The device broke with prevailing mobile phone designs by eliminating most physical hardware buttons and eschewing a stylus for its finger-friendly touch interface.

[9] The introduction of the App Store allowed established companies and startup developers to build careers and earn money, via the platform, while providing consumers with new ways to access information and connect with other people.

[10] The iPhone largely appealed to the general public, as opposed to the business community BlackBerry and IBM focused on at the time.

[citation needed] The stylus was a common tool for many existing touchscreen devices at the time including Apple's own Newton, launched in 1993.

He decided that the device would require a triple layered capacitive multi-touch touch screen, a very new and advanced technology at the time.

[17][18] The original iPhone was introduced by Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, in a keynote address at the Macworld Conference & Expo held in Moscone West in San Francisco, California.

[19] Jobs introduced the iPhone as a combination of three devices: a "widescreen iPod with touch controls"; a "revolutionary mobile phone"; and a "breakthrough Internet communicator.

[29][30] In Canada, Rogers Wireless announced in April 2008 that a deal was reached with Apple to bring the iPhone to the Canadian market.

[32] The iPhone's main competitors in both consumer and business markets were considered to be the LG Prada, LG Viewty, Samsung Ultra Smart F700, Nokia N95, Nokia E61i, Palm Treo 750, Palm Centro, HTC Touch, Sony Ericsson W960, Sony Ericsson C905 and BlackBerry.

[33][34][35][36] In July 2023, an unopened, first edition model of the 2007 iPhone was sold at auction in the US for $190,372.80, nearly 400 times the original price.

[38] After receiving "hundreds of emails" upset about the price drop, Apple gave a $100 store credit to early adopters.

[49] According to an analyst, iPhone per-capita sales were one quarter that of the United States[50] and it was reportedly outsold by LG Viewty.

Only four writers were given review models of the original iPhone:[53][54] David Pogue of The New York Times,[55] Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal,[56] Steven Levy of Newsweek,[57] and Ed Baig of USA Today.

[58] The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal published positive, but cautious, reviews of the iPhone, their primary criticisms being the relatively slow speed of the AT&T's 2.5G EDGE network and the phone's inability to connect using 3G services.

The Wall Street Journal's technology columnist, Walt Mossberg, concluded that "despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer.

It also added "Although the iPhone sold well in the US, when it finally hit Europe sales were not as high as expected, to an extent because European consumers could understand the drawbacks due to a more competitive marketplace.

It also included basic Phone/contacts, Calendar, Photos, Stocks, Weather, Clock, Calculator, Notes, and Settings apps.