History of iPhone goes back to around 2004 when Steve Jobs headed a secretive project called the ‘Project Purple’. The team was handed to look into a touch screen and tablet computer which gave way for the iPad. Apple’s early nineties products, Newton Message Pad had similarities with iPhone. Both had full-screen form-factor with no hardware buttons. AT&T helped Apple with the wireless technologies. Hence, the two companies reached a tying agreement as the iPhone (first generation) was sold exclusively through AT&T.a
On June 29th, 2007, Steve jobs launched the Apple iPhone and changed the way we look at mobile devices. The iPhone design elements used aluminum and high-quality plastic. It came with a 2-megapixel camera and 3.5-inch screen. iOS (apple’s mobile operating system) was also revealed with this device in 2007 which used iTunes synchronisation with desktops and also supported edge.
Apple released its second generation iPhones in 2008 called iPhone 3G. The company also introduced its Apps Store for the first time with updated iOS (version 2). Of course, this device supported third generation (3G) of mobile telecommunication technology. iPhone 3GS was launched in 2009 where the word S stood for speed as it used a faster processing chip. Additional features included a 3-megapixel camera and 32 GB of internal storage. The previous generation only had options of 8 or 16 GB. As the iPhone was improving, so was iOS with AppStore incorporating various third-party applications.
A Wholesome Improvement in 2010 with the iPhone 4
In 2010 came the iPhone 4 which showcased new design elements like glass and aluminum, plastic was ditched making the device look more premium. It finally had a 1 GHZ Processor with 512 MB of RAM. Camera quality was enhanced to 5 megapixels, and iPhone became a top contender for the crown of the best camera phone – being the closest to the Nokia N8. Apple adopted the “S” philosophy, that we had seen on iPhone 3GS. Hence iPhone 4s came out in 2011 with more tweaking like the 8 megapixel sensor and 64 GB of space and lastly a front-facing camera which the selfie lovers sweared by (albeit for a pretty short period, considering the Android competitors).
Industrial Design Incorporated with the iPhone 5
Apple changed the form factor of the iPhone with the launch of iPhone 5 in 2012. It was cast on single aluminum unibody same as that of a MacBook. This made it stand out in the market amongst other phones. Other significant features included a CPU clocked at 1.3 GHZ with 32 Bit architecture (ARM) and a front facing camera of 1.2 megapixels. Apples also used retina display of the iPhone 5.
It was time for the S to be launched, but yet again, Apple surprised us and came up with iPhone “C” (cheap maybe) in 2013. S used camera aperture and motion co-processor. C came out as the plastic version of iPhone 5 – hence, cheaper. But, the iPhone 5C wasn’t very successful.
A Larger Screen Real Estate with the iPhone 6
Now, it was time for Apple to increase the screen size and take it up to 5″ display similar to the Android competitors. In 2014, Apple lined up new devices called the iPhone 6 with 4.7″ and newer iPhone 6 Plus which had a 5.5-inch display. The processor now included 1.4 GHZ dual core with motion coprocessor. The 32 GB version was discontinued, with an additional model of 128 Gigs onboard. In 2015, Apple launched its S version, which was expected but with an unpredictable new feature called the “3D touch.” It is basically a new combination of gestures which can be used by tapping the screen differently and launching things faster. Other important features included a 12-megapixels rear camera, 5-megapixel front-facing camera, 1.85 GHZ Dual Core processor 64-bit architecture and 2GB of RAM.
It’s 2016 and as people were looking forward to the iPhone 7, Apple unveiled the iPhone SE – or the device that’s more of an iPhone 5/5S with the internals of an iPhone 6S!