February 5, 2008: Six months after the first generation iPhone went on sale, Apple is releasing a new version with a whopping 16GB of storage.
“For some users, there’s never enough memory,” says Greg Joswiak, Apple’s vice president of worldwide iPod and iPhone marketing. “Now people can enjoy even more of their music, photos and videos on the most revolutionary mobile phone and the best Wi-Fi mobile device in the world.”
Apple will increase the iPhone’s original storage to 16 GB
When the first generation iPhone went on sale, it was initially offered in a low-end 4GB and a high-end 8GB variant. However, it immediately became apparent that the 4GB option was too small. And that was before the App Store opened, allowing people to fill their phones with downloadable software.
The 16GB iPhone model was clearly needed. So Apple supplied one.
In early September 2007, Apple discontinued the 4GB iPhone and—in a controversial move—dropped the price of the 8GB model from $599 to $399. For several months, users had only one option. Then Apple decided to boost sales by introducing a new 16GB iPhone priced at $499.
The upgrade is causing confusion for AT&T
Photo: Apple
After some confusion for AT&T (the only iPhone carrier at the time), it was also revealed that customers could upgrade from an 8GB to a 16GB iPhone without signing a new contract. Instead, upgrades could pick up where their old contracts left off.
At the time, Apple was second only to BlackBerry in US mobile market share with 28% to BlackBerry’s 41%. Globally, Apple came in third with 6.5%, behind Nokia (a massive 52.9%) and BlackBerry (11.4%). This was largely due to the fact that the iPhone was only available in a few countries.
The 16GB iPhone storage option continued until the 2016 iPhone 7 (albeit as the smallest storage option).
What was the first iPhone model you owned? Let us know in the comments below.
