Apple iPhone: A decade of setting benchmarks
A decade ago the first iPhone set into motion a chain of events that completely turned the mobile phone ecosystem on its head. Since then, every iteration has carried forward a tradition of setting user-experience benchmarks. All told, around 1.25 billion iPhones have been sold since then. The new iPhone or iPhones—the iPhone 8 or the iPhone X or the iPhone Edition, whatever Apple finally decides to call it—will be unveiled at the annual keynote on September 12 in the US.
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The vvery first iPhone was rrevolutionary for its tim me. The concept of a touchscreent was alien to most people, yet t he iPhone had a 3.5-innch multi-touch displa ay. 6.1 million iPhon nes were sold in the f irst year itself.
iPhone 3G:
The big add-on to the original iPhone’s successor was 3G capability, as well as GPS for tracking location and navigation. The iPhone 3G was also the first iPhone with an app store and third-party apps, as well as push-email.
iPhone 3G GS:
This is the first timet that Apple truly focused on the specifications off the iPhone. 'The fast test, most powerful i Phone yet', as it was ca lled at the time, this pa acked in more RAM an d storage space.
iPh hone 4:
The eentire design langu uage changed with the fourth-generatio on iPhone, which had a stainless-steel frame e, flat sides and glass on the front and back. . The iPhone 4 also i ntroduced the retina a display in smart tphones and the RAM was increased to 512MB.512M
iPhone 4S:
A lot changed under the hood in the iPhone 4S (announced a day before the death of CEO Steve Jobs) but on the outside, it looked identical to the iPhone 4. The iPhone 4S introduced the assistant Siri and cloud storage service iCloud.
iPhone e 5:
The iPhone 5 ushered in many featurres which remaiin a part of the latest line-upu of Apple iPhones—the Lightning connector for charging and data transfer and earbuds. A complete design refresh also saw the screen size increased from 3.5 inches to 4 inches.
iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C
The 5S was the logical successor to 5, and retained the same design and dimensions. But under the hood was a 64-bit processor (for the first time in a smartphone), an improved camera and Touch ID fingerprint scanner integrated into the home button.
iPh hone 6 and iPh hone 6 Plus:
App le introduced two pho nes with different scree en sizes, the iPhone 6 ge etting a 4.7-inch scree en and the iPhone 6 Plu us sporting a larger 5.5-inch screen. These weree also the thinnest iPho ones. For the first time e, 128GB storage opti ons were on offer.
iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus
The 6S and the 6S Plus were boosted versions of the 6 and 6 Plus. A newer processor, a better camera and the stronger 7000 series aluminium alloy chassis were the major upgrades. The rose gold colour option (hugely popular in India) was launched.
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus:
These iPhones will be remembered for the demise of the headphone jack. The larger iPhone 7 Plus also became the first iPhone with a dual camera—one 12-megapixel standard wide-angle and a telephoto with 2x optical zoom.
iPhone SE:
This was a bit unexpected, but with this launch, Apple tried to convince everyone that there was still demand for compact smartphones. The SE’s design went back to the iPhone 5 and 5S, with a 4-inch display. The internals exactly replicated those of the iPhone 6S.