Birthday celebrations are in order guys, our beloved iPhone, the foundations of the content published on this site, has reached its fifth birthday.

On January 9th 2007, the late Steve Jobs uttered his famous words; ”We’re going to make some history together today.”

“Every once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. One is very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple has been very fortunate that it’s been able to introduce a few of these into the world. In 1984 we introduced the Macintosh. It didn’t just change Apple, it changed the whole industry. In 2001 we introduced the first iPod, and it didn’t just change the way we all listened to music, it changed the entire music industry,”

“Well today, we’re introducing three revolutionary new products! The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls, the second is a revolutionary new mobile phone. and the third is a breakthrough internet communications device,” 

“So, three things,” Jobs recapped his products again to a powerpoint of the new device, and the tech world suddenly realised what on earth he was talking about. “Are you getting it?” Jobs asked. “These are not three separate devices! This is one device. And we are calling it iPhone. Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. Here it is.”

The iPhone was honoured as Time magazine invention of the year in 2007, but why?

Because the iPhone was revolutionary. It had a touch-screen, but no stylus. It had a keyboard, but no keys. It didn’t have 3G, but it used the internet better than any handset in its day thanks to Wi-Fi (something that didn’t occur on Blackberry’s equivalent phone for another two years) and an incredible browser. The user interface was, and still is perhaps the best feature of the iPhone, it was incredibly easy to use, and it was also incredibly useful. You could use it for business in the morning, come home at night, and just play with it because it was so damn’ fun to use.  There was no SD slot, but it had plenty of storage. There was no interchangeable battery, but the way the handset used it’s battery meant you didn’t need to change the battery.

The iPhone 1.0 alongside the Palm Treo, no contest really is it?

The iPhone has come on leaps and bounds since this day 5 years ago, and many would argue that it still has leaps and bounds to go. Some might argue that the iPhone 1.0 was perfection the day it was released, and other people would rather die before buying one. Regardless of your own disposition, there is no reasonable way one can deny the significance of the huge landmark on the map of technology that is the iPhone.

Five years later, the iPhone 4S carries the torch for Apple now.

What about you? What do you think of the original iPhone? Where does your opinion lie surrounding this incredible (or not so incredible, if you feel that way) device? Let us know down below, extra points if you can remember what you were doing on January 9th 2007.