History of the iPhone,nbinspire

The history of the iPhone development by Apple Inc. spans from the early 2000s to about 2010. The first iPhone was released in 2007. By the end of 2009, iPhone models had been released in all major markets.

 Initial development

The project within Apple Inc. for developing the iPhone began with a request in 2004 from CEO Steve Jobs to the company's hardware engineer Tony Fadell, software engineer Scott Forstall and design engineer Sir Jonathan Ive[1] to work on the highly confidential "Project Purple."

While pitting two teams of engineers led by Fadell and Forstall, Jobs decided to investigate the use of touchscreen devices and tablet computers (which later came to fruition with the iPad).Jobs ended up pushing for a touch-screen device that many have noted has similarities to Apple's previous touch-screen portable device, the Newton MessagePad. Like the MessagePad, the iPhone is nearly all screen. Its form factor is credited to Apple's Chief Design Officer, Jonathan Ive.

Jobs expressed his belief that tablet PCs and traditional PDAs were not good choices as high-demand markets for Apple to enter, despite receiving many requests for Apple to create another PDA. In 2002, after the iPod launched, Jobs realized that the overlap of mobile phones and music players would force Apple to get into the mobile phone business. After seeing millions of Americans carrying separate BlackBerrys, phones, and Apple's iPod MP3 players; he felt eventually consumers would prefer just one device.

Jobs also saw that as cell phones and mobiles devices would keep amassing more features, they will be challenging the iPod's dominance as a music player. To protect the iPod new product line, which by the start of 2007 was responsible for 48% of all of Apple's revenue, Jobs decided he would need to venture into the wireless world. So at that time, instead of focusing on a follow-up to their Newton PDA, Jobs had Apple focus on the iPod. Jobs also had Apple develop the iTunes software, which can be used to synchronize content with iPod devices. iTunes had been released in January 2001.

Several enabling technologies made the iPhone possible. These included lithium-ion batteries that were small and powerful enough to power a mobile computer for a reasonable amount of time; multi-touch screens; energy-efficient but powerful CPUs, such as those using the ARM architecture; mobile phone networks; and web browsers. Apple approached glass manufacturer Corning in 2005 to investigate the possibility of a thin, flexible, and transparent material that could avoid the problem of metal keys scratching up phone screens. Corning reactivated some old research material that had not yet found an application to produce Gorilla Glass.

Beta to production

The iPhone beta was created in 2004 to test the device and its functions. The beta version enabled Apple to develop the phone's capabilities before launching a final product. While it may technically have been the first iPhone that was created, it was never released to the public, so it has not been considered the first iPhone[failed verification]

In an effort to bypass the carriers, Jobs approached Motorola. On September 7, 2005, Apple and Motorola collaborated to develop the Motorola ROKR E1, the first mobile phone to use iTunes. Jobs was unhappy with the ROKR, among other deficiencies, the ROKR E1's firmware limited storage to only 100 iTunes songs to avoid competing with Apple's iPod nano. iTunes Music Store purchases could also not be downloaded wirelessly directly into the ROKR E1 and had to be done through a PC sync. Apple therefore decided to develop its own phone, which would incorporate the iPod's musical functions into a smartphone.

Feeling that having to compromise with a non-Apple designer (Motorola) prevented Apple from designing the phone they wanted to make,Apple discontinued support for the ROKR in September 2006, and, after creating a deal with AT&T (at the time still called Cingular ), released a version of iTunes that included references to an as-yet unknown mobile phone that could display pictures and video. This turned out to be the first iPhone (iPhone 2G).

On June 29, 2007, the first iPhone was released.[26] The iPod Touch, which came with an iPhone-style touchscreen to the iPod range, was also released later in 2007. The iPad followed in 2010.

Public announcement

On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone at the Macworld convention, receiving substantial media attention. Jobs announced that the first iPhone would be released later that year. On June 29, 2007, the first iPhone was released.

On June 11, 2007, Apple announced at the Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference that the iPhone would support third party applications using the Safari engine. Third parties would be able to create Web 2.0 applications, which users could access via the Internet. Such applications appeared even before the release of the iPhone; the first of these, called OneTrip, was a program meant to keep track of users' shopping lists.

