EOTO: History and Impact of the iPhone
For my EOTO project, I did some research on the history and impact of the iPhone. The iPhone is considered one of the most influential inventions of our time, and has made an incredible mark on the technology industry.
The iPhone started as something Apple called “Project Purple”. Project Purple was a large group of about 1000 Apple employees, who all gathered to create the next big thing. These engineers started to develop a tablet-like device, but Steve Jobs stepped in and decided to shift gears. He steered the focus away from what was becoming a tablet (eventually, the work was used in the development of the iPad) and put their focus onto creating a smartphone that would change the world. Jobs also landed a secret collaboration with Cingular Wireless (eventually rebranded as AT&T), and after months of hard work, the team eventually developed the first iPhone.
The iPhone was announced to the public on January 9th, 2007, with two different models- a 4GB model for $499, and a 5GB one for $599. The product was a big hit, and Apple began working on improving the already innovative iPhone. They released the iPhone 3G and 3GS in 2008 and 2009, allowing the product to become more mainstream. The first iPhone had a very wealthy demographic, as not too many middle and lower-class households had anyone owning an iPhone. That changed as more models came out. The iPhone 4 was released in 2010, but the biggest upgrade for the product was the iPhone 4S released in 2011, as this was the first phone to have Siri as well as a revamped operating system known as iOS 5.
Since 2007, there have been 38 different models of iPhones being sold, with most recently the iPhone 14 being announced along with the 14 Pro and 14 Plus. They are up to iOS 16 in terms of operating systems, and I would not be surprised if they get to iOS 20 by the year 2025. Apple saw double-digit year-on-year iPhone growth from 2008 to 2015, and they are making nearly 200 billion dollars a year strictly off of iPhones alone, accounting for over half of their company’s revenue. The iPhone accounts for over 50% of the entire smartphone market, an astonishing value. 11 million people bought iPhones in 2008. 242 million people bought iPhones in 2021 alone. As of 2021, there are 1.231 billion active iPhone units. The rise of the iPhone has changed the world.
Communication changed as a whole thanks to the iPhone. Through this invention, it became much easier to text, call, and chat all over the world with just the click of a button. The ease of communication through the iPhone made it a near necessity, as now it is near impossible to meet someone who doesn’t own a smartphone. While people may argue that the invention of the iPhone and its subsequent creations (social media etc.) ruined communication as a whole since everyone is always occupied with their devices, I think it’s necessary to say that there have been so many positives that have come out of it that the negatives are outweighed by a large margin.
https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4302-3343-5_1
Comments
Post a Comment