Whether or not you use or have used an iPhone, like or hate Apple, liked or disliked Steve Jobs, there is one reality that is self-evident: smartphone history is entirely divided into the pre-iPhone and post-iPhone era. And while the actual product didn’t reach customer hands until June 29th, it was on January 9th, 2007 that Steve Jobs stood up at the Macworld convention and changed the course of smartphone history.
For the general public, the iPhone introduced a multi-touch interface that has since become the industry standard. While some changes took time to see, others were evident from the start: Windows Mobile market share plummeted from the moment the iPhone hit shelves, the Android OS is very similar in many functional ways, RIM and Nokia started losing market share and relevancy, and so on.
The winners? Consumers! Look in a cell phone store today and you will see that 90% of devices are smartphones MUCH more powerful than the original iPhone and for much less money – whereas in June of 2007 it was almost entirely locked-up ‘dumb phones’ with $3 ringtones and incompatible accessories.