Today is the fifth anniversary of the iPhone.

It's been an incredible five years for Apple, and nothing illustrates how incredible it's been better than this 2007 exchange between Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer and David Lieberman of USA Today:




In the case of music, Apple got out early. They were the first to really recognize that you couldn't just think about the device and all the pieces separately. Bravo. Credit that to Steve (Jobs) and Apple. They did a nice job.

But it's not like we're at the end of the line of innovation that's going to come in the way people listen to music, watch videos, etc. I'll bet our ads will be less edgy. But my 85-year-old uncle probably will never own an iPod, and I hope we'll get him to own a Zune.

Ballmer's uncle probably didn't get a Zune. Almost no one did. And the iPhone has taken much more than 2% to 3% of the market.

As you can see, five years ago Microsoft was the most valuable tech company in the world and its CEO was sneering at Apple.

Today, Apple is the most valuable company in the world. Microsoft is building its own hardware, just like Apple.

(Via NY1, which mentioned this USA Today interview this morning.)

And watch the unveiling of every iPhone below: