I don't regret being an iPhone early adopter

Do you remember where you were when Steve Jobs first introduced the iPhone, more than 10 years ago? It's a pretty nerdy thing to admit, but I do. I spent the day glued to my computer, at my desk -- theoretically hard at work. But I was actually devouring Engadget's liveblog, after which I watched and re-watched video of the event so I could see the mythical device in action. And then I spent the next 12 months waiting for my Verizon contract to expire, hating my Moto RAZR the entire freaking time. (Yes, I wasn't a day-one adopter, but I definitely stopped in an AT&T store to play with their demo phones.)

The first iPhone wasn't a world-beater in terms of sales, and many have pointed out that it was the classic "first-gen" Apple product. It lacked important features like 3G connectivity and any third-party apps, you had to hook it up to iTunes to activate it and it was wildly expensive -- $500 for a paltry 4GB of storage (or $600 for 8GB), with a two-year contract.

None of that mattered to me, and that's in large part due to Jobs' presentation, one that's widely considered the best he ever gave. I'd agree with that assessment, because he so clearly outlined the benefits of the iPhone over the phones that most consumers (including me) were using. Some of my colleagues fondly remember the Windows Mobile devices they used before the iPhone and noted how they waited a few years for Apple to fix those first-gen issues, before getting on board.

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