August 2007. First advertisement for the iPhone. #wiredarchive 
One thing I've been pondering recently: the early marketing campaign for the iPhone -- tv ads in particular -- did something that I *still* haven't seen for VR (the supposed next revolution in digital technology)
One of the early tv ads showed how you could use an iPhone to search for a restaurant, find it on a map, then call it to make a reservation. That was incredible! It was a direct appeal to the ways you could actually use it in your actual life.
Another, for a later iPhone model (debuting FaceTime), showed a man using the camera to introduce his parents to their newborn grandchild.
Videophones had a 20+ year history of being a complete waste. No one ever bought or used the damn things. FaceTime turned that on its head.
Videophones had a 20+ year history of being a complete waste. No one ever bought or used the damn things. FaceTime turned that on its head.
For wearables, both Google Glass, Apple Watch, etc, I've never seen marketing campaigns like those. There's never been a clear story about how these objects-from-the-future can be integrated into the present. Same story with VR. What is VR actually *for?*
