THE PHONE THAT CHANGED THE WORLD

The very first iPhone was unveiled ten years ago, on 7th anuary 2007. While it wasn’t the first smartphone, it leapfrogged far beyond the competition and launched the mobile revolution, and the world has never been the same since.

The iPhone put the internet in everyone’s pocket

When Steve Jobs unveiled the rst iPhone, he described it as “a revolutionary mobile phone,” a “widescreen iPod with touch controls” and a “breakthrough Internet communications device.” While the rst iPhone didn’t even have 3G connectivity, its webkit-based internet browser made it one of the rst smartphones to deliver a smooth and optimized mobile internet experience. When the second-generation iPhone 3G rolled out with both 3G connectivity and, more importantly, the App Store, there was no longer a need to sit at your desktop computer or laptop to access the internet, everything was available on your phone.

The iPhone turned everyone into a photographer

More and more software developers have shifted their focus to app development rather than traditional computer software.

Photographer Chase Jarvis once said, “the best camera is the one you have with you.” For millions of people, the iPhone became their go-to camera, always within reach to capture the perfect moment. While the iPhone started with just a 2-megapixel rear camera, and no front camera, it was enough to almost single-handedly kill the digital compact camera market.

The iPhone’s internet connectivity and the simultaneous rise of social media apps like Instagram and Twitter in turn, gave people a place to share their photos. According to market research rm, KeyPoint Intelligence, 1.2 trillion digital photos will be taken this year, and 85 percent of those will be with a smartphone. That’s up from 400 billion digital photos taken in 2011.

The iPhone revolutionized software development and distribution

The App Store was launched in 2008 alongside the secondgeneration iPhone 3G. At launch, it had 500 apps. There are now 2.2 million apps on the App Store and there have been more than 180 billion downloads in the past decade. Together with Google’s Google Play store, apps have created endless possibilities for smartphones, turning them into gaming devices, ashlights, barcode scanners, digital maps, music players, image and video editors and more.

More and more software developers have shifted their focus to app development rather than traditional computer software. In the rst quarter of 2017, the combined publisher revenue for downloads and in-app purchases in the App Store and Google Play store grew to US$10.5 billion. The App Store also paved the way for indie and solo developers to publish their work. Vietnamese developer, Dong Nguyen is a famous example of a solo developer achieving success on the app store. At one point Nguyen’s game Flappy Bird was earning US$50,000 a day in in-app advertising.

The iPhone changed mobile gaming

Prior to 2007, mobile gaming required a dedicated handheld device, and was dominated by Nintendo and Sony. Individual games were expensive and required a physical cartridge to play. The iPhone completely changed that. You no longer needed a dedicated handheld console, you already owned everything you needed, and games could be downloaded at a fraction of the cost, often just 99 cents or even for free.

This ease of accessibility has created an entire new generation of gamers, who would previously never have been exposed to gaming. Consider this: Niantic’s Pokémon Go has been downloaded over 750 million times. Contrast that with Nintendo’s entire Mario franchise lifetime sales of just over 500 million.

The iPhone even created an entire new category of touchbased gameplay, eventually persuading even long-time holdouts like Nintendo to come aboard with mobile games based on its iconic franchises like Super Mario Run.

Games could be downloaded at a fraction of the cost, often just 99 cents or even for free.

The iPhone made your phone more secure

Before 2013 everyone unlocked their smartphone with a passcode or in the case of Android users, a complicated pattern. While there were already forms of ngerprint scanning out there (mostly on enterprise laptops), they were awkward to use, requiring a swiping action, and slow to authenticate. That all changed when Apple acquired biometric security rm AuthenTec in 2012, implementing its ngerprint scanning technology into the iPhone 5s’ home button as Touch ID.

With Touch ID, you simply pressed the home button to unlock your device. It unlocked instantly and its biometric authentication meant that you no longer needed to worry about people looking over your shoulder at your passcode or brute forcing it. Touch ID also paved the way for Apple Pay, one of the rst mobile payment platforms, letting you conveniently and securely authorize payments with a simple tap of your thumb.

The iPhone made Apple the world’s most valuable company

Before the iPhone, Apple was known as Apple Computer. In 2007, on the same day the rst iPhone was unveiled, Steve Jobs announced that the company was changing its name to Apple Inc., a company that makes much more than computers. While Apple had found great success with the iPod and Mac in the years before the iPhone, it was nothing compared to what the iPhone would do. In 2006, the year before the rst iPhone, Apple reported US$19.3 billion in revenue. Last year, it generated US$215.6 billion in revenue, of which, 63 percent of its sales came from the iPhone.

The iPhone is one of the bestselling products in history, with more than one billion iPhones sold worldwide, generating more than US$800 billion in total revenue. According to Forbes’ annual list of World’s Most Valuable Brands, Apple continues to lead for the seventh year in a row, worth an estimated US$170 billion, a massive 67 percent more than second-ranked Google, who are valued at US$101.8 billion.