Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, creating a new flagship product category for the company.
Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone on January 9, 2007, at the Macworld Conference & Expo in San Francisco. Apple released it in the United States on June 29, 2007. The device combined a mobile phone, an iPod, and an internet communicator in one touchscreen product.
The iPhone was distinctive because it replaced most physical controls with a multi-touch display. Earlier smartphones existed, but Apple’s interface and tightly integrated hardware and software helped make the smartphone a mass-market consumer product.
The iPhone is not the same product line as the iPad, which Apple introduced in 2010, or the iPod, which began in 2001. Its long-running sales and services ecosystem became central to Apple’s business and helped support the company’s exceptional market capitalization.