on the screen, which shows an iPod equipped with a dial plate.
But Steve Jobs addresses something that’d been on his mind. Smartphones in 2007 – when Blackberry dominated this market – weren’t any good, as far as he was concerned. «The problem is that they're not that smart. And they’re not so easy to use,» Jobs continues. His iPhone, on the other hand, was not only meant to be smart but also more user-friendly than any other phone on the market.
The user interface is the first glimpse of the iPhone the public gets to see. He calls it «revolutionary» and «an interplay of hardware and software». That’s where he says the competition of 2007 fails. «They all have these keyboards that are there, whether you need them or not,» says Steve Jobs. He goes on to say that the function buttons are static, even though each application requires a different user interface. And asks what happens if you have a great idea six months from now, seeing that the buttons can’t be changed.
Jobs’ summary: buttons are outdated. We need to get rid of them.
His solution is something he borrowed from the computer. A screen that can display anything in any form. In addition, a «pointing device» like a mouse. Jobs and his company have adapted this concept. But even a stylus instead of a mouse is out of the question for Steve Jobs. «Who wants a stylus? You have to get ‘em and put ‘em away and you lose ‘em!»
In other words: it’s your finger that will control everything on the «gigantic screen» of the iPhone – it measures 3.5 inches diagonally and has a resolution of 320×480 pixels.
The software: OS X but smaller
In terms of software, Apple looked to its big brother, the Macintosh. After all, it already has everything that a good smartphone needs. Security mechanisms, network protocols, fancy animations and so on. Apple’s desktop operating system OS X is the perfect candidate for a mobile operating system on a 32-bit processor from Samsung, which was deliberately underclocked from 620 MHz to 412 MHz so that the 1400 mAh battery lasts longer.
The first bit of software the public sees is the lock screen. It’s presented exactly 41 minutes after the presentation kicked off at 9 o’clock. This is no coincidence. Apple schedules keynotes so that the big scoop is addressed «about 40 minutes» after it begins.
First up, Steve Jobs shows how the iPod is integrated into the iPhone. Remember, Apple found many users for it in the early 2000s. So it makes sense to use this device as a stepping stone into the world of smartphones.
Steve Jobs scrolls through the artists in his song library. He swipes from the bottom to the top and instead of «Alanis Morrissette», you can suddenly see «Fall Out Boy». The world has never seen anything like it. Just like that. Using one finger. On a screen.
The first song he plays is «With a little help from my friends» by the Beatles. Steve Jobs turns up the volume by moving the volume slider from left to right. iPhone doesn’t have a volume button yet. It was introduced later with the iPhone 3.
«Isn’t that cool,» Jobs asks.
Very.
The iPhone cult
A device that’s so good and so revolutionary it has a fanbase. Obviously. How could it not?
The fans camp in front of the Apple Store. They wait outside the store anything up to a week just so they can be the first to get a new iPhone. The Stuttgarter Nachrichten refers to the behaviour displayed in 2014 as «Apple madness». Two years earlier, FAZ spent a night with Apple disciples as they waited for their new smartphone.
This happens a year after the BBC cited a study that Apple disciples are actual disciples. Neuroscientists have found that Apple disciples feel religious emotions when their «God», Steve Jobs, speaks to them.
It’s a finding enjoyed by both Apple and its critics – those who can’t understand why anybody would spend the night out in the cold to get their hands on the latest smartphone. The conflict continues to this day.
- Apple trusts in exaggeration and pomp.
- iPhone users want the latest iPhone right away.
- Critics can’t understand what the fuss is about.
But no one can deny the revolutionary aspect. The iPhone is responsible for much of what we now consider standard. Pinch to zoom, for example.
Even the harshest critics have to make concessions. To give you an example: Steve Ballmer was once again asked for his opinion on the iPhone in 2016. He replies that he didn’t mean any of it. What he’d actually meant to say was that he should’ve been the one to come up with the idea of subsidising the purchase price with the subscription costs.
Three years after the birth of the iPhone, Microsoft under Steve Ballmer launched a competing smartphone – the Microsoft Kin. It survived 48 days on the market.
Today, Microsoft’s failing with the brilliant idea of the Surface Duo. Meanwhile, Apple is the world’s most valuable brand. It’s also just received a revolutionary competitor. Google Pixel 6. Granted, the heirs of the revolution are on the late side, but Apple will need to swallow hard when they catch up.
Fans and haters are still virtually butting heads in the comment sections of the world. As a journalist, I get put in one camp or the other, depending on the article. Because just like the development of the iPhone, the conflict between the haters and the fanboys and -girls is still ongoing.
Journalist. Author. Hacker. A storyteller searching for boundaries, secrets and taboos – putting the world to paper. Not because I can but because I can’t not.
