The concept of the iPhone was invented in 2000 by an Apple employee John Casey. He proposed combining a portable iPod and a mobile phone in a single device, which he called the Telipod. Soon, a team of Apple experts led by co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs and vice president of industrial design Jonathan Ive began building the iPhone.
The first pancake is lumpy
The first smartphone from Apple was the ROKR E1, released on September 7, 2005. The phone was created in cooperation with Motorola and was, in fact, an ordinary Motorola E398. Only the color of the case was changed and software from Apple was added, in particular, the iTunes player, reminiscent of the iPod interface.
The first pancake came out lumpy. Despite a powerful advertising campaign, sales of the phone did not go. Its design was considered unsuccessful, and its functionality was weak. Some print media recognized the phone as a failure of the year. Both partners were dissatisfied with the cooperation, blamed each other for the failure. Everyone decided to go their own way.
Despite the setback, Steve Jobs signed a two-way partnership with Cingular Wireless, which now operates under the AT&T brand. Jobs also announced that Apple plans to build its own mobile phone soon.
The iPhone was created in the strictest secrecy. Engineers developing various components of the phone were even forbidden to communicate with each other.
Innovative phone
On January 9, 2007, at a corporate conference held in San Francisco, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPhone. He described the new device as a combination of a large-format iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone and a breakthrough Internet switch.
IPhone production began on June 29, 2007 in the United States. Thousands of people pre-signed up for iPhones at Apple and Cingular Wireless offices. In retail stores, shoppers simply swept away smartphones in a matter of hours. Soon, sales of the iPhone started in the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Portugal, the Republic of Ireland and Austria.
As conceived by Steve Jobs, the iPhone became the first mobile phone without a rigid dial pad. It was fully touch, with innovative multitouch technology, original scrolling and zooming systems.
The iPhone also had an accelerometer and motion sensor built in, allowing users to change the horizontal and vertical screen by simply turning the phone. The aesthetic design of the smartphone was developed by Jonathan Ive.
The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have published positive but cautious reviews of the new smartphone. Their main criticisms were related to the slow Internet speed of the cellular operator Cingular Wireless, and the inability of the iPhone to work with 3G technology. Columnists for The Wall Street Journal concluded that "despite some flaws and artistic omissions, the iPhone is a breakthrough pocket computer."
Time magazine named the iPhone the best invention of 2007.
