Jaehyoung Kim: Essay 4

iPhone's Launch


Hello, my name is Kelvin, and I’m working as a freelance IT journalist. I’m here with you to share my experiences with my first iPhone, which greatly influenced me, and the world.

iPhone was first unveiled at the Macworld 2007 convention, which took place January 9, 2007. (It was later discovered that they were developing it since 2004) Since I was using a MacBook and having a great interest on what Apple’s doing, I joined the convention right away, in which I became one of the 50,000 people to hear the greatest Keynote of Stevie Jobs ever.

In his Keynote, Jobs first introduced that he’s going to unveil three greatest electronic gadgets in history: the widescreen iPod with touch controls, the breakthrough internet communicator, and the revolutionary mobile phone. And soon, he added, “These are not three separated devices. This is one device. And we are calling it, the iPhone!”

At first, since I had been using some cellphones of Nokia that they call ‘smartphone’, I never thought that smartphones can take the role of the computers. For me, smartphone was never more than a toy that I can play with, before I met iPhone. At that time, traditional ‘smartphones’ were so fixed and crippled to be taking role of computer; it was more like a phone with e-mail feature.

However, iPhone dropped me a fresh shock. Even though there were a lots of features lacking if we compare it to today’s iPhone, iPhone was a blazing cutting-edge device over all at that time. By introducing its multi-touching screen with revolutionary user interface that no one had experience before, iPhone has gained the top hardware to run its application. Moreover, with App Store, the first unified software market solution, Apple announced to supply their phones with uncountable applications, by which users can enjoy almost every features that they want for their phone.

Since Apple announced the launch of iPhone, which was placed on June 2007, I was not able to sleep. After counting more than hundreds day awaiting for iPhone, I finally heard the news that iPhone is going to sale on June 29, 2007, at 6:00 pm, in New York.
I couldn’t wait more. Immediately, I packed my tent and went to New York. Though I thought that I’m going to be the first one to buy iPhone since I pitched my tent in front of the 5th Avenue store two days before the launch, there were already more than hundreds of people awaiting for iPhone.

Finally, the day of iPhone’s launch came. After my long waiting, I could see iPhone officially launched in front of me at 6 o’clock. The line, stretched to more than a thousand, began to move slowly, and I could see people who just bought an iPhone overjoying with their iPhones.

About 10 minutes later, a rumor was spread that there’s only 400 iPhones in 5th Avenue store and therefore, not everyone in this line will be getting an iPhone. Though I didn’t care about the rumor since I was at position #100-#150 in line, I could hear a babel of voices behind me. But since the line was still moving forward continually, they seemed to be just waiting for their turn.

After few minutes of waiting, I was able to get into the store, and buy my iPhone. I bought the 8GB model, which costed me US$ 599. (There were two models available: a 4GB model priced at US$ 499 and an 8GB model at US$ 599.)

Even after I bought my iPhone, they kept letting people in. Since I could see people at position #500-#550 getting into the store and coming out with their iPhones, I thought the rumor, that there’s only 400 iPhones, is bunk. Anyway, at 7 o’clock, the line was largely over and people who didn’t wait so long was able to come into the store.

When I got back to home, I was not able to wait more. Immediately, I unboxed my iPhone. Though there was only iPhone and charger in the box (not even a manual!), I can’t tell you how I was excited to see my iPhone performing its amazing features. On my fingertip, I could do almost everything that I did on my MacBook!

Apple did not satisfy with its first-generation iPhone. On July 11, 2008, Apple released the iPhone 3G which added 3G functionality to iPhone, by which you could freely surf the internet without Wi-Fi. iPhone 3G was followed by iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, and iPhone 5 in turn and countless features were added to it. I’m using iPhone 4S currently, which is commonly known as the last iPhone of Steve Jobs.

Never forget that iPhone is the first phone to open today’s smartphone world. If Mac and iPod changed computing technology and music market, iPhone didn’t just change phone technology. It completely redesigned internet, business and even our daily habit. Though there are some side-effects of smartphones, I have no doubt that iPhone is one of the greatest invention throughout our history.


Bibliography


Britannica. "iPhone" Encyclopædia Britannica.
          Chicago: Britannica Inc., 2012.
Wikipedia. "iPhone" Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. 
          12 June 2013 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPhone>.
Doopedia. "iPhone" Doopedia. 
          South Korea: Doosan Corporation, 2012.
McCarthy, Caroline. "New Yorkers get their iPhones:
          From the front lines on Fifth Avenue." CNET Networks.
          June 29, 2007
Youtube.com. "Steve Jobs Keynote Macworld 2007 SF". YouTube.com. 
          18 March 2008 <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-a_R6ewrmM>.