Over 17 years ago, Apple presented the very first iPhone. However, many features and functions that are taken for granted today were not even thought of back then. It’s pretty exciting what Apple’s first iPhone couldn’t do – but it was still a success.
If you want to understand the rapid development of the iPhone, just look at the first model from 2007. It laid the foundation for Apple’s current success, but still had to forego a large number of functionswhich we consider “normal” in today’s iPhones.
The first iPhone: 15 features that were still missing back then
The colleagues at MacRumors collected 15 of these features in a list to mark the anniversary (source: MacRumors). Let’s take a closer look:
App Store: An iPhone without an App Store? Unimaginable today, but it actually only existed in the summer of 2008, a year after the introduction of the first iPhone. In the meantime, developers and customers should be content with web apps, but the call for native apps was simply too loud, Apple heard it and responded.
Copy and paste: The iPhone had to do without “copy & paste” for a long time; this was only available as a matter of course in 2009, two years later.
Front camera: Video conferences, not to mention selfies, have become indispensable today. This only became possible with the iPhone 4, the first Apple cell phone with a front camera.
Flashlight: There was initially no LED flash light suitable for this purpose; instead, resourceful developers introduced apps that displayed a white screen at maximum brightness to imitate a flashlight. An absolute must for iPhone users for a long time.
Video recordings: With the first iPhone you could take (poor) photos, but you still had to be patient to record videos. Only the iPhone 3GS (from 2009) was able to do this.
An excerpt from the legendary keynote in January 2007, where the first iPhone was unveiled:
Steve Jobs presents the first iPhone in 2007
MMS support: Even though MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) never became a hit, it would have been nice if the first iPhone had supported it. But it didn’t work, this was only possible from 2009 and then only from the second iPhone generation onwards.
GPS: Navigation with the iPhone? It was only available the following year with the iPhone 3G, but the original Apple cell phone was still denied this.
Home Screen Wallpapers: Things remained monotonous for a long time with the iPhone, because it was only with iOS 4 from 2010 that the system made it possible to use your own background images.
SIM lock vs. free choice of provider: Today you have to remember that with the iPhone you couldn’t initially choose the provider. In the USA, for example, cell phones were only available from AT&T for a long time, and in this country from Telekom. No longer imaginable today.
Siri: The voice assistant has only been listening to our requests for a little over 10 years. But let’s be honest, even today Siri still doesn’t understand everything.
Touch ID und Face ID: The fingerprint sensor (from iPhone 5s, 2013) and facial recognition (from iPhone X, 2017) seem obvious to us today, but before we always had to enter our passcode manually.
Lightning connector: Even in the age of USB-C, it is still standard on the iPhone, but the first model did not have the Lightning port; instead, it used the iPod’s 30-pin dock connector.
Retina-Display: Even if the name is pure marketing, the fact is that the first iPhone had a relatively low display resolution. It wasn’t until the iPhone 4 that everything became a bit sharper – the Retina display was born.
Wireless charging: It’s only been around since 2017 and yet we’re already so used to it.
Water resistance: The original iPhone should be kept away from water, but the latest models are even waterproof to IP68.
Still cutting edge: The actual idea behind Apple’s iPhone
In short: From today’s perspective, using an original iPhone may even seem absurd to us, but the DNA of Apple’s cell phone hasn’t really changed and has remained unchanged since then. An easy-to-use touchscreen with a perfectly optimized user interface and the power of the Internet – applied equally in 2007 and 2023.