The myth usually goes like this: Steve Jobs stood on a stage, held up a piece of glass, and the world changed instantly. While that makes for a great movie scene, the actual reality was a lot more stressful, glitchy, and honestly, a bit of a gamble.
If you’re looking for the quick answer, the date of first iPhone release was June 29, 2007.
But there is a massive difference between when a product is "shown" and when you can actually buy it. Most people get this mixed up. They remember the famous "three devices in one" speech from January 2007 at Macworld. That was the announcement. But for the engineers at Apple, that January demo was a nightmare. The phone barely worked. If Jobs had clicked the icons in the wrong order, the whole thing would have crashed in front of the world.
It took another five months of frantic coding and hardware polishing before regular people could actually get their hands on one.
Why the June 29 release date was a massive risk
When 6:00 PM hit on that Friday in June, thousands of people were already camped out. They weren't just waiting for a phone; they were waiting for a $499 or $599 experiment. Remember, back then, the "smart" phones were BlackBerries with tiny plastic buttons and clunky trackballs.
The idea of a phone with no keyboard was, frankly, polarizing.
Some tech critics thought it would flop. They called it "the Jesus Phone" mockingly. The price was astronomical for 2007. You had to sign a two-year contract with AT&T (then Cingular), and the data speeds were—to put it mildly—painfully slow. We’re talking 2G EDGE speeds. If you tried to load a webpage today on an original iPhone, you’d have enough time to go make a sandwich before the header even appeared.
The specs that feel like ancient history now
Looking back at what we actually bought on that release date is wild. The original iPhone didn't have an App Store. Think about that for a second. You were stuck with the icons Apple gave you. No Instagram, no Uber, no Candy Crush.
- Camera: 2 megapixels. No flash. No video recording.
- Storage: 4GB or 8GB. That’s barely enough for a few hundred photos today.
- GPS: None. It used cell tower triangulation to "guess" where you were.
- Copy and Paste: Nope. Apple didn't add that until 2009.
Despite these "flaws," the moment people touched the screen, the argument ended. The "multitouch" interface was the real hero of the date of first iPhone release. Being able to pinch-to-zoom on a photo felt like literal magic. Before this, touchscreens were "resistive," meaning you had to mash your fingernail into the plastic to get a response. The iPhone used "capacitive" touch—it responded to the electricity in your skin.
What most people get wrong about the 2007 launch
A common misconception is that the iPhone was an immediate global smash. It wasn't. It only launched in the United States on June 29. The UK and Germany didn't get it until November. Much of Asia didn't see it until 2008.
And the sales? Apple sold about 270,000 units over that first weekend. While that sounds like a lot, it’s a drop in the bucket compared to the millions they move now in a single hour of pre-orders.
It was a slow burn.
The real turning point wasn't even the first release date; it was the price drop two months later. In a move that absolutely infuriated early adopters, Apple slashed the price by $200. Steve Jobs eventually had to issue a public apology and give early buyers a $100 store credit. It was a messy, human start for a device that now feels like an inevitable part of history.
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How to appreciate the original iPhone today
If you happen to have one of these original "2G" iPhones sitting in a drawer, don't throw it away. Because of that specific date of first iPhone release, these devices have become massive collector's items. Factory-sealed original iPhones have sold at auctions for over $100,000.
Even if yours is cracked and dead, it represents the exact moment the "computer in your pocket" went from a sci-fi dream to a retail reality.
Next steps for tech history buffs:
- Check the back of your old device; model number A1203 is the original 2007 version.
- Watch the original 2007 Macworld keynote on YouTube to see the "glitchy" prototype in action—knowing now how close it came to crashing makes it ten times more intense.
- If you're looking to buy one for a collection, ensure the "Home" button still has its tactile click, as those were the first parts to fail on the original assembly line.