Launch

After some trial and error, the first iPhone was officially launched and made accessible to the public in 2007, and was advertised noticeably at the Macworld of that same year. In this first release, the iPhone was accessible in the US, UK, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Finland, France, Spain, Italy and South Africa. On June 29, 2007, Apple released version 7.3 of iTunes to coincide with the release of iPhone.This release contained support for iPhone service activation and syncing.

The first generation iPhone was manufactured in the Shenzhen factory of the Taiwanese company Hon Hai (also known as Foxconn).

The first-generation iPhone is commonly retroactively referred to as the "iPhone 2G" due to only supporting 2G mobile data. This name was, however, never used by Apple.

Connection to AT&T

When Apple announced the iPhone on January 9, 2007, it was sold only with AT&T (formerly Cingular) contracts in the United States.After 18 months of negotiations, Steve Jobs reached an agreement with the wireless division of AT&T to be the iPhone's exclusive carrier . Consumers were unable to use any other carrier without unlocking their device.

Apple retained control of the design, manufacturing and marketing of the iPhone. Since some customers were jailbreaking their iPhones to leave their network, AT&T began charging them a $175 early-termination fee for leaving before the end of their contract.

court cases

Main article: Apple Inc. litigation

Reverse of three iPhones, showing the Apple logo

An iPhone 6 Plus alongside two models of the iPhone 6s (back)

Questions arose about the legality of Apple's arrangement after the iPhone was released. Two class-action lawsuits were filed against the company in October 2007: one in federal court and the other in state court. According to the suits, Apple's exclusive agreement with AT&T violated antitrust law.

The state-court suit, filed by the law office of Damian R. Fernandez on behalf of California resident Timothy P. Smith,[38] sought an injunction barring Apple from selling iPhones with a software lock and $200 million in damages.[39] In Smith v. Apple Inc., the plaintiffs said that Apple failed to disclose to purchasers its five-year agreement with AT&T when they bought iPhones with a two-year contract and cited the Sherman Act's prohibition of monopolies.[40]

The second case was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California. The plaintiff, Paul Holman, filed a complaint against Apple and AT&T Mobility that he could not switch carriers or change SIM cards without losing iPhone improvements to which he was entitled. Holman also cited a Sherman Act violation by the defendants. On July 8, 2010, the case was affirmed for class certification. On December 9 the court ordered a stay on the case, awaiting the Supreme Court's decision in AT&T v. Concepcion (disputed whether the state's basic standards of fairness were met by a clause in AT&T's contract limiting complaint resolution to arbitration). On April 27, 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that AT&T met the state's fairness standards

In 2017, Apple was sued after they admitted to slowing down older phone models. The plaintiffs, Stefan Bogdanovich and Dakota Speas, filed the lawsuit when their iPhone 6s was slower after an update. The plaintiffs were entitled to compensation due to the interferences and the economic damages they suffered.

Advertising

See also: iPod advertising

The first advertisement for iPhone, titled "Hello", aired during the 79th Academy Awards on February 25, 2007, on American Broadcasting Company (ABC). On June 4, 2007, Apple released four advertisements announcing that iPhone would be released on June 29. , 2007.

domain name

On July 1, 2007, it was reported that Apple paid at least US$1 million to Michael Kovatch for the iphone.com domain name, previously owned by Kovatch since 1995. The URL now redirects to Apple's iPhone page.

United States release

People waiting to buy the iPhone upon release in New York City, June 29, 2007

On June 28, 2007, during an address to Apple employees, Steve Jobs announced that all full-time Apple employees and those part-time employees who had been with the company for at least one year would receive a free iPhone. Employees received their phones in July after the initial demand for iPhones subsided.

Initially priced at $499 (equivalent to $623 in 2020) and $599 (equivalent to $748 in 2020) for the 4GB models and 8GB models respectively, the iPhone went on sale on June 29, 2007. Apple closed its stores at 2:00pm local time to prepare for the 6:00pm iPhone launch, while hundreds of customers lined up at stores nationwide.

In the US and some other countries, iPhones could be acquired only with a credit card, preventing completely anonymous purchases of iPhones.[49][50][51] At the time, there was no way to opt out of the bundled AT&T data plan. At first, iPhones could not be added to an AT&T Business account, and any existing business account discounts could not be applied to an iPhone AT&T account. AT&T changed these restrictions in late January 2008.

