The production of the iPhone can attributed to Steve Job’s diktat to the Apple engineers to research more in the touch screen and tablet technology. The development of the Newton Message Pad played a very important role in creating the iPhone. Similar to the Newton Pad, even the iPads have minimal buttons and a simple design.
Jonathan Ive, the head of design at Apple is the hand behind Apple products’ sleek design, features and looks.
In 2003, Jobs realized the huge potential market for a PDA and that traditional hand held devices were not a good market for Apple to enter. Jobs then directed the Apple engineers to focus on iTunes. The iTunes was first launched in collaboration with Motorola in it Moto ROKR device.
The poor performance of the ROKR forced Jobs to discontinue its contract with Motorola. The ROKR had certain hardware limitations which propelled Jobs to create an independent product – the iPhone. On June 2007, Apple released its first iPhone at the Macworld convention which left millions of Apple fans around the world gaping in awe.
Jobs once described his dream – the iPhone as another iPod which has a bigger screen and better data and internet connectivity. Apple iPhone uses the Safari browser which is much faster and even allows you to download 3rd party vendor apps and software. An initial glitch in the earlier versions of the iPhone were that the iPhone could only operate on an AT&T connection. However, users trying to jail break the device led to AT&T providing an option to discontinue service on a payment of $178.
After the grand success of the iPhone, the iPhone 3G was launched in 2008. It was to no one’s surprise that customers lined up outside the Apple stores to lay hands on their favourite phone. However users complained about the steep prices of the device and thus Apple, brought down the prices of the phone when the iPhone 4 got released. The success of the iPhone was so phenomenal that over 78 million phones were sold off by 2010 itself, surpassing the sales of the Mac combined over the years.
The success of the iPhone can be measured from the fact that within one year of the declaration of iPhone and 6 months of its launch, Apple stock prices shot up to $180. Released in 2009, iPhone 3GS was able to sell off a million phones and appreciate the stock value to $200 in merely 2 days. All records were broken with the launch of iPhone 4 which sold a million pieces on the release day and kicked the stocks to as high as $270 by year end.
The history of the iPhone suggests that it has grown incrementally in its features and appearance. Apple iPhone has come a long way since its Moto ROKR days; have a look at its iTunes library with over 7 lakh apps, and you will get the picture. Along the way, Apple has improved its software, made the iPhone much more sleek and light and improved its battery life. From a phone with no camera, to a phone with voice recognition and action software like the Siri, the iPhone has come a long way to reach the kind of success that it enjoys today The success of the iPhone can be attributed to Apple’s perseverance as it has come a long way from its first phone which lacked even a camera, to the current iPhones which have voice recognition and command software such as the Siri|Voice and action software such as the SIri, are a major improvement from its initial days in the market with not even a camera in the phone and the company is now reaping benefits of its hard-work and perseverance of the R&D department.