Announced in January 2007 and
eagerly awaited, the Apple iPhone could play music, take photographs, browse the
internet, send e-mail, play movies and store upto 8gigabytes of
information. It also had Wi-Fi capabilities,
a calculator, calendar and notepad and operated via a nifty touch screen
mechanism and it could make a telephone call.
With its large screen, lack of
buttons and sleek appearance, the iPhone stood out in design terms alone-unlike
its competitors, it did not look like a phone.
What is more, the touch screen was designed to be operated by a finger,
so it was no longer necessary to find the stylus required by other models.
However the iPhone did not perform
as well as expected, with Apple taking only a 5% share of the worldwide
smartphone market. This was in large
part due to the initial retail price of $599, later reduced to $399, much to
the annoyance of early purchasers.
In July 2008 Apple released its
new improved and cheaper iPhone 3G, which could exploit the faster 3G
networks. As for the inventors of the
iPhone, Aplple’s CEO Steve Jobs heads the author list of the patent, although
many Apple employees were involved.
“Slim in profile, the iPhone
presents its menu of functions on a liquid-crystal-display touch screen”
