Was it only five years ago that the iPhone assumed command of our everyday lives?
Yes. Yes, it was.
The first iPhones were sold June 29, 2007, according to the San Jose Mercury News. A half-decade on, the iPhone has sold 218 million units -- including 72 million phones in the first half of 2012 alone, up from 1.3 million in 2007 -- and has generally dominated the cultural and technological landscape, according to the newspaper.
"There has been no other device that has changed social and technological life in such a short time," Clifford Nass, a Stanford University sociologist told the newspaper. "There has been nothing like it in the world."
It's true. Just ask Siri.
It's worth mentioning that analysts five years ago called the iPhone overhyped and guessed that the BlackBerry's ascendancy over "serious" users would never be threatened. Hah.
The days of the "CrackBerry" appear over, with device manufacturer Research in Motion slashing jobs and the main competitor to the iPhone being Google-powered Androids.
Apple, meanwhile, has become a corporate behemoth largely based on the success of the iPhone, the newspaper reported. The company recorded $160 billion in sales in the current fiscal year, the newspaper reported -- a 550 percent increase from the pre-iPhone days.
