Joe Rossignol for MacRumors: iPhone Was Missing These 10 Essential Features When Unveiled in 2007

Today marks the 17th anniversary of the late Steve Jobs unveiling the original iPhone at the Macworld Expo in San Francisco. While the device was significantly more advanced than any other smartphone on the market at the time, the iPhone was still missing some essential features that we take for granted today.

Now the Vision Pro is on the cusp of release, and it will surely have tons of omissions that seem like they should be there. If the Vision Pro is successful, we very well may have a MacRumors post in 2041 where we’re shocked by what wasn’t in the 1.0 release that seem like basics to people 17 years in the future.

I’ll also call out that just because the iPhone turned into the biggest consumer product of all time despite lacking some big features when it released is in no way proof that the Vision Pro is going to do the same thing. It’s the same as why crypto/web3 hucksters who used, “people thought the internet was a fad too, and look at it now,” a few years ago as proof that skepticism of their stuff was actually evidence it was something big.

I’ve tried (and failed) to write 4 separate posts about what I think about the Vision Pro and what its rollout means about the product’s prospects, but the truth is I really don’t know. I made some guesses at the end of last year, but I’m certainly not ready to make any big, definitive statements about a product that basically none of us have even seen on someone outside of Apple’s marketing videos (come on Tim Cook, we want to see you in the headset!), let alone used ourselves. The best I can say right now is that $3,500+ is a massive amount of money to spend on one product, and Apple hasn’t made the case to me yet that I need to figure out how to pay for one. That said, I’ll be waiting for reviews and first impressions from users with great interest.