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Thursday, January 9, 2014

The Apple iPhone first appeared seven years ago

Mark Bridge writes:

In a way, it’s hard to believe that the first Apple iPhone wasn’t seen in public until this day seven years ago. It - and the trend towards one-piece smartphones with hardly any buttons - seems to have been with us for much longer.

Yet it was 9th January 2007 when Apple CEO Steve Jobs walked on stage at at the Macworld Conference in San Francisco and announced “Today, Apple is going to reinvent the phone”. The USA then had to wait until June for the phone to go on sale, selling a million units in 74 days. UK sales begin in November 2007, with the phone (2 megapixel camera, 3.5-inch display and a maximum 8GB of memory) costing £269 on an O2 contract.

But the iPhone wasn’t Apple’s first move into mobile communications. In 2005 the Motorola ROKR E1 had gone on sale. Although it didn’t bear the Apple name, it had been produced in partnership with Apple, was capable of linking with iTunes on a PC and had music controls that were familiar to anyone with an Apple iPod. Unfortunately, the relatively small memory and lack of features when compared to dedicated MP3 players meant the E1 didn’t sell as well as expected.

In fact, the Apple iPhone wasn’t even the world’s first smartphone with a full-length touch-controlled screen. Many would suggest that honour went to the LG Prada KE850, which was announced a week after the iPhone and went on sale in May 2007... while others would point to the stylus-operated IBM Simon from 1993.

However, it’s the success of iPhone that’s changed the way millions of people think about technology. And with $10 billion spent on downloadable apps in the Apple App Store last year, the iPhone is clearly here to stay. For a while, at least.

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1 comments on article "The Apple iPhone first appeared seven years ago"

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Ashley James

1/10/2014 3:21 PM

Apple has gone from an innovative company, to an ordinary company. The companies primary focus seems to be "how to sue Samsung" This is also reflected in margins

http://bit.ly/AppleRevenueBreakDown

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Opinion Articles

Why the cloud will kill SMS text messages... eventually

Mark Bridge writes:

This week my lovely wife made a rare error in leaving her mobile phone behind when she left the house. Fortunately I was working at home, so I was able to answer her calls and relay her messages. But it got me thinking. What were the alternatives?

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This week at The Fonecast: 1st May 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

We've had another short working week here in the UK... although not necessarily if you're working in retail. The reason for that shortness was a combination of Easter Monday and the Royal Wedding – an event that was rumoured to have its own mobile phone jammer.

As well as having another short week, we've also had another week of financial figures.

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This week at The Fonecast: 23rd April 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

It’s Easter, but that’s not stopped the mobile phone industry from generating plenty of news stories.

Let’s start with partnerships. Deutsche Telekom and France Telecom - which already work together as Everything Everywhere in the UK – have now agreed to combine their procurement activities for customer equipment, network equipment, service platforms and IT infrastructure. Yes, even these two telecoms giants can save money with group buying!

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Exactly how boring is the Samsung Galaxy II S?

Mark Bridge writes:

In July last year I wrote about the 'geek porn' of unboxing being taken to a new level with celebrity unboxing (which sounds rather like a challenge from a reality TV show).

Sony Ericsson had persuaded Maria Sharapova to give her first impressions of the X10 Mini Pro. The end result was entertaining, if not insightful.

And now Samsung have added a new facet to the trend with 'extreme unboxing'.

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This week at The Fonecast: 16th April 2011

Mark Bridge writes:

We started this week with a story that grabbed plenty of attention. It was a report from Billmonitor.com that claimed we in the UK were wasting almost £5 billion every year by choosing the wrong mobile tariffs. Although I remained a little cynical about some of the detail, there's no doubt that many consumers could be better off if they switched tariff - or even network.

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A month of mobile: O2 counts on 3, Microsoft counts to 10 and Apple counts its profits

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We're back with a month of mobile industry news, including takeover talks and takeover rumours. O2 and Three are said to be discussing a merger... but is there any truth in the suggestions that BlackBerry could be up for grabs?

We also discuss Apple's record-breaking quarterly figures, the highlights of CES and the launch of Microsoft Windows 10, as well as saying farewell to the current version of Google Glass.

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