History of the iPhone - Initial releases

It will be a series of blogs where we will discuss about iPhones and some unknown facts. This part give you overview of 5 iPhones.

Introduction

An idea on Apple iPhone was born in 2005. In 2006, they actively started working for this project named "Project Purple". They had a challenge to build the team. They wanted everything to be top secret. Steve Jobs didn't want any one from outside the company could work on "Project Purple". He was so concerned about security that even those who were being internally recruited couldn’t be told what they were working on before they joined. Team spent many sleepless nights and weekends on developing this fine product. Their hard work paid off and new era begin.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Do you know? It is reported that Apple paid a significant amount to Michael Kovatch on 1 July 2007 for the transfer of iPhone.com domain name.

Apple iPhone 2007

June 29th, 2007 was the historic day when Apple had launched its first ever iPhone. Also June 29th is very very special to me. In this day, it's not just the best-selling gadget ever created, It's probably the most influential one too.

It had some good features like

Multi-touch
Proximity sensor
Ambient Light Sensor
Accelerometer
Price: $599 (with contract)
Camera: 2mp(Only rear)
Storage: 4, 8 and 16GB
Weight: 136g
Thickness: .45'', 11.6mm
Display: 3.5'', 88.9mm

Do you know? When Apple CEO Steve Jobs first introduced the iPhone in 2007, he made a prank call to a nearby Starbucks and ordered 4,000 lattes. He cancelled it immediately.

You can checkout the launch event below.

History at a glance

June 29, 2007 – First iPhone is released
July 11, 2008 – iPhone 3G came to market
June 19, 2009 – iPhone 3GS released
June 24, 2010 – iPhone 4 launched
October 14, 2011 – iPhone 4S released
September 21, 2012 – iPhone 5 launched
September 20, 2013 – iPhone 5C and iPhone 5S launched
September 19, 2014 – iPhone 6 and 6 Plus
September 25, 2015 – iPhone 6s and 6s Plus
March 31, 2016 – iPhone SE released
September 16, 2016 – iPhone 7 and 7 Plus
September 22, 2017 – iPhone 8 and 8 Plus
November 3, 2017 – iPhone X
September 21, 2018 – iPhone XS and XS Max
September 26, 2018 – iPhone XR
September 10, 2019 – iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max

These are the key events that happened over last 12 years.

Apple iPhone 3G

A year later, Apple's 2008 iPhone included support for 3G networks, which offered much faster access to internet, and it came at a much lower price. Most important, it added the App Store, which gave developers a way to build and sell software to millions of smartphone owners.

Here is the summary of it's features:

3G capability
Bluetooth 2.0+EDR
iOS 2.0, but can support up to iOS 4.2 (upgraded from the original iOS)
A-GPS, which allowed for more accurate location services.
5 hours talk time or web browsing on 3G
10 hours talk time on 2G
6 hours of battery life on WiFi
7 hours of battery life for videos
24 hours of battery life for just music
8 GB ($199) or 16 GB ($299) of storage space (up from 4 or 8)

Apple iPhone 3GS

Most of the things did not change in Apple iPhone 3GS, 2009. There were some changes in its internal specifications.

Below are the specs for iPhone 3GS:

A 600 MHz processor with 256 MB RAM
A 3.0-megapixel camera that allowed for video recording
Bluetooth 2.1+EDR
A digital compass
5 hours talk time or web browsing on 3G
12 hours talk time on 2G (up from 10)
9 hours of battery life on WiFi (up from 6)
10 hours of battery life for videos (up from 7)
30 hours of battery life for just music (up from 24)
16 GB ($199) 32 GB ($299) of internal memory (up from 8 or 16)

Apple iPhone 4

Look wise it was very different from all previous iPhones. For the first time ever, a phone was made from stainless steel, which Apple claimed made it stronger and lighter than any other phone in history.

This one had a Retina display, a front-facing camera, FaceTime, multitasking, and a whole new metallic design. Also, Antennagate. Other specs are as follow:

A 5-megapixel rear camera with LED flash capable of recording videos in 720p
A VGA-quality front-facing camera for FaceTime
A 32-bit, Apple A4 processor, with speeds up to 1GHz and 512MB of RAM (the first time Apple included its own processor in the device)
A Micro-sim tray (GSM versions only)
2 microphones, one for noise canceling to help make calls clearer
A 3-axis gyroscope
iOS 4.0, upgradable to iOS 7
7 hours talk time on 3G (up from 6)
6 hours of web browsing time on 3G (up from 5)
14 hours talk time on 2G (up from 12)
10 hours of battery life on WiFi (up from 9)
10 hours of battery life for videos (no change)
40 hours of battery life for just music (up from 30)
16 GB ($199) 32 GB ($299) of internal memory (no change) with a two-year contract with AT&T

Apple iPhone 4S

It was an interim update to the iPhone 4. It included some exciting new features that had never before been seen in iPhone history. Introduction of Siri, Apple’s voice-controlled assistant that is still in use today and that in many ways introduced the consumer world to the functionality of Artificial Intelligence.

Do You Know? Steve Jobs, one of Apple’s founders and the world’s most well-known person, passed away from pancreatic cancer just nine days before the iPhone 4S was released to the world.

Specs:

An 8-megapixel camera capable of shooting videos in 1080p (up from 5 mp an 720p)
An Apple A5, 32-bit, dual-core processor with speeds up to 1 GHz and 512 MB RAM
Bluetooth 4.0
iOS 5 (upgradeable to iOS 9)
8 hours talk time on 3G (up from 7)
6 hours of web browsing time on 3G (no change)
14 hours talk time on 2G (no change)
9 hours of battery life on WiFi (down from 10)
10 hours of battery life for videos (no change)
40 hours of battery life for just music (up from 30)
16GB ($199) 32GB ($299), or 64GB ($399) of internal memory (64GB model was added with the 4S)

Do You Know? Apple sold more than 1 million iPhone 4s models within 24 hours of its release in October 2011. This massive success of iPhone 4s sales helped Apple become the "Largest Smartphone Vendor".

We will talk about rest of the iPhones in the next part of this series. We will get some more unknown facts about Apple iPhones. Stay tuned...