360The iPhone is unveiled and the smartphone age begins
On 9 January 2007, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone, combining a phone, a music player and an internet device with a large touchscreen. It went on sale that June. With Android phones following in 2008, smartphones became the main way most people use the internet, changing how the world communicates, shops and works.
At the Macworld conference in San Francisco on 9 January 2007, Apple's chief executive Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone as 'a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough internet communications device'.
Instead of a physical keyboard, it had a multi-touch screen controlled with fingers. It went on sale in the United States on 29 June 2007.
In 2008, Apple opened the App Store, letting outside developers sell apps, and the first phones running Google's Android went on sale. Competition brought smartphones to every price level.
Smartphones changed daily life. They put maps, cameras, banking, news and social media in people's pockets, and they created new industries, from ride-hailing to mobile games. Today, billions of people use smartphones, and for many they are the only way they go online.
- 9 January 2007
- iPhone unveiled
- 29 June 2007
- iPhone goes on sale
- July 2008
- App Store opens
- October 2008
- First Android phone goes on sale
Sources: Apple · Britannica · Computer History Museum.