The iPhone is the first smartphone model designed and marketed by Apple Inc. After years of rumors and speculation, it was officially announced on January 9, 2007, and was later released in the United States on June 29, 2007. It featured quad-band GSM cellular connectivity with GPRS and EDGE support for data transfer.
On June 9, 2008, Apple announced its successor, the iPhone 3G. After this announcement, the first-generation iPhone became referred to by some sources as the iPhone 1 due to the fact that it was the only iPhone to ship with the 2G-speed EDGE network. The original iPhone has not received software updates from Apple since iPhone OS (now iOS) 3.1.3.
Since June 2013, the original iPhone is considered "obsolete" in Apple retail stores, "vintage" by other service providers in the US, and "obsolete" in all other regions. Apple does not service vintage or obsolete products, and replacement parts for obsolete products are not available to service providers.
Video IPhone (1st generation)
History
In 2005, Apple CEO Steve Jobs conceived an idea of using a multi-touch touchscreen to interact with a computer in a way in which he could directly type onto the display. He decided that it needed to have a triple layered touch screen, a very new and high tech technology at the time. This helped out with removing the physical keyboard and mouse, the same as a tablet computer. Jobs recruited a group of Apple engineers to investigate the idea as a side project. When Jobs reviewed the prototype and its user interface, he conceived a second idea of implementing the technology onto a mobile phone. The whole effort was called Project Purple 2 and began in 2005.
Apple created the device during a secretive and unprecedented collaboration with AT&T, formerly Cingular Wireless. The development cost of the collaboration was estimated to have been $150 million over a thirty-month period. Apple rejected the "design by committee" approach that had yielded the Motorola ROKR E1, a largely unsuccessful collaboration with Motorola. Instead, Cingular Wireless gave Apple the liberty to develop the iPhone's hardware and software in-house.
The original iPhone was introduced by Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007 in a keynote address at the Macworld Conference & Expo held in Moscone West in San Francisco, California. In his address, Jobs said, "This is a day, that I have been looking forward to for two and a half years", and that "today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone." Jobs introduced the iPhone as a combination of three devices: a "widescreen iPod with touch controls"; a "revolutionary mobile phone"; and a "breakthrough Internet communicator".
Six weeks before the iPhone was to be released, the plastic screen was replaced with a glass one, after Jobs was upset that the screen of the prototype he was carrying in his pocket had been scratched by his keys. The quick switch led to a bidding process for a manufacturing contractor that was won by Foxconn, which had just opened up a new wing of its Shenzhen factory complex specifically for this bid.
Maps IPhone (1st generation)
Release
The iPhone was released in the United States on June 29, 2007 at the price of $499 for the 4 GB model and $599 for the 8 GB model, both requiring a 2-year contract. Thousands of people were reported to have waited outside Apple and AT&T retail stores days before the device's launch; many stores reported stock shortages within an hour of availability. To avoid repeating the problems of the PlayStation 3 launch, which caused burglaries and even a shooting, off-duty police officers were hired to guard stores overnight.
It was later made available in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland, and Austria in November 2007.
Six out of ten Americans surveyed said they knew the iPhone was coming before its release.
Post-release
The iPod Touch, a touchscreen device with the media and internet abilities and interface of the iPhone but without the ability to connect to a cellular network for phone functions or internet access, was released on September 5, 2007. At the same time, Apple significantly dropped the price of the 8 GB model (from $599 to $399, still requiring a 2-year contract with AT&T) while discontinuing the 4 GB model. Apple sold the one millionth iPhone five days later, or 74 days after the release. After receiving "hundreds of emails...upset" about the price drop, Apple gave store credit to early adopters.
A 16 GB model was released on February 5, 2008 for $499, the original launch price of the 4 GB model. Apple released an SDK on March 6, 2008, allowing developers to create the apps that would be available starting in iPhone OS version 2.0, a free upgrade for iPhone users. On June 9, Apple announced the iPhone 3G, which began shipping July 11. The original iPhone was discontinued 4 days later; total sales volume came to 6,124,000 units.
Software
During release, the iPhone was marketed as running "OS X". The name of the operating system was revealed as iPhone OS with the release of the iPhone SDK. The original iPhone supported three major versions of the operating system before it was discontinued: iPhone OS 1, 2, and 3. However, the full iPhone OS 3 feature set was not supported, and the last update the original iPhone received was iPhone OS 3.1.3.
Software history
The original operating system for the original iPhone was iPhone OS 1, marketed as OS X, and included Visual Voicemail, multi-touch gestures, HTML email, Safari web browser, threaded text messaging, and YouTube. However, many features like MMS, apps, and copy and paste were not supported at release, leading hackers jailbreaking their phones to add these features. Official software updates slowly added these features.
iPhone OS 2 was released on July 11, 2008, around the same time as the release of the iPhone 3G, and introduced third-party applications, Microsoft Exchange support, push e-mail, and other enhancements.
iPhone OS 3 was released on June 17, 2009, and introduced copy and paste functionality, Spotlight search for the home screen, and new features for the YouTube app. iPhone OS 3 was available for the original iPhone as well as the iPhone 3G. However, not all features of iPhone OS 3 were supported on the original iPhone.
iPhone OS 3.1.3 was the last version of iPhone OS (now iOS) to be released for the original iPhone.
Reception
Only four writers were given review models of the original iPhone: David Pogue of The New York Times, Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal, Steven Levy of Newsweek, and Ed Baig of USA Today. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal published positive, but cautious, reviews of the iPhone, their primary criticisms being the relatively slow speed of the AT&T's 2.5G EDGE network and the phone's inability to connect using 3G services. The Wall Street Journal's technology columnist, Walt Mossberg, concluded that "despite some flaws and feature omissions, the iPhone is, on balance, a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer." Time magazine named it the Invention of the Year in 2007.
Timeline of models
See also
- List of iOS devices
- Comparison of smartphones
- Apple Newton
References
External links
- iPhone - official site
Source of article : Wikipedia