iPhone (1st)

June 29, 2007

The iPhone is a smartphone developed and marketed by Apple Inc. as the first device in the iPhone lineup of smartphones. It features a Samsung S5L8900 SoC (90 nm), a 3.5 in multi-touch display, and a web browser (Safari). After years of rumors and speculation, it was officially announced on January 9, 2007, and was released in the United States on June 29, 2007.

Development of the iPhone began in 2005 and continued in secrecy until its public unveiling at Macworld 2007. The device broke with prevailing mobile phone designs by eliminating most physical hardware buttons, and relying on a finger-friendly touchscreen interface that did not need a stylus. The iPhone featured quad-band GSM cellular connectivity with GPRS and EDGE support for data transfer, and it used continuous internet access and onboard processing to support features unrelated to voice communication.

The iPhone generated much hype before release, and it quickly became Apple's most successful product, although it was met with less enthusiasm in European territories. At the time, the iPhone appealed largely to the general public, as opposed to the business community, upon which BlackBerry and IBM were primarily focused. By integrating existing technology and expanding on usability, the iPhone turned the smartphone industry "on its head", and later generations of the iPhone propelled Apple to become one of the world's most profitable companies. Its successor, the iPhone 3G, was announced on June 9, 2008.