Skip to main content

Science & Tech Quote by Steve Jobs

"An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator... these are NOT three separate devices! And we are calling it iPhone! Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. And here it is"

About this Quote

Jobs is selling a device, but he’s also selling a story about inevitability. The famous three-part drumbeat - “an iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator” - is a stage trick: he parcels the future into familiar categories, lets the audience nod along, then snaps them back with the reveal that those categories are already obsolete. The emphatic “NOT” isn’t just emphasis; it’s a controlled act of aggression against the existing phone industry, a verbal elbow aimed at carriers, BlackBerry, and every gadget that treated music, web, and calls as separate kingdoms.

The subtext is Apple’s preferred self-myth: we don’t iterate, we “reinvent.” That verb does two jobs at once. It flatters the audience for being present at a supposed turning point, and it preemptively reframes any rough edges as the price of witnessing history. “And we are calling it iPhone” lands like a coronation, not a product name. Apple isn’t entering a category; it’s claiming naming rights to the category itself.

Context matters: 2007 was a moment of fragmented tech identities - your iPod for joy, your phone for necessity, your laptop for the internet. Jobs compresses those lives into one object and dares you to accept it. The line “And here it is” is deceptively simple. It’s the instant where hype becomes artifact, where the abstract promise of convergence turns into something you can hold, and then can’t imagine living without.

Quote Details

TopicTechnology
SourceSteve Jobs, Macworld keynote (Jan 9, 2007). See Apple press release "Apple Reinvents the Phone" and the Apple Special Event keynote/video where Jobs introduces the iPhone as combining "an iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator" and says these are not three separate devices.
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Jobs, Steve. (2026, January 14). An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator... these are NOT three separate devices! And we are calling it iPhone! Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. And here it is. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/an-ipod-a-phone-an-internet-mobile-communicator-24986/

Chicago Style
Jobs, Steve. "An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator... these are NOT three separate devices! And we are calling it iPhone! Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. And here it is." FixQuotes. January 14, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/an-ipod-a-phone-an-internet-mobile-communicator-24986/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"An iPod, a phone, an internet mobile communicator... these are NOT three separate devices! And we are calling it iPhone! Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone. And here it is." FixQuotes, 14 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/an-ipod-a-phone-an-internet-mobile-communicator-24986/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Steve Add to List
Steve Jobs 2007 iPhone reveal: not three separate devices
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

Steve Jobs

Steve Jobs (February 24, 1955 - October 5, 2011) was a Businessman from USA.

97 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Mary Timony, Musician