Fifteen years ago, I was at CES, the big consumer electronics show, while history was being made as Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone in Cupertino.
I multitasked. Specifically, I remember squatting in a convention center vestibule trying to make sense of Jobs’ reality distortion field, and then attending a press gaggle where two Cingular (now AT&T) executives explained how important the iPhone would be, from their perspective.
While we now associate the iPhone with making smartphones broadly popular and offering millions of apps, the Cingular execs wanted to talk more about how it was locked down. A few PCMag stories came from that press event: Cingular: We Made Apple Bend and Apple’s Revolution For The Few.
On the 15th anniversary of the unveiling of the most iconic smartphone on the planet, I’m publishing my notes, with annotations giving some context. Because my handwriting is awful and I use a lot of shorthand, there’s also a transcription below. (My editor asks: “does that say, I hate Clay Aiken?”)
Things sure have changed, haven’t they?
Recommended by Our Editors
Also check out 15 Years Ago, the iPhone Created ‘Big Tech’ and The Top 5 iPhones of All Time.
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Source: https://www.pcmag.com/news/my-reporting-notes-from-the-original-iphone-launch-15-years-ago
