All the features missing from the first iPhone
Startup founders love the idea of launching a perfect product.
But the most important product of the last 20 years—the iPhone—launched wildly imperfectly.
It was missing obvious features and lacking core functionality, even for the time.
And yet it changed the world.
Here’s what the first iPhone didn’t include:
App Store: There was no way to install apps until a year later.
Copy & Paste: Not added until 2009. Two full years after launch.
MMS (Photo Messages): Couldn’t send photos via text until iPhone OS 3.0.
Video Recording: Just photos. Want video? Wait for the 3GS.
Front Camera: No selfies until the iPhone 4. That’s three years post-launch.
GPS: No turn-by-turn directions. It only had WiFi + cell tower triangulation.
3G: It only supported 2G. Even at launch, it was outdated.
Flashlight: No LED flash. Early flashlight apps just lit up the screen white. (Yes, there were flashlight apps.)
Custom Wallpapers: Couldn’t personalize your home screen until 2010.
Retina Display: The screen was pixelated by today’s standards. “Retina” came later.
The iPhone was a category-defining product, but by today’s standards, many of its omissions would be considered dealbreakers.
Yet it shipped. Because speed mattered more than perfection.
It sparked an ecosystem of thousands of companies worth tens of billions.
Your product doesn’t need to be perfect.
It needs to be real.
It needs to ship.
When the iPhone launched in June 2007, Apple’s market cap was around $100 billion.
For perspective: Today, Apple’s market cap is over $3 trillion. That’s a 30x+ increase since launch.