Today is the 10 Year Anniversary of iPhone

Living in the modern world, you’re probably pretty used to ordering takeout from your smartphone. Checking your banking online, watching movies and keeping in touch with friends and family. More than 68% of adults in developed economies are registered as having a smartphone. This handheld technology has become such an integral part of our lives that it’s pretty hard to imagine life today without one.

For many people, their smartphone has become more important than their wallet when leaving the house. They have become so dependent on being in touch with their inner circle whenever they need to. Ever found yourself on the subway or in your car on the way to work and realized you left your smartphone at home? Did it send you into panic at the thought of eight hours of being off the grid?

That’s a pretty normal reaction. And yet, smartphones have only been in existence for a fairly small portion of most adults’ lives. Exactly 10 years ago, today, in fact, Steve Jobs unveiled the world’s first smartphone – the iPhone – at a Macworld convention in San Francisco.

Life-Changing

Undoubtedly the key transformative technology of the last ten years, the iPhone has changed peoples’ lives around the world forever. Whether you’re a fan of having a constant uninterrupted connection to the Internet or not, you can’t help but admire the visionary mastermind behind it.

Back on January 9^th of 2007, cellphones were still used for making calls and perhaps the occasional text message. It was still appropriate to say “I need my telephone” while getting ready to contact someone. Flash forward ten years and we have replaced our cameras, MP3s, MP4s, agendas, and even computers with the smartphone.

The very word “smartphone,” in fact, has become a bit of a misnomer. If they get any smarter, they’ll be taking out the trash and making coffee – and maybe they will be by 2027.

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs, the man behind Apple, lost his battle to cancer in 2011. But his legacy as an inventor, entrepreneur, and visionary lives on in the minds (and pockets) of billions of people around the world. Not only was he the Co-Founder, Chairman and CEO of Apple Inc, but he was also the primary investor and CEO of Pixar, the animation studio loved by children around the world.

The man with the Midas touch, Steve Jobs will always be remembered as one of the pioneers of the personal computer revolution, along with Steve Wozniak. They helped to take the computer out of the office and make it a desired and necessary part of people’s homes.

The Original iPhone

The first iPhone was introduced as “one device” that would combine the Internet, telephone and MP3 player. While many people criticize Apple for its lack of innovation and changes from one design to the next, the developments we’ve seen over the last decade are undeniable.

Changing our lives in ways we couldn’t imagine, we now use our smartphones to manage our careers, get fit, play games, tweet, and replace our personal computers. Entire companies have been made possible thanks to Steve Jobs’ legacy. Just think about Uber, valued at over $50 billion, whose existence would be impossible without the smartphone.

While Jobs has been unable to see the full extent of his work develop over the years since his death, one thing is certain. When remembering key visionaries and figures of the 21^st Century, Steve Job’s name will be etched in history forever.