Remember the original iPhone and the first version of iOS? Both look laughable at this point, but they were very real just 4 years ago. Back on June 29 2007, many geeks stood in lines outside Apple Stores to grab the first successful multi-touch smartphone. Since then, the device has come a long way. That’s why our friends at Mashable have created this inforgraphic with the most important milestones in the iPhone’s history, as well as some fun facts.
Here are some of the most important facts:
- Just 3 days after the iPhone App Store was released, 10 million App downloads had already taken place.
- The iPhone wasn’t 3G-capable until nearly 1 year after its introduction.
- The iPhone’s launch price was $499 and $599 for the 4GB and 8GB models respectively, yet 270,000 were sold in the first 30 hours.
- As of June 6th, 2011, there were over 14,000,000,000 downloads.
- Apple accounted for 9 out of every 10 downloads in 2010.
- The iPhone was made available at 6PM on June 29th 2007, after stores were closed for 4 hours.
- Apple’s stock price has almost tripled since the iPhone was first released.
- The iPhone was the first device to run iOS, but other devices running the same system have been released since then, namely the iPod touch, the iPhone and the Apple TV.
After years of rumors, the existence of an iPhone was first confirmed at Macworld 2007, in January of that year. While it lacked many essential features, such as 3G, its multi-touch user interface raised everyone’s expectations of what a phone should be able to do. In the months following its introduction, the iPhone was met with extreme excitement from critics and prospective users. Available exclusively in the United States at first, the iPhone arrived in UK stores in September 2007 with an exclusive contract with O2, and in France later that year. It was only with the 3G version, released in July 2008, that the phone became available almost universally, in countries like Portugal, Spain, Australia and Mexico.
iOS, although it has always looked and felt identical, has changed from the inside out. Long-requested features such as multi-tasking, cut and paste, enhanced business tools and an App Store made it to system over several years after its inception as part of major updates which worked on some older devices. Constant feature additions, even on old hardware, were promised by Apple when the original iPhone was first introduced, and the company has delivered on its promise: the original iPhone can run iOS 3, which features cut and paste and across-the-board improvements. Support for old devices, however, has since been phased out.
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