iPhone (1st generation)

In 1999, Apple CEO Steve Jobs envisioned an Apple touchscreen product that the user could interact with directly with their fingers rather than using a stylus. The stylus was a common tool for many existing touchscreen devices at the time including Apple's own Newton, launched in 1993. He decided that the device would require a triple layered capacitive multi-touch touch screen, a very new and advanced technology at the time. This helped with removing the physical keyboard and mouse, the same as was common at the time for tablet computers, human machine interfaces and point of sale systems. Jobs recruited a group of Apple engineers to investigate the idea as a side project.[17] When Jobs reviewed the prototype and its user interface, he saw the potential in developing the concept into a mobile phone to compete with already established brands in the then emerging market for touch screen phones.[18] The whole effort was called Project Purple 2 and began in 2005.[19] Apple purchased the "iphone.org" domain in December 1999.[20]

Apple created the device during a secretive and unprecedented collaboration with Cingular Wireless, now part of AT&T. The development cost of the collaboration was estimated to have been $150 million[21] 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.[22][23] 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.[17] 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".[24] 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".[25]

Six weeks prior to the iPhone's release, the plastic screen was replaced with glass, 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.[26]

An 8 GB iPhone

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.[17] Thousands of people were reported to have waited outside Apple and AT&T retail stores days before the device's launch;[27] 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.[28][29]

It was later made available in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, and Austria in November 2007.[17]

Six out of ten Americans surveyed said they knew before its release that the iPhone was coming.[29]

First iPhone on display under glass at 2007 Macworld

The iPhone's main competitors in both consumer and business markets were considered to be the LG Prada, LG Viewty, Samsung Ultra Smart F700, Nokia N95, Nokia E61i, Palm Treo 750, Palm Centro, HTC Touch, Sony Ericsson W960, Sony Ericsson C905 and BlackBerry.[30][31][32][33] 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.[34] Apple sold the one millionth iPhone five days later, or 74 days after the release.[35] After receiving "hundreds of emails" upset about the price drop, Apple gave store credit to early adopters.[36]

A 16 GB model was released on February 5, 2008 for $499, the original launch price of the 4 GB model.[37] 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.[38] The original iPhone was discontinued on July 15; total sales volume came to 6,124,000 units.

At the time of its unveiling in January, Steve Jobs claimed: "iPhone runs OS X" and runs "desktop-class applications",[40][41] but at the time of the iPhone's release, the operating system was renamed "iPhone OS".[42]

The original iPhone supported three major versions of the operating system before it was discontinued: iPhone OS 1, 2, and 3. The last update the original iPhone received was iPhone OS 3.1.3, as iPhone OS 3.2 was intended for the iPad.

The original iPhone received largely positive reviews. Only four writers were given review models of the original iPhone:[44][45] David Pogue of The New York Times,[46] Walt Mossberg of The Wall Street Journal,[47] Steven Levy of Newsweek,[48] and Ed Baig of USA Today.[49] 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."[50] Time magazine named it the Invention of the Year in 2007.[51]

• 300-page iPhone bill
• Apple Newton
• Comparison of smartphones
• History of iPhone
• List of iOS devices
• Timeline of iPhone models

Wikimedia Commons has media related to iPhone (original).

• iPhone – official site