The Associated Press also reported in 2007 that some users were unable to activate their phones because, according to AT&T, "[a] high volume of activation requests [was] taxing the company's computer servers." On October 29, 2007, the Usenet newsgroup misc.phone.mobile.iphone was created.[relevant?]

Early estimates by technology analysts estimated sales of between 250,000 and 700,000 iPhones in the first weekend alone, with strong sales continuing after the initial weekend. As part of their quarterly earnings announcement, AT&T reported that 146,000 iPhones were activated in the first weekend. Though this figure does not include units that were purchased for resale on eBay or otherwise not activated until after the opening weekend, it is still less than most initial estimates. It is also estimated that 95% of the units sold were the 8GB model.

Outsized bills

Main article: 300-page iPhone bill

Stories of unexpected billing issues began to circulate in blogs and the technical press a little more than a month after the iPhone's heavily advertised and anticipated release.[59] The 300-page iPhone bill in a box received by iJustine on Saturday, August 11, 2007[60][61] became the subject of a viral video, posted by the following Monday, which quickly became an Internet meme. This video clip brought the voluminous bills to the attention of the mass media. Ten days later, after the video had been viewed more than 3 million times on the Internet, and had received international news coverage, AT&T sent iPhone users a text message outlining changes in its billing practices. ...

Price drop outcry

On September 5, 2007, the 4GB model was discontinued, and the 8GB model price was cut by a third, from US$599 to US$399. Those who had purchased an iPhone in the 14-day period before the September 5, 2007 announcement were eligible for a US$200 "price protection" rebate from Apple or AT&T. However, it was widely reported that some who bought between the June 29, 2007 launch and the August 22, 2007 price protection kick-in date that this was a larger-than-normal price drop for such a relatively short period and accused Apple of unfair pricing.

In response to customer complaints, on September 6, 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote in an open letter to iPhone customers that everyone who purchased an iPhone at the higher price "and who is not receiving a rebate or other consideration", would receive a US$100 credit to be redeemed towards the purchase of any product sold in Apple's retail or online stores.

iPhone 3G pricing model changes

With the July 11, 2008 release of the iPhone 3G, Apple and AT&T changed the US pricing model from the previous generation. Following the de facto model for mobile phone service in the United States, AT&T would subsidize a sizable portion of the upfront cost for the iPhone 3G, followed by charging moderately higher monthly fees over a minimum two-year contract.

iPhone 4 CDMA release

On January 11, 2011, Verizon announced during a media event that it had reached an agreement with Apple and would begin selling a CDMA iPhone 4. The Verizon iPhone went on sale on February 10, 2011.

During Apple's official unveiling of iPhone 4S on October 4, 2011, it was announced that Sprint would begin carrying the reconfigured CDMA iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S in the US on October 14.Cricket Wireless announced on May 31, 2012 that it would become the first prepaid carrier in the US to offer iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, beginning June 22, 2012. A week later, Virgin Mobile USA became the second American prepaid carrier to offer iPhone 4 and 4S, announcing plans to release the phones on June 29, 2012 .T-Mobile USA's inability to provide iPhone to customers raised its subscription churn rate, decreased the percentage of lucrative postpaid customers, and contributed to parent Deutsche Telekom's decision to sell it to AT&T in March 2011, although AT&T canceled the deal in December 2011 because of antitrust concerns. T-Mobile began offering iPhone on April 12, 2013.

Southeast Asia release

SingTel (in Singapore) and Globe Telecom (in the Philippines) were the first two carriers to launch the iPhone in Southeast Asia. Both carriers launched the iPhone 3G in August 2008.

On March 20, 2009, Telkomsel became the first telecommunications company in Indonesia to offer the iPhone 3G with customizable plans for all Telkomsel customers.[clarify] In the same month, Maxis was only the first carrier officially launched the iPhone 3G in Malaysia.

In October 2011, StarHub launched the iPhone in Singapore. Smart Communications followed suit in December 2011 by launching the iPhone 4S in the Philippines. Smart Communications was the last telecommunications company to carry Apple's iPhone in Southeast Asia.

