The World in 2007 the year the iPhone arrived
1.3BInternet users
3.3BMobile phones
500MMobile phones in China
$2.80Gallon of gas (US)
$6.88Movie ticket (US)
$399Kindle price at launch
$170MHalo 3 sales on day one
$2What one British pound bought
27EU countries from January
By late 2007 there were about 3.3 billion mobile phone subscriptions, one for every two people on Earth. In a classroom of 30 kids, that is 15 phones.
Life back then

Most phones still had a keypad and a screen the size of a stamp. Netflix mailed DVDs in red envelopes, and renting a movie often meant a trip to the video store. The pound was worth two dollars, so British shoppers flew to New York and came home with full suitcases. Then the iPhone went on sale in June, and phones slowly began turning into pocket computers.
The year in 8 events
- ๐คJan 9 Steve Jobs walks on stage and announces the iPhone. He calls it a phone, an iPod and an internet device in one.
- ๐ฏ๏ธApr 16 A gunman kills 32 people at Virginia Tech, the deadliest school shooting in US history at the time.
- ๐ปApr 27 Waves of cyberattacks start hitting Estonia's banks, media and government sites. It is one of the first online attacks on a whole country.
- ๐ฑJun 29 The iPhone goes on sale in the US. People camp outside stores for days to get one.
- ๐๏ธJul 25 Pratibha Patil is sworn in as India's first woman president.
- ๐ฆSep 14 Savers queue outside branches of Northern Rock to take their money out. It is the first run on a British bank in well over a century.
- โ๏ธOct 25 The Airbus A380, the biggest airliner ever built, carries paying passengers for the first time, from Singapore to Sydney.
- ๐ฏ๏ธDec 27 Former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto is assassinated at a campaign rally.