When Steve Jobs presented the first iphone to the world in an already legendary keynote of Manzana All of us who had the opportunity to witness that moment suspected that we were living a historic moment, being born in real time.
The Cupertino boys’ phone was presented something like a mix between a common mobile phone and an iPod. But we were actually seeing the birth of the iOS-based smartphone. One of the essential pillars of the current industry.
There is a genuine cult following today for anything that can be tied to the first generation iPhone. A perfect example of this is what we live with a few days agowith the new auction record closed for an original first-generation iPhone.
At the beginning of the year we had seen how a phone still sealed in its packaging had sold for enough money to buy a Tesla Model 3 of the year. But in the most recent case, the final sale figure shot up to almost reach USD $200,000.
The madness that is experienced by everything related to that conference is real. And today we share with you a curious anecdote of a moment that was lived in that conference and that we all believed was a montage.
Steve Jobs debuted the iPhone with a prank phone call
On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs took the stage at Macworld in San Francisco that year to officially introduce the world to the first iPhone. It is a device that would forever change the technology industry and our conception of connectivity and social interaction.
The Apple co-founder came up with his classic outfit that always stood out for his black turtleneck sweater. Up there in front of everyone Jobs described the iPhone as a revolutionary product that combined three functions: a mobile phone, a music player (the iPod, wow) and a device that allowed you to communicate over the Internet. This triad was the essence that gave birth to the smartphone.
That first generation iPhone had a 3.5-inch touch screen, a 2 MP camera, 4 or 8 GB storage capacity, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connection, integration with iTunes and Google Maps. Every detail was covered by Steve, until it was time for him to demonstrate how it worked, and he did it by making a phone call:
As reported by colleagues from Marketing Mindin that demonstration Steve Jobs made a call to a Starbucks, where he linked the connection to the number of a branch only to order that 4 thousand coffees be prepared for him.
As soon as Jobs said the joke, he hung up, everyone laughed and the vast majority of us believed that it was something that had been prepared or set up. But it turns out not. Jobs actually called a real Starbucks and hung up on them. In other words, he debuted the world’s first iPhone by making a prank call.
In fact, today we know the name of the person who served him on the other end of the line: Ying Hang “Hannah” Zhang, a barista at the cafeteria who would later find out that she was part of a historic moment by mere accident.
The iPhone wasn’t technically the first smartphone or the first to have a touchscreen, but that keynote proved that it was a reliable device that offered a smooth, intuitive, and engaging user experience.
Curiously, Steve Jobs also had enough sense of humor to start that moment for posterity with a prank.