A Quick Recap of Apple iPhones Origins

A Quick Recap of Apple iPhones Origins

Known for making a large variety of advanced technical products, Apple has become a famous brand name among consumers. 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 was no surprise, that what had people talking was the idea of having an incredible new ground-breaking device, that would be an iPod, mobile phone and tool for accessing the internet all in one.

Launching Apple iPhones

The visible or at least documented history of the Apple iPhone starts with the instruction of Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, instructing engineers to start researching touch screens, which at that time he probably still had the development of Apple tablet PCs in mind. 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 was to move forward in evolving the technologies used in cell phones and the options provided with them. In January 2007 during the MacWorld Expo, Apple announced it’s soon to be released new iPhone product would be available by June 2007. Not too long afterwards during another conference people were told that the Apple iPhone could hook up to third parties and create a Web 2.0 application, that would enhance creativity, information sharing, and, most notably, collaboration among users.

Release and Further Developments

When the Apple iPhone went public on June 29, 2007 hundreds of people began to line up in front of stores before opening hours in order to be amongst the first let in, so they could quickly grab one. Originally the Apple iPhone came in two versions, you could either get one with a flash drive with 4GB for $499 or 8GB for $599, however, the 8GB quickly began to sell in an unsurpassed amount, so much so they stopped making the 4GB version altogether.

Moreover, as a further development, the price was radically reduced by $200 in September, for which Apple was quite widely attacked because the sudden drop in price was believed to be unfair. The beginning popularity of the Apple iPhone was by no means as great as expected.

For instance, they expected the first weekend sales to range from anywhere between 200,000 - 700,000, in products sold. To their disappointment only around 145,000 devices were activated and registered that first weekend.

Moreover, the applications of Apple iPhone’s were originally only available to those who made a two-year subscription with AT&T, and that included some offers that would not pay off for everyone. The media uncovered a story of the 300 page AT&T bill someone got for their Apple iPhone usage, which generated much criticism causing AT&T to make changes in billing policies.

Towards the end of 2007 the Apple iPhone was released to Germany, France, England and the United Kingdom. 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.