Australian release

The iPhone 3G was released in Australia on July 11, 2008.

New Zealand release

The very first iPhone 3G model, released on July 11, 2008[clarify] was sold in Auckland, New Zealand to 22-year-old student Jonny Gladwell at 12:01 am NZST.[94] The iPhone 3G was available only to customers on the Vodafone network.[clarify] There was criticism from some New Zealand customers when Vodafone announced pricing for the iPhone 3G, as Vodafone was the only network to offer this generation of iPhone.[where?]

The first-generation iPhone was available for sale in New Zealand only through parallel import stores soon after it went on sale in the US. The original models available for sale in New Zealand were unlocked for use on the Vodafone network and could be used with any plan, including pre-paid plans.

Subsequent launches of iPhone models in New Zealand have typically been a few weeks after the worldwide release.

On November 8, 2011, Telecom announced that they would offer the iPhone 4S on their network, along with earlier models (the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4).

Canadian release

After months of high anticipation, the first iPhone to be released in Canada was the iPhone 3G. Rogers Wireless began offering 8 GB and 16 GB models on July 11, 2008. Facing a public backlash,[98] Rogers dropped the price of its service plan from CA$100 to CA$30 per month.

The iPhone 3GS, with the new iPhone OS 3 operating system, was released in Canada by Rogers Wireless on June 19, 2009. Users who signed up for a 3-year agreement with a data option[clarify] could choose between a 16 GB device for CA$199 and a 32 GB device for CA$299.

Bell and Telus Mobility announced that they would release iPhone on November 4 and 5, 2009, respectively.

Non-exclusive deals

On May 6, 2008, Vodafone announced that they had signed a deal with Apple to sell iPhone in Australia, the Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Italy, India, Portugal, New Zealand, South Africa, and Turkey.

Subsequent announcements confirmed that Apple was moving away from exclusive one-carrier deals.[needs update?] Soon after Vodafone's announcement, TIM announced that it would also be selling iPhone in Italy, on May 12, 2008, Optus[103] confirmed that it would sell iPhone in Australia and SingTel confirmed that it would be selling iPhone in India through its Indian Joint Venture, Airtel.[clarify]

On June 4, 2008, SoftBank Mobile released a press release stating that it would start selling iPhone in Japan during 2008.

Russia's second largest mobile operator, Beeline, announced on August 28, 2008 that they signed a contract with Apple to sell iPhone on the Russian market by late 2008. The deal was rumored to be non-exclusive, according to unofficial statements made by MTS and MegaFon. MTS and MegaFon belong to the "Russian Big Three",[relevant?] and were expected to release the iPhone 3G at the same time as Beeline. As predicted, MegaFon issued a press release regarding the iPhone 3G release on September 2, 2008.

On November 14, 2008, Vodafone Egypt and Mobinil started selling the iPhone 3G in Egypt. iPhone 3G is priced at EG£3,800 and EG£4,600 for the 8 GB and 16 GB models respectively. Customers must also sign up for one of 3 service plans[clarify] to use the phone.

On September 28, 2009, Orange announced that they were going to become the second operator of the iPhone in the UK, indicating that an exclusive deal that O2 had established with Apple in 2007 had ended. Orange later announced that the iPhone would be released on November 10, with pricing plans starting from £29.36 on contract and £440 for the 3GS 16GB on pay as you go.[clarify][106]On the following day, Vodafone UK announced that they would be selling the iPhone by early 2010, becoming the third UK network and Vodafone's 11th country to offer the iPhone.

Verizon Wireless

There had been ongoing speculation in the United States that Apple might offer a CDMA-compatible iPhone for Verizon Wireless.[109] This speculation increased on October 6, 2010, when The Wall Street Journal reported that Apple would begin producing a CDMA-compatible iPhone, with such a model going on sale in early 2011.

On January 8, 2011, the Wall Street Journal confirmed that Verizon Wireless would, on January 11, 2011, officially announce the launch of a CDMA-based iPhone for use on their network. The date in which the Verizon iPhone would go on sale was unknown, though the two most recent[needs update?] iPhone releases were made available within weeks of their launch announcement. Verizon confirmed the announcement on January 11, with an on-sale date of February 10.

