Taking a Look at the History of the Apple iPhone

Apple has a long standing reputation for always coming out with modern products that are geared to cater to the masses. Before the Apple iPhone was released in June 2007 there was a lot of commotion about what it would be like and what type of particular details the new product would have. It stands to reason, because the Apple iPhone is one of the most innovative products that joins together the technology of iPods, a radical cell phone with a useful internet device, all this combined is like having three products in one.

The Beginnings

The reported known beginning of the Apple iPhone came from a meeting headed by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, with his engineers, tasking them to research touch screen capability, at the time he was probably going to use it to advance the Apple PC tablet. Steve Jobs announced in a conference held in April 2003, that Apple would not be focusing their attention on traditional PDAs or tablet PCs.

The new direction for future development, would be targeted toward improving on the technologies associated with the cell phone. Word got out during the January 2007 MacWorld Expo, that the Apple iPhone was going to be released to consumers in June of that same year. During another conference later that same year, the Apple iPhone was announced that it would be able to connect with third parties creating Web 2.0 applications which users could use for internet access.

Release and Further Developments

It was in June 2007 that the Apple iPhone was made available to the public, people literally would line up outside of stores before they opened, in hopes of being one of the first to purchase one. At first when the Apple iPhone was introduced to the public, it was available in either a 4GB for $499 or 8GB for $599 however, it was quickly evident that the 8GB was far more popular in demand, so Apple soon stopped making the 4GB.

Without any notice in September, Apple decreased the asking price for it’s iPhone by about $200, which really upset a large amount of early consumers who paid much more for their iPhones. When the Apple iPhone was first released, it was expected to be a great deal more popular than it actually was.

For example, the sales for the first weekend were initially estimated to be somewhere between 200,000 and 700,000 products. To their disappointment only around 145,000 devices were activated and registered that first weekend.

In addition, Apple iPhone applications were initially only offered to those who agreed to a two-year subscription with AT&T, and that included some offers that would not pay off for everyone. There was also wide media coverage of a 300-page bill, after which AT&T made a change in its billing practices.

Apple iPhone was launched in Europe by the end of 2007, in Germany, the United Kingdom and France. Apple encountered a possible legal issue in Europe because they had chosen one specific company to be the only one from where the Apple iPhone could be sold.