At Apple’s 2007 Macworld keynote, Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone as a touchscreen phone, iPod, and internet communicator.
The first-generation iPhone combined a mobile telephone, a widescreen iPod, and web-browsing functions in one device. Apple announced it on January 9, 2007, and released it in the United States on June 29, 2007. Its multi-touch interface replaced the physical keyboard common on many smartphones at the time.
The original model used a 3.5-inch display and supported cellular data, Wi-Fi, and visual voicemail. It did not initially include the App Store; Apple added that software marketplace in 2008 with iPhone OS 2.0.
A common mix-up is confusing the first iPhone with the iPod touch, which Apple introduced later in 2007 and which lacked cellular-phone capability. The iPhone became a major pillar of Apple’s business and helped make the company one of the world’s most valuable by market capitalization.