Apple iPhone 2G / Specification

The original iPhone, unveiled by Steve Jobs in January 2007 and released on June 29, 2007, is the device that launched the modern smartphone. It abandoned the physical keyboard that defined phones of its era in favour of a 3.5-inch multi-touch capacitive display, controlled entirely by finger gestures with no stylus. A real desktop-class web browser (Safari), Visual Voicemail, HTML email, and a finger-friendly touch interface set it apart from every competitor and reset expectations for what a phone could be.

By modern standards its hardware was modest and its software limited at launch. Cellular data ran over EDGE only, with no 3G; there was no GPS, no App Store (the device shipped only with Apple's built-in apps), no front-facing camera, and no copy-and-paste. The single 2 MP rear camera had a fixed focus, no flash, and could not record video. The phone charged and synced through a proprietary 30-pin dock connector, and storage was fixed at 4, 8, or later 16 GB with no memory card slot.

Despite these limits, the combination of a full multi-touch screen, a genuine web browser, and no physical keyboard made it historic, and it was the direct ancestor of every iPhone that followed; its successor was the iPhone 3G. From about $499.