Originally released on June 29, 2007, the long-rumored iPhone—colloquially referred to by many as the "Jesus Phone" because of how fanatically some people were awaiting its arrival—was awarded Time magazine's Invention of the Year in 2007. Apple originally released the iPhone in two sizes, a 4GB and 8GB model, but quickly discontinued the 4GB model and lowered the cost of the 8GB model. Notable for being one of the first touchscreen phones, the iPhone differentiated itself from touchscreen competitors, like the Prada Phone, by its mobile OS X operating system, multitouch capabilities via which users could pinch or squeeze fingers together to zoom in and out of certain programs, integrated Safari browser, and mail client.

Due to the device's OS X underpinnings, the iPhone became popular amongst developers and hackers and a robost homebrew application development community evolved, creating everything from programs to unlock the iPhone from its exclusivity with AT&T to game emulation programs. Largely because of this active community interest, the discontinued first generation iPhone can still be found on eBay and similar sites for more than the entry level price of the newer iPhone 3G.