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Five years ago today, Apple shocked the world by launching a mobile phone. It wasn’t just any mobile phone though; it had virtually no buttons and relied on a large touchscreen.
Many ridiculed Apple for being a computer company with the nerve to challenge the established likes of Nokia, Motorola and Research in Motion (BlackBerry) at their own game. With the odds stacked against them, Apple launched the original iPhone on June 29th, 2007.
It was only available on one carrier in both the US and the UK – AT&T and O2 respectively – and it was deemed pricey at $500. Nevertheless, hoards of people queued at stores to pick up the new smartphone, which had been dubbed by the tech press as “the Jesus phone”. Just six countries were privy to the original iPhone at launch.
Back then rivals such as Nokia weren’t worried about Apple’s ideas. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion ridiculed the idea of a phone that had an mp3 player and camera built in, and relied on a touchscreen. Right now that very same company is facing serious losses and the potential loss of 5000 employees. Nokia too, has now lost millions for two quarters on the bounce.
The original iPhone had no 3G connectivity, no copy and paste, no mms messaging and no app store. Ex-CEO Steve Jobs was originally against the idea of letting others create software for the iPhone – a sign of Jobs’s desire to make the iPhone a very controlled product. Nevertheless, with a software update Apple added in these features along with the App Store, and the ‘app’ was born. Nowadays it’s a household word and there are over 600,000 of them available to download in an instant.
A little over a year later Apple added another lacking feature, announcing the iPhone 3G on July 11th, 2008. The 3G was sleeker with a glossy black or white back and curved edges, and a better battery to cope with 3G connectivity. Asides from those changes, most of the specifications remained the same. The iPhone went worldwide at launch, with 22 countries receiving it, including the original six.
By now rival phone manufacturers were catching on, announcing similar smart features, touchscreen devices and applications. Google were most famously named as Apple’s rival, launching Android shortly after the first iPhone. Apple became caught up in many legal battles with rival manufacturers, constantly claiming that their ideas had been borrowed or stolen. This is still going on today, with Samsung being Apple’s closest and most sued rival.
We’ve now witnessed Apple’s sales of iPhones grow year on year, from just 0.27 million during the quarter that it launched the original in 2007 to 35.10 million last quarter. Apple’s tradition of keeping the same design for two years in a row has now expired with the glass and metal iPhone 4 and 4S, which means we should be seeing something pretty different revealed later this year.
Many may not like Apple’s closed attitude to software, apps and phones, but there’s no denying that people love their take on the mobile phone. Happy Birthday, iPhone.
Let us know your thoughts on our comments below or via our @Gadget_Helpline Twitter page or Official Facebook group.
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