Today is 7 years since the iPhone was launched.

Here’s a great article on how complex a project it was and how bodgy it was when it was first launched – reception was so weak they had to bring a portable mobile phone tower into the building,  multiple phones ready in case one crashed, running on  a Japanese wi-fi channel so it wouldn’t get swamped by the other wifi devices in the room, and a carefully scripted path of tasks that could work without the phone crashing.

And here’s the launch… flawless!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c_m2F_ph_uU

I reckon you can see how nervous Jobs is about 6 min in when he first touches the phone. Check out how nervous John Ives is when Jobs asks if he can put him on hold to answer the incoming call!

It looks so smooth, what a swish presentation from a device that at that stage couldn’t even play through one video without crashing. Notice all the ‘oohs’ and ‘aaahs’ at simple things that all phones have now, like ‘slide to unlock’ (gasp).

These guys are genius.