I remember the first one was quite laughable with its lack of GPS and 3G, still sold well in the US. Took for them to open it to apps and get a 3g one out worldwide before things really got moving with it.

Some thoughts from way back then...

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/antoniosk/3257

https://www.geekzone.co.nz/antoniosk/3794

How time flies.

"Scott Forstall says Steve Jobs created the iPhone because he was sick of hearing a Microsoft employee arrogantly telling him Microsoft was working on a touch-screen device so advanced that it would pave the way for computing"

Back in 2008, I was working at good old TelstraClear and happened to be out on the town in Christchurch's CBD (may it rest in peace) on the night of the iPhone 3G launch at the then-flagship Vodafone store on Colombo Street. There was a huge line of folks there, as well as entertainment in the form of some poor sod in a Cadbury gorilla costume. "What are they all lining up for?" I asked a friend. "To buy a $1000 phone," he replied. Oh, how we scoffed. Somewhere I have a blurry photo taken on my Sony Ericsson V630i.

Years later I discovered one of my (now-former) colleagues in Voda's Terminals team was working at that store on that night as a concierge - he'd just come over from Vodacom in SA and was one of very few folks who had extensive knowledge of the iPhone and iOS. Turns out that, despite the original 2G iPhone never being released officially outside of the US, Apple had sent them all over the world to telcos for testing and certification, which makes perfect sense as a new entrant to mobile. So despite Vodacom never selling the 2G, many of the staff in their HQ at the time had them.

Later in 2008 I picked up an HTC Apache and my journey with smartphones began, although it wouldn't be until 2014 that I bought my first iPhone - when the screens finally became big enough for my tastes. Had I only known that, no, those people weren't lining up to buy a phone, they were lining up to buy a computer that fit in their pocket, I'd not have been so scornful.

The iPhone launch in New Zealand was gigantic. Then next year Vodafone blew it by saying they'd sell but not having any information on pricing or even if it was actually going to be on sale - apparently they had a spat with Apple that year.

I remember going to be one evening and next morning the iPhone launch thread had ten times more pages than the evening before. Posts coming at very fast speed.

These days it's like "Pffft, another smartphone launch"

freitasm: Then next year Vodafone blew it by saying they'd sell but not having any information on pricing or even if it was actually going to be on sale - apparently they had a spat with Apple that year.

And then the same again with the 4S - that was Telecom's first iPhone launch and I remember the comments about it being a night-and-day difference in that Telecom told people what was going on, while Vodafone said nothing.