17 of the Best Internet Reactions to the Original iPhone

“Touch-screen buttons? BAD idea. This thing will never work.”

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs holds the then-new iPhone at an Apple store in London in 2007. (Alessia Pierdomenico / Reuters)

Here’s a gem from the not-too-distant Internet past that seems, in retrospect, way older than it actually is. The tech website BGR unearthed a comment thread from 2007 that originally appeared on the website Engadget, and was preserved by the Internet Archive.

The conversation is focused on the brand new iPhone, which had just been unveiled. It’s a bit disorienting now to try to remember what it was like, eight years ago, to see Apple’s brand-new smartphone for the first time. This thread brings it all back. Here are 17 comments that sum up what it’s like to lay eyes on a device that’s about to change the world:

  1. “Apparently none of you guys realize how bad of an idea a touch-screen is on a phone. I foresee some pretty obvious and pretty major problems here. I’ll be keeping my Samsung A707, thanks... Color me massively disappointed.”
  2. “Touch screen buttons? BAD idea. This thing will never work.”
  3. “I say get on the train, or get run over by it.”
  4. “No freaking way, Apple! It’s over!”
  5. “Well, it beats the hell outta my Nokia 6030”
  6. “Steve...where is my FM radio?”
  7. “OMG, its the Newton reborn!”
  8. “no qwerty keyboard? ojhsdodsagfadhjldgs!!”
  9. “This looks like a disgusting bastard child of iPod/Cellphone/PDA. Yes it's shiny, but I’m sure it won’t be so shiny once you touch it.”
  10. “5 hour battery life!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! ARE YOU KIDDING ME THIS IS A JOKE ITS A PHONE NOT A LAPTOP”
  11. “DAMN! If you think it's big, look at the picture with Steve holding it close up, its like a Razr! Wifi! Everything, good BYE every phone company in the world.”
  12. “Im not impressed with the iPhone. As a PDA user and a Windows Mobile user, this thing has nothing on my phone... No thanks Apple. Make a real PDA please.”
  13. “I mean it looks pretty but its not something i foresee being the next ipod for the phone industry...It took apple how long to develop this ONE PHONE, samsung and motorola release new phones every few months lol, and constantly innovates and gets better, im sorry but if im sending text messages i'd rather have my thumb keyboard than some weird finger tapping on a screen crap.”
  14. “These comments remind me of the folks who thought the original iPod didn't stand a chance.”
  15. “Blackberry is DEAD. And so is every other poorly designed idiot phone and plastic PDA. Thank God. R.I.P. Blackberry. R.I.P. Palm. R.I.P. Treo.”
  16. “That sound I just heard was everybody's head exploding.”
  17. “Good bye Zune.”
Adrienne LaFrance is the executive editor of The Atlantic. She was previously a senior editor and staff writer at The Atlantic, and the editor of TheAtlantic.com.