The history of the iPhone development by
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
spans from the early 2000s to about 2010. The first
iPhone was released in 2007. By the end of 2009, iPhone models had been released in all major markets.
Genesis of iPhone
It was coming from
Jean Marie Hullot, software engineer from
NextStep
NeXTSTEP is a discontinued object-oriented, multitasking operating system based on the Mach kernel and the UNIX-derived BSD. It was developed by NeXT Computer in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was initially used for its range of proprieta ...
then Macos, the idea of an Apple phone. After years he convinced Steve Jobs doing so. A first team was created in Paris, few years later he took the project more seriously : the french engineers were asked to work back in the US, Hollot declined and resigned from Apple with his team. Another engineer, Henri Lamiraux, was taking back the project with
Scott Fortsall, to develop Apple software on a phone.
Initial development
Initially started from a conflict between
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...
and his brother-in-law working at
Microsoft
Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational technology corporation producing computer software, consumer electronics, personal computers, and related services headquartered at the Microsoft Redmond campus located in Redmond, Washing ...
, then convinced by a French high-level engineer, Jean Marie Hullot, working for Apple France to do so. The project within
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
for developing the iPhone began with a request in 2004 from
CEO
A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especially ...
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...
to the company's hardware engineer
Tony Fadell
Anthony Michael Fadell (born March 22, 1969) is an American engineer, designer, entrepreneur, and investor. He was senior vice president of the iPod division at Apple Inc. and founder and former CEO of Nest Labs.
Fadell joined Apple Inc. in 20 ...
, software engineer
Scott Forstall
Scott James Forstall (born 1969) is an American software engineer, known for leading the original software development team for the iPhone and iPad, and Broadway producer, known for co-producing the Tony award-winning '' Fun Home'' and '' Eclips ...
and design engineer Sir
Jonathan Ive
Sir Jonathan Paul Ive (born 27 February 1967) is a British industrial and product designer, as well as businessman. Ive was the chief design officer (CDO) of Apple Inc. from 1997 until 2019 (known as senior vice principal of industrial design ...
[Gladwell, Malcolm (November 14, 2011)]
"The Tweaker: The real genius of Steve Jobs."
''The New Yorker
''The New Yorker'' is an American weekly magazine featuring journalism, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons, and poetry. Founded as a weekly in 1925, the magazine is published 47 times annually, with five of these issues ...
''. p. 2 to work on the highly confidential "Project Purple."
While pitting two teams of engineers led by Fadell and Forstall, Jobs decided to investigate the use of touchscreen devices and tablet computers (which later came to fruition with the
iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
).
[Cohen, Peter]
Macworld Expo Keynote Live Update
, ''Macworