The iPhone is Apple's smartphone line first shown by Steve Jobs in January 2007, and one of the most reliable meme engines in tech. From #bendgate and #hairgate on the iPhone 6 Plus to Phil Schiller's 'courage' quote and the Face ID jokes that followed the iPhone X notch, each new launch handed Twitter and Reddit a fresh scandal to riff on.
Origin
Steve Jobs introduced the first iPhone on January 9, 2007 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. He pitched it in three parts: 'a widescreen iPod with touch controls,' 'a revolutionary mobile phone,' and 'a breakthrough Internet communications device,' before revealing that all three descriptions pointed to one product[1]. The device shipped that June and helped set off the smartphone era.
The iPhone itself was not a meme at launch. What turned it into one was the launch ritual, an annual keynote with a huge online audience watching in real time, ready to screenshot any awkward quote or design choice[6]. That feedback loop is what later produced #bendgate, #hairgate, the 'courage' bit, and the notch discourse[2][7].
- Platform: Apple keynote / Twitter (meme spread)
- Creator: Apple
- Date: 2007
Overview
The iPhone works less like one meme and more like a rolling supply of them. Every September launch delivers a hardware quirk, quote, or design choice that gets flipped into hashtags, screenshots, and image macros within hours[1]. The '-gate' suffix became the standard tag for whatever problem users found first, starting with #bendgate on the iPhone 6 Plus in 2014[2]. Days later, #hairgate followed for beard and hair getting caught in the aluminum seam[3][4]. Even a Samsung Galaxy Note 4 defect got the same treatment as #gapgate around the same week[5].
Face ID on the iPhone X pulled the same reflex, with jokes casting the screen notch as Bert from Sesame Street's unibrow and wrestler John Cena riffing on not being able to be seen[8]. Phil Schiller's line that removing the headphone jack took 'courage' spawned an r/apple shitpost of users replying with the single word 'courage,' and the joke is still trotted out whenever an Apple product drops a port[7]. Tech reporters cover the meme cycle almost as closely as the products themselves[6].
How It Spread
Enthusiast communities formed quickly around the device. Cydia, an open-source alternative to the official iOS Installer.app for jailbroken devices, was released in February 2008[9], and the r/iphone subreddit was launched on January 25 of that year[8]. The jailbreak scene gave the iPhone its first sustained online subculture before the meme cycle kicked in.
The first meme wave that reached mainstream news was #bendgate in September 2014. MacRumors forum user hanzoh posted a thread titled 'iPhone 6 Plus slightly bent after 2 days' on September 21, and Twitter user SeanPincombe coined the #bendgate hashtag in reply to a Wario64 tweet linking the thread[8]. Within a week, the tag was tweeted over 37,000 times, and an Unbox Therapy video demonstrating the bend hit more than 7.4 million views in under a day[2]. Complaints about hair getting pinched in the seam between glass and aluminum then produced #hairgate, following a 9to5Mac community post titled 'My iPhone 6 Plus is yanking out my hair,' with Twitter user Peter Phillips credited for coining the tag[4][3].
The iPhone 7 event on September 7, 2016 removed the 3.5mm headphone jack, and Apple's Phil Schiller framed the decision as 'courage,' a word the r/apple crowd immediately turned into a one-word reply format[6][7]. The iPhone X keynote on September 13, 2017 unveiled Face ID and the screen notch, drawing a John Cena 'you can't see me' tweet that pulled more than 330,000 retweets and 560,000 likes in its first days[8]. Each September launch since kept the pattern going.
How to Use
There is no single template. iPhone memes track Apple's launch calendar. When the company holds an event in September, users watch for a hardware flaw, an awkward marketing quote, or a design choice worth mocking, then attach it to a '-gate' hashtag or a one-word reply format[2][7]. The joke usually peaks on Twitter and Reddit's r/apple within a day before tech sites write it up[3][6].
Frequently Asked Questions
What is iPhone?
The iPhone is Apple's smartphone line, first introduced by Steve Jobs in January 2007, and the source of a rolling series of internet memes tied to its annual launches[1].
Where did iPhone come from?
Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone on January 9, 2007 at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, describing it as an iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator in one[1].
What does iPhone mean?
It is Apple's marketing name for the device Jobs revealed at Macworld 2007 by combining a widescreen iPod, a mobile phone, and an Internet communicator into a single product[1].
How do you use iPhone as a meme?
Each September keynote produces a hardware quirk or Apple quote that gets turned into a '-gate' hashtag or a short reply format on Twitter and r/apple[2][7].
Is iPhone still popular as a meme?
Yes. New launches still generate viral reactions, and the 'courage' bit is still cited any time Apple drops a legacy port[7].
What was #bendgate?
It was the viral 2014 hashtag started by Twitter user SeanPincombe after complaints that the iPhone 6 Plus could bend in a pocket, boosted by an Unbox Therapy video with more than 7.4 million views in a day[2].
What was #hairgate?
It was a follow-up joke tag in October 2014 for hair and beard getting caught in the seam between the iPhone 6 Plus glass and aluminum body[3][4].
What did Phil Schiller mean by 'courage'?
At the iPhone 7 event in 2016, marketing chief Phil Schiller said it took 'courage' to remove the 3.5mm headphone jack, a line that r/apple turned into a one-word shitpost[7].
What was the iPhone X notch controversy?
The iPhone X screen had a small camera cutout at the top, and users mocked it with wallpapers casting the notch as Bert from Sesame Street's unibrow after the September 13, 2017 keynote[8].
What is Cydia?
Cydia is a software distribution platform for jailbroken iOS devices, released in February 2008 as an open-source alternative to Apple's Installer.app[9].
