21 Photos from the Time Microsoft Threw a Funeral for the iPhone - and Then Immediately Got Buried

Gather 'round, friends, for one of the greatest moments of tech hubris in modern history. Back in 2010, when Microsoft was launching the Windows Phone 7 (yes, that was a thing), someone - somewhere in that very serious corporate structure - thought it would be a great idea to hold a literal funeral for the iPhone and BlackBerry.

Yes. A funeral. With hearses. Coffins. Employees in costume. A full-on New Orleans–style procession through the streets, complete with people dressed as grieving angels. All to celebrate the belief that Windows Phone was about to "bury the competition."

Spoiler alert: it did not. Not even a little bit.

What actually happened was a spectacular crash-and-burn. Within a few years, Windows Phone was discontinued, the app store dried up, and the only thing it successfully buried was its own legacy. Meanwhile, The iPhone? Thriving.

These 21 photos are a perfect reminder of why you should never count your chickens before the eggs, and also why the internet never forgets - especially when you parade around a cardboard coffin labeled "iPhone."

It's tech history. It's cringe comedy. It's marketing gone rogue. And we're still laughing.