Ten years ago last week the world shifted on its axis. On June 29, 2007, Apple released the iPhone, a mobile communications device that Steve Jobs, visionary and disrupter, had introduced six months before as "a revolutionary product ... that changes everything." Although Jobs was both a master showman and sometime fabulist, he was not exaggerating. The iPhone has changed the world, transforming the lives of billions of people around the world and facilitating a social and economic transition that is still underway.
The iPhone project began in 2004, when a team of 1,000 employees were enlisted to join "Project Purple." Originally conceived as a "tablet-style" device, Jobs became disenchanted with that format and pushed the team to a design concept that focused on the phone. Within three years, the iPhone emerged under the keen eye of Jonathan Ive, the head of design at Apple who has been responsible for the look of many of the company's most breathtaking products.
In his keynote speech at the annual Macworld Expo in January 2007, Jobs began with the somewhat perplexing note that his company would no longer be Apple Computer but would instead become Apple Inc. The remarks that followed explained why. Jobs then introduced the iPhone (and the Apple TV), and the revolution began.