Apple iPhone turns five

Today marks the fifth anniversary of Apple’s iconic iPhone.

Yes, it is hard to imagine now, but there once was a world without the ubiquitous smartphone.

Since the first iPhone hit the shelves on June 29, 2007 more than 217 million units have been sold worldwide, the Washington Post reported.

The iPhone “family” of five generations has generated more than $150 billion in revenue for Apple, according to Strategy Analytics.

Those figures, of course, don’t include the numerous “retromodern” accessories created especially for the iPhone, such as docks in the style of 1930s tabletop telephones (some of which have functional handsets) or Swiss Alpenhorns.

Apple was silent about the fifth anniversary of its mega-popular iPhone – its US website made no mention of any birthday celebrations or cake-cutting events — leaving it to the media and bloggers to harp on about the technology improvements seen in the past five years, and probably drive a few more sales at the same time.

The first iPhone, for example, had a 2-megapixel camera. Yes, that’s right, two.

The iPhone 4S launched in October last year boasts an 8-megapixel camera, which probably explains the sluggish sales in point-and-shoot digital cameras.

More from GlobalPost: Digital camera sales are slumping as smart phone cameras improve

Although it may seem like everyone already owns an iPhone — the device is distributed through 230 different carriers in more than 100 countries around the world, according to the ABC — demand for the gadget remains red-hot.

Way back in 2007, it took the first iPhone 74 days for sales to hit the one million mark, according to the Washington Post. Pre-orders for the latest version took just 24 hours to reach that number.