The iPhone, made by Apple, which when the iPhone was released was called Apple Computer, but later changed

its name in large part because of the iPhone, was originally introduced in January of 2007.

The first model of this device was pretty clunky and even somewhat useless compared to contemporary

smartphones, and even the next step upgraded model that came out in 2008 was pretty

bare bones. And I can confirm having owned that model that it didn't do much. The iPhone app store

didn't arrive until the summer of 2008, and that app store didn't have much beyond gimmicky party

gags and a few simple games and utilities for the first little while.

So there was a period during which the device was mostly amazing because of its touchscreen

and its whiz-bang-seeming calculator and web browser and weather apps,

all of which looked really great for the time compared to other mainstream high-end desirable

devices that were on the market,

made primarily by Blackberry and a few other tech companies.

But there wasn't really much else to do.

Simply being able to tap and zoom and browse the web with your fingertips

was enough of a magic trick that everybody wanted to hold and play with this now fairly clunky

seeming early edition smartphone.

Depending on your definition, the iPhone was or was not the first smartphone, as the aforementioned

Blackberry had a decent sized screen and keyboard and little mouse knob that you could use to

navigate the web, and what are now usually

called feature phones, which are like old school cell phones but with bigger screens and

internet connectivity, most popularly made by Nokia and their Symbian operating system, with

a few scattered options also using a mobile version of Windows, were all on the market when the iPhone was announced.

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