Way back in 2007, a balding, bespectacled man wearing a simple black turtleneck and jeans announced that he’d been waiting two and a half years to show the world his latest creation. In retrospect, those two and a half years seem an absurdly short period of time in which to develop the device he would unveil that day. 
“Every once in a while, a product comes along that revolutionizes everything,” he told a crowd gathered at an event in San Francisco. They were the words of a man that knew what he had on his hands. “You’re lucky if you get to work on just one of these [revolutionary] products,” he said and then went on to point out that his company had developed “a few” such products over the years.
The man was Steve Jobs, of course, and the device that he proceeded to unveil on that day in 2007 was the original iPhone.
“An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator,” Jobs repeated from the keynote stage. “Are you getting it?” he asked rhetorically. “These are not three separate devices, this is one device.”
When you think about the number of times you’ve looked at the screen of your smartphone in the past few hours, whether iPhone or Android or Windows Phone, it’s hard not to resort to hyperbole when talking about the original iPhone. While some may argue that other devices preceded the iPhone, it was Apple that changed the game by bringing the full power of the Internet to the palm of one’s hand through a simple touch-based interface. In doing so, Apple’s third revolutionary product – after the Macintosh and the iPod – literally and fundamentally changed the way human beings communicate.
It’s fitting that Apple has scheduled the launch of its ninth iteration of the iPhone, the iPhone 6, on the same day that CTIA’s Super Mobility Week kicks off. Where the Macintosh turned personal computing on its head, and the iPod single-handedly reinvented the music industry, the iPhone is responsible for reinventing the wireless industry around data.
I’m writing this prior to Tuesday’s launch event. Regardless of rumors, no one really knows whether the new iPhone model(s) will mark another Apple-led revolution, or a mere evolutionary step for a mature product category. One thing is for sure though, everyone at Super Mobility Week, from accessory makers to top executives, will be watching to see just exactly how Apple’s new products will affect their businesses.
Apple will hold its launch event at 10 a.m. PST Tuesday. CTIA will be streaming the event following its Day 1 keynote and will have experts on stage to comment on the announcements.
