Steve Jobs Introducing The iPhone At MacWorld 2007
Why Hacker News recommends it
HN commenters cite it as a model of a clear product reveal and as the source for how Jobs framed the iPhone's three functions and dismissed physical keyboards.
What it is
Steve Jobs's January 2007 MacWorld keynote segment introducing the original iPhone. He presents it as a widescreen iPod, a phone and an internet communicator in one device.
Recommended by 1 HN commenters across 1 different months, 2022 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Recommends bko · 2023-10 · on “Humane, a startup full of ex-iPhone talent, trying to make phones obsolete”
Jobs did a great job showing off the first iPhone. iPod + phone + Internet. And of course iPod was 1000 songs in your pocket. This is what made it successful. Not bs. We think about jobs as very head in the clouds and saying things like computer is really like a bicycle, but he was very practical and clear [this video]
Cites Someone · 2022-01 · on “The Windows 11 taskbar is an annoying step backward”
> There's a circus about them that permits them to stomp out history And how do you think they would do that? Apple sometimes uses a bit of hyperbole to describe itself ( [LINK] ), but I don’t think Apple ever claimed "Apple invented the mouse" or they had "the first mp3 player" or "the first smartphone". I also have never met anybody who made such claims, only people saying there are people who make such claims. It also would be weird for them to do so. Their marketing differentiates their products from the competition, and has been doing that for years. The competition sells MP3 players, the iPod was a _music_player_ or just the iPod (look at [LINK] , and count how often Steve says music b
Cites alexwasserman · 2023-03 · on “At Apple, Rare Dissent over a New Product: Interactive Goggles”
Yes, Job was very clear it was iPod, Phone, and Internet in one device. [this video] But the first couple really didn't do much more than that. Other features were rudimentary or missing, even compared to other phones of the day.
Cites SamuelAdams · 2023-09 · on “Text editing on mobile isn’t ok”
This take is a little ironic. In the original iPhone keynote address [1], Steve Jobs specifically called out physical keyboards as a negative user experience. The advantage of the iPhone is that the entire device could adapt to whatever application you were currently using. That being said I still think you are right. Typing on iOS could be improved. [1]: [this video]
Cites HarHarVeryFunny · 2025-08 · on “A.I. researchers are negotiating $250M pay packages”
Xerox created the GUI, and much of modern computing, but Jobs/Apple certainly deserve credit for the smartphone. Before the iPhone the phone market was primarily "feature phones" - flip phones with a keyboard and a few built-in JavaScript apps. The Blackberry wasn't much different - just a better keyboard with a focus on messaging/business use. The iPhone was quite radical - masterfully presented as an iPod, phone, and internet communications device, before revealing that they were all capabilities of the same device. [this video] The effect on the phone market was immediate, and turned the market upside down. It was basically the end of Nokia who had been dominant up to that point, and caused ev