June 2007 is not a metaphor. Apple started selling the first iPhone in the United States that month. The rest of the world waited. For a while you could still buy a brilliant Sony Ericsson or a Nokia N-series and feel like the future had already arrived without a touchscreen.
2007 is included, but only through June
This project still draws a hard line. The catalog ends with phones that existed before that first iPhone. 2007 is included, but only through June. A phone announced later that year is outside the map, even if you did not buy an iPhone until 2009. See the 2007 year page for the classics that still count: the Nokia N95, the LG Shine, and the original iPhone as the last station.
Why be strict
That sounds strict. It is meant to be. Nostalgia sites often swallow every smartphone that followed. The result is a mush of glass rectangles. The years before June 2007 still have buttons, antennas, and carrier menus that fought you. They also have a kind of pride: you learned the keypad. You knew which pocket the phone could survive.
If you lived in Europe or Asia, your “before” may last longer in daily life. The iPhone was not in every shop. That is fine. The map is about the phones you used in that era, not about the day you personally switched. Put the last pre-iPhone phone you owned on the line. Then go backwards. The interesting part is rarely the flagship. It is the one you had in a school bag, or the one that died in the rain.
How the map works and the list of classic phones are the next stops if you are ready to draw.