iPhone celebrates it's fifth birthday

Five years ago today, Apple unveiled the original iPhone to the world. It wasn't a tightly kept secret, shrouded in mystery and speculation like more recent Apple announcements, but it was arguably the world's most anticipated gadget launch.Although its form factor -- a capacitive touchscreen candy bar  hasn't dramatically changed over the years, each iteration of the iPhone has yielded important improvements. Let's take a look back at how the iPhone revolutionized what we thought a phone could be.

"An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator," Jobs said when preparing to introduce the iPhone in January 2007. "An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator.... These are not three separate devices!"


The original iPhone launched on AT&T with a handful of Apple-created apps. It had a 320×480 resolution, 3.5-inch capacitive touchscreen and 2-megapixel camera, and ran iOS 1.0. Inside, it featured a 412MHz ARM 11 processor, a proximity sensor, and an accelerometer.

Priced at $499 and $599 for 4GB and 8GB models, the iPhone didn't actually go on sale to eager hordes of consumers (hundreds of whom waited outside Apple Stores) until June 29.

 Former Gadget Lab editor Dylan Tweney said in his review of the landmark device that "As a device, it's a genre-bender,". "Never before have American consumers had access to a phone that is simultaneously so powerful, so elegant, and that performs so many functions."