Relive Steve Jobs’ unveiling of the original iPhone at Macworld 2007

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Steve Jobs
One of the greatest product unveilings in history.
Photo: Apple

Whether you write about it on a daily basis or just use it to stay in touch with your friends, family and the world around you, the iPhone is such a big part of our lives today that it’s difficult to remember what it was like before it existed.

With today marking 10 years since the original iPhone going on sale, it’s worth venturing back in time to check out Steve Jobs’ original unveiling of the iPhone at the 2007 Macworld.

This is the moment everything changed — and our Moto Q, Palm Treo and Nokia E62 handsets suddenly looked very, very dated:

For my money, the iPhone introduction is the best speech Jobs ever gave. You can argue about whether the iPhone was more or less revolutionary than the Mac, or point out that his famous Stanford commencement address was more personally revealing.

However, the iPhone intro showed the Jobs most of us think about when we talk about his singular qualities. It was an assured, seemingly effortless presentation, which made a good case that a mere smartphone was a life-changing product. And he was right!

Even more amazing, as a recent Wall Street Journal mini-documentary made clear, is that the iPhone was woefully incomplete at the time of its 2007 demo. One wrong move by Jobs, and the whole thing would have been a horrible botch. Of course, it wasn’t and — 10 years later — we’re now looking at a product line that’s sold more than 1 billion units.

Happy birthday, iPhone!

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