The list from the Webby Awards is out, and the 2007 introduction of the iPhone weighed in as one of the Top 10 Most Influential Moments of the Decade.  Among the other moments were: the 2008 Presidential Campaign; the launch of America’s favorite research site, Wikipedia; and the launch of Google AdWords.  Apparently they assembled their list before this hit the market.

Now before you get all in arms about the presidential campaign being in the same list as Wikipedia, and the iPhone, we are talking about the most influential moments in a decade, the moments that actually affected our day-to-day lives.  As far as Wikipedia goes, it is something that has debatably made us either smarter, or lazier.  Whichever side you take, I can guarantee that you, in the last several weeks, have Wiki’d something.  This is a phenomenon that is big enough that when I type “Wikipedia” here in this little Word document, it doesn’t show up with a red squiggly line under it, and thusly important, and changed my life today.  I digress.

The people over at the Webby Awards describe the launch of the iPhone as such:

The iPhone was released on June 29, 2007. By the end of the weekend, half a million had been sold, and smartphones had gone from a luxury item to a necessity. The iPhone inspired the development of operating systems like Google Android, as well as an app for just about every aspect of modern life. Over the next decade, it's estimated that a billion new users will come to the Internet for the first time through mobile devices.

Pretty big, I know.  The iPhone got the ball rolling, and brought the smartphone to the masses, and out of the hands of all those Blackberry carrying executive types.  It gave the smartphone the ability to be a little more fun, and less stuffy.  Games, and apps more involved than Solitaire came to your pocket via the iPhone.