On January 11, 2011, Verizon announced that they would start carrying a CDMA version of Apple's iPhone 4 during February 2011. Existing Verizon Wireless customers could pre-order iPhone on February 3. Pricing for the iPhone 4 was $199 for 16GB and $299 for 32GB .The Verizon iPhone 5 released on Friday, September 19, in the United States; it was the first GSM unlocked iPhone,[114] which worked on AT&T and other GSM networks.

World timeline

The international release of iPhone was staggered over several months. Today, the iPhone is available in most countries.[115]

Date Country Carrier(s) (released date)

June 2007 United States (1) AT&T (2007), Verizon (February 2011), Sprint (October 2011), C Spire Wireless (Late 2011), Cricket (June 2012), Virgin Mobile (June 2012), T-Mobile (April 2013), Boost Mobile (November 2013), US Cellular (November 2013)

November

2007 United Kingdom† Germany France‡ (4) O2, 3, T-Mobile, Orange, Vodafone, EE, Tesco Mobile§, Virgin Mobile (November 2013)

March

2008 Austria† Ireland (6) T-Mobile, O2, Orange

July

2008 Australia† Austria† Belgium‡ Canada† Denmark Finland Hong Kong†‡ Italy†‡ Japan Mexico Netherlands New Zealand Norway†‡ Portugal† Spain Sweden Switzerland† (23) 3, movistar, Optus, Orange (Mobistar, One, Optimus), Rogers Communications (Fido Solutions,[116] Rogers Wireless), SoftBank, Swisscom, América Móvil (Telcel), TIM, TeliaSonera (NetCom), Telstra, T-Mobile, Vodafone

August

2008 Argentina† Chile† Colombia† Czech Republic†‡ Ecuador† El Salvador† Estonia Greece†‡ Guatemala† Honduras Hungary India† Liechtenstein† Macau Paraguay Peru† Philippines Poland† Romania Singapore Slovakia† Uruguay† (45) 3, América Móvil (Claro) , Comcel, Porta), Era, movistar, O2, Orange, SingTel, Bharti Airtel, Aircel, Globe, Smart – December 2011, SingTel, Swisscom, TeliaSonera (EMT), T-Mobile, Vodafone, Telenor

September

2008 Brazil†‡ Latvia Lithuania South Africa Turkey† (50) TIM, América Móvil (Claro), TeliaSonera (LMT, Omnitel), Turkcell, Vivo, Vodafone (Vodacom), MTN Group, Oi

October

2008 Luxembourg† Russia‡ (52) Beeline, MegaFon, MTS

November

2008 Croatia Egypt† (54) T-Mobile, Vodafone, Mobinil

Later

2008 Botswana Cameroon Central African Republic Dominican Republic† Guinea Ivory Coast Jamaica Jordan Kenya Madagascar Mali Malta Mauritius Republic of Moldova Nicaragua† Niger Panama Réunion Taiwan† Qatar Senegal United States Virgin Islands Venezuela (79) América Móvil (Claro, MiPhone), Chunghwa Telecom, movistar, Orange, Vodafone

January

2009 Thailand (80) True Move

February

2009 Saudi Arabia United Arab Emirates (82) Mobily, Etisalat, du

March

2009 Bulgaria Republic of North Macedonia Indonesia† Malaysia (86) GLOBUL, T-Mobile, Telkomsel, Maxis

October

2009 People's Republic of China†[117] (87) China Unicom

November

2009 South Korea[118] (88) KT

December

2009 Guam[119] Qatar Uganda Israel (92) Singapore GTA Teleguam, Vodafone, Orange, Pelephone, Cellcom, StarHub, M1

March

2010 Vietnam[120] Armenia (94)[121] Viettel Mobile, MobiFone, VinaPhone, Orange

September

2010 Tunisia[122] (95) Orange

June

2011 Slovenia[123] Trinidad & Tobago[124] (97) Simobil (now A1), Telekom Slovenije, bmobile

December

2013 Sri Lanka[125] Dialog Axiata

May

2014 Kosovo[126] (98) IPKO

October

2014 Serbia MTS, Telenor Serbia, Vip Mobile