Apple iPhone Journey: From iPhone 2G to iPhone 8

iPhone came into existence as an outcome of the most confidential project known as “Project Purple”. The project began when the focus of Apple Inc shifted from iPad to Mobile Phones and it collaborated with AT&T Mobility to work on the same. The team included approximately thousand employees lead by the designer of iPod and iMac, “Jonathan Ive”. It took almost three years to Jobs to present a model of iPhone finally to the public on 9th January 2007 at Macworld 2007 Convention at the Moscone center in San Francisco. iPhone was the device which eradicated the concept of the external keypad in Touch Phones which was then widely used by Motorola and Nokia.

Apple simplified the technology in mobile phones and broke the paradigm and the market, which was then dominated by the brands like Nokia and Blackberry. The mobile phone companies then made individual phones according to the needs of various categories of the customers and Blackberry OS was then in huge demand for business enterprises. But it was the idea of iPhone that revolutionized the whole concept of owning a phone. Apple Inc made iPhone for the people not for the classes.
Since then the craze of iPhone increased drastically and the prime reason for this was innovation in technology not confusing the customers by varying different product which was exclusively practiced by the companies like Nokia and Blackberry. Apple has released ten generations of iPhone till date which is often accompanied by a release in major version of iOS as well. The vision of iPhone seen by Steve Jobs has now completed a decade and the journey so far has defined evolution and intelligence.

iPhone 2G

Steve Jobs perceived the idea of a multitouch device where he can type on the screen itself which led to the formation of the first generation of iPhone. The original iPhone was 3.5 inch in size, 4GB internal memory, and 128MB of RAM along with iPhone OS 1 popularly known as OS X in it. The first generation supported Visual Voicemail, multi-touch gestures, HTML email, Safari web browser, threaded text messaging, and YouTube, however, it lacked basic facilities of Copy and Paste. Later on, these features were added to the device by introducing OS2 and OS3. The release of iPhone was revolutionary, as Steve Jobs said they really reinvented the phone. A total 6.1 Million Dollars profit was earned in just first five quarters after the release which was quite remarkable.

iPhone 3G

The world has now tasted the technology introduced by Apple Inc. On 9th June, 2008 at WWDC 2008, the second generation of iPhone known as iPhone 3G was released. In terms of hardware it was pretty much similar with the former version but various other features like GPS with turn by turn navigation, 3G and UTMS or HSDPA were added to it. The iPhone was rereleased with iPhone OS 2.0 which included the Push mail service. It was the era of iPhone 3G only in which the platform for third party application known as Apple App Store was launched for the iPhone. iPhone 3G came in both 8GB and 16GB versions. However when the operating system was upgraded to iPhone OS version 4, several issues of rapid battery draining and heating of device arose, which was later sorted out with some software changes.

iPhone 3GS

The third generations of iPhone came up with the launch of iPhone 3GS on 8th June 2009 at WWDC. As the name suggests the “S” in the device was marked for the speed which was clearly mentioned on the launch keynote. The most important improvement along with the performance was made in the rear camera with 3MP along with video recording capabilities. It came up the Apple’s iOS operating system. More than one million iPhone 3GS sets were sold within a week of its release. It came with 8GB, 16GB and 32GB versions; however the 8GB version was most preferred. Later on various issues like heating up of device under high performance and discoloration of the body also arose, which Apple encountered with release in some precaution measures to avoid them.

iPhone 4

There were a lot of notable leaks of the iPhone 4 before it was released officially on 7th June 2010 at WWDC by Apple Inc. This fourth generation of iPhone was changed remarkably in terms of hardware as Steve Jobs called it thinnest Smartphone of that period. LCD displays were also replaced by the high end Retina Display. It was launched with iOS 4 which incorporated the multitasking features along with FaceTime video chat, so front faced camera was also introduced. Out of the box, two iPhone 4 were also sent to the Space on the International Space Station for the STS-135 mission.

iPhone 4S

The launch of iPhone 4S came with Apple Inc’s best gift to mankind, the intelligent personal assistant “Siri” along with the sad news of death of Steve Jobs. Tim Cook launched the iPhone 4S as the fifth generation of iPhone on 4th October 2011. It came with the iOS 5 and had major hardware changes like 8 mega pixel rear camera along with 1080p recording. In fact the S in the iPhone 4S stands for Siri. Few issues of audio failure on outgoing calls and various apps like Web Radio was reported but were well resolved.

iPhone 5

iPhone 5 was the only iPhone which was first completely developed under Tim Cook and the last ever seen by Steve Jobs. iPhone 5 introduced the sixth generation of iPhone launched on 21st September, 2012. iPhone 5 came up with a lighter aluminum body with a bigger 9:16 screen aspect ratio. It also included the LTE bandwidth service. Unfortunately this device has some camera issues and also didn’t get enough acceptances by the consumers. iPhone 5 was discontinued after twelve months of its release and it was the shortest lived iPhone.

iPhone 5c

After the failure of iPhone 5, Apple Inc launched iPhone 5c with the same hardware as of its predecessor but came in a polycarbonate cabinet. iPhone 5c was the budget phone of the Apple Inc which was the only iPhone available in many color options. It included iOS 7 and new LTE antennas. However the front camera was reduced back to 1.2 megapixels and the whole device was also heavier than the iPhone5 and iPhone 5S.

iPhone 5S

iPhone 5S was launched simultaneously with iPhone 5c in the year 2013. Although it looked similar to the iPhone 5 from outside but had major hardware changes like introduction of the new Home button with Touch Identification and fingerprint sensor on the home button itself. The aperture of the rear camera was increased with the addition of a dual tone flash on the back side. It came with iOS 7 along with the introduction of an ad-hoc Wi-Fi sharing platform commonly known as Air Drop.

iPhone SE

iPhone SE as the name suggests was a Special Edition iPhone launched in the midway between the iPhone 5 and iPhone 6 on 21st March, 2016. Although it looked like a mini 4inch version of iPhone 5S yet it was powered with the support of iOS 9 along with a better processor and rear camera. It also included features like Apple Pay, live photos and Siri on activation. The smaller size resolved many hardware issues including the battery life and ease of handling it.

iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus

Both iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus were launched simultaneously on 19th September, 2014. Breaking all the stereotypes both the devices were inspired the design of iPad Air with screen bend around edges. The retina display was improved and ion strengthened. iPhone 6 and iPhone 6S were almost identical except the bigger size of iPhone 6S Plus. The bigger size of the screen was used very efficiently and various new gestures were added on the screen. Undoubtedly the smart design of the new iPhone improved the battery life. However few problems of chassis bending were recorded in the devices when applied to certain pressure. But the introduction of iOS 8 made it more intuitive and smarter.

iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus

With a strengthened chassis and an upgraded system-on-chip Apple Inc launched its new generation of iPhone as iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S plus, obviously on the basis of size on 9th September 2015. iPhone 6S and iPhone 6S Plus went through major hardware changes like an upgraded 12 megapixels rear camera , better fingerprint recognition and advanced LTE support. The concept of 3D touch was also introduced in these devices only. Both the devices did record sales of over 13 millions in the first week itself.

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus

The first of iPhone models with a dual rear camera were the smaller iPhone 7 and the bigger version iPhone 7 Plus. They were launched simultaneously on September 2016. Major changes like removal of 3.5mm audio jack and introduction of OIS in the camera capable of DSLR quality images were made in both of the devices. Profoundly these were the first kind of devices with dust and water resistant capabilities.



 
iPhone 8 or iPhone 7S

It is a huge expectation from Apple Inc to launch a device this year on September 2017. It is expected that the upcoming iPhone models include full glass body and with wireless charging support features. It is the tenth anniversary of the iPhone so it’s a challenge for Apple Inc to make it remarkable.