The press coverage around iPhone’s 10th anniversary had me reminiscing and thinking that Apple has sold one billion iPhones since 2007. Moscone West Convention center fits 5,000 people +/- a few hundred so Apple has sold 200,000 times as many iPhones as there were people on hand to see Steve Jobs announce the iPhone live and in person. Since 2007, I’ve been responsible for at least 50 of the iPhones sold with the bulk of those being in the first year but I’ll share that story later another time. I’ve personally owned every iPhone released.
Long before and after I stopped being a Keyholder at an Apple Retail Store, I was a Macworld goer. I’d go to Macworld San Francisco every year starting in 2003 until the final conference a few years ago. Some would say the decade that I attended was the best years but I always felt like going to Macworld in the age of the iPhone and iPod was not much fun. In fact, it was empty for us that were there for Macintosh. The Mac fans would hang out in the conferences on AppleScript and AppleWorks and at the Mac User Group University and the new Apple customers would walk the floors checking out the thousands of iPod cases and accessories around Apple’s music products.
Macworld 2007, for me was the best event I had attended but it wasn’t because of iPhone. In fact, I didn’t see it as a monumental device at the time. I wanted one but I wanted everything Apple produced. I’m still this way. That MWSF was big because it was the year where my MacworldBound blog & events finally reached a sort of mainstream. A year later, I’d move to San Francisco and my sponsored events were well-attended by hundreds of people. That year, I held a few events:
- Tour of SF on Sunday
- Monday ride down to Cupertino
- Tuesday group lineup at Moscone for the keynote (I’d bring Coffee & Donuts for everyone)
- Wednesday evening party at Swig
- Thursday drinks at Redwood Room
It was the year that the producers for MacHeads the Movie would interview me at Moscone and my party at Swig. You can find the movie on Hulu and watch it and laugh :) I also met Liana that year who became a wonderful friend of mine. She helped me organize a lot of the activities and she was instrumental in helping me setup the live-stream a year later when at MWSF ’08, Sam and I streamed live from a helmet webcam the entire week. There’s a funny story of this where Sam and I were at Starbucks at 3rd & Market when Walt Mossberg comes in. We tell him we’re streaming live and Steve’s keynote is in 15 hours. I ask Walt what he thinks Steve will announce tomorrow and he said a few things I can’t remember now but they ended up coming true. Here’s the chatroom transcript:
10:15 snarkysarcastic:holy crap
10:15 snarkysarcastic:it’s walt mossberg!
10:15 dknighton:Haha!!! Burl Ives called him on the Vaio!
10:16 dknighton:Get him to sing “Silver and Gold”
10:16 ilindsay:woooohoooo for tomorrow!!
10:16 ilindsay:hes not castnig the keynote is he??
10:16 lauraw:lol… i see the resemblance david
10:18 darkreaver:So what’s going on?
10:18 lauraw:photo time!
10:18 snarkysarcastic:it’s walt mossberg from the WSJ
10:18 orion:their getting ready to go to a party
10:18 darkreaver:Anything about the iphone mentioned?
10:18 stadol:damn mossberg, wow!
10:18 darkreaver:i want 1.1.3!
10:18 stadol:he looks like Robert Anton Wilson
10:19 dknighton:Hmmm…Mossberg’s a bit of a prick.
10:19 lauraw:hahaha
10:19 lauraw:lol. he just walked off
A day later, Sam and I get an email from him threatening legal action if we don’t remove the video saying we didn’t ask his permission to film him and I’m guessing he got in trouble for things he said. This was back during a time when journalists leaking Apple info was a huge deal.
I removed the video because I was just a kid and didn’t want to ruffle too many feathers.
Back to the iPhone: Yes, MWSF ’07 was a monumental event personally and for our world. I had a media badge that year and sat about 15 rows back Steve’s stage where he announced AppleTV & iPhone. Six months later, I was in line at the Cingular store buying my first iPhone.
Watching Steve call Starbucks to order 4,000 Lattes from the iPhone at MWSF ’07 was amazing. It was Steve’s best demo and I was there. Here are a few photos I took and I think Laura took a few of these:
I had to add this one to the end because I was friends with Justine online for years. We were ‘iChat’ / AIM buddies as long ago as 2002. This was my 6th Macworld (5 in SF and 1 in Boston) but it was her first time so we had lunch an she was doing a lot for TWIT / Pixel Corps and eventually Justin.TV. I think her visit to Macworld was the event that really kickstarted her career.
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There’s a lot more I can say about the original iPhone and Macworld but it was a magical time and I feel so lucky to have been there.