8 Years Ago

June 29, 2007: a day I remember well as it was the day of my grandfather’s funeral. I was home with my family in Ohio and later in the day I decided to go for a drive to clear my head. I ended up at an Apple Store.

I’m still not entirely sure this was an appropriate thing to do given the day’s event, but it was certainly a distraction. I had heard the news reports about the lines out the door to purchase the just-released iPhone. I decided to see what all the fuss was about.

I had no intention of going to an Apple Store for the launch of the iPhone as I was absolutely positive I would not be getting one. I wasn’t quite Steve Ballmer laughing it off, but at the time, I too could not imagine spending $500 on a phone. And certainly not on one that was twice as large as my Motorola RAZR. I just didn’t get it.

Then I picked up the iPhone at the Apple Store that day.

I left that store $500 lighter.

I’ve told this story before, but with each passing year, it gets a little more crazy to me. It’s a day that feels both like yesterday and like ages ago. The iPhone is the item I use most in my life for the eighth year running. And nothing else is even close.

How could I have been so shortsighted? Why didn’t I see what the iPhone was the minute it was unveiled?

It’s harder to remember my exact state of mind back then. I think I really did just care about the cost and the size of the device. I remember thinking the web browser was cool, but I wasn’t sure it was $500 cool. And, of course, there were no third-party apps yet.

It’s something which I think is good for me to remember. It’s my most prominent example of looking at something for what it is on the surface, not what it could be underneath. And all it took was about a minute of using the actual device to understand that, and to realize just how foolish I was.

It suddenly shot into focus standing in that store: the iPhone wasn’t an expensive phone of yesteryear, it was a cheap glimpse into the future.

[image via GadgetLove]