Those that attended a rather uneventful keynote at this year’s CTIA wireless show were given an unexpected glimpse of the iPhone. AT&T Chief Operating Officer Randall Stephenson surprised the crowd by pulling it out briefly during his keynote speech.

(AP Photo/John Raoux)
The iPhone didn’t stay long, it was quickly whisked away by an Apple employee described as “a guy in blue jeans.” Apparently this was the first time Stephenson actually held a fully-functional iPhone.

He had some help navigating the touch-screen interface backstage by chairman of the FCC Kevin Martin. Martin was fortunate enough to get to spend a couple of minutes with the iPhone before the speech. Jokingly, Stephenson said that “He spent more time with it than I did,” and “It seemed like he wouldn’t give it back.”

It’s good to see that the iPhone at least made an appearance, although brief, at the CTIA Wireless show where our own Vincent Nguyen has been scouting around hoping to catch a glimpse of it. The event isn’t over yet, so there’s always a chance that it will pop up again.

At cell show, a rare iPhone glimpse [via yahoonews]