Steve Jobs Knew iPhone Would Be Iconic. More Than 2 Billion Phones Later, He Was

We all knew it was coming. Reporters, analysts, industry insiders and fans had been speculating about Apple making a phone for nearly a year by the time Steve Jobs walked onto the Macworld Expo stage on a cold January morning in San Francisco in 2007. What we didn’t know was how much the iPhone would revolutionize the very way people live and work. 

“Thank you for coming,” Jobs said, wearing his trademark Levi’s and black mock turtleneck. “We’re going to make some history together today.” Jobs wasn’t one for modesty, and this time he was right.

Despite the months-long buildup, Apple’s CEO managed to surprise the world when he finally unveiled the iPhone — the company’s big, risky move into the mobile phone market.

“This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two-and-a-half years,” he told the audience of 4,000 people. “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’s been very fortunate. 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 computer industry.

“In 2001, we introduced the first iPod and it didn’t just change the way we listened to music. It changed the entire music industry. Well, today we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class.

“The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls,” Jobs said to whoops and cheers while I — sitting on the floor near one of the rare power outlets in the hall — furiously sent out Jobs’ remarks in 83-character, all-cap headlines for Bloomberg News, where I worked as the Apple reporter.

“The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough internet communications device. So three things: a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough internet communications device.

“An iPod, a phone and an internet communicator. An iPod, a phone — are you getting it?” he asked the cheering audience.

“These are not separate devices. This is one device. And we are calling it iPhone.

“Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. … We want to make a leapfrog product that is way smarter than any mobile device has ever been and super easy to use.”

Fifteen years later, we know Jobs was right. Apple did make history on Jan. 9, 2007, when it unveiled one of the most iconic products in consumer electronics history and changed its name from Apple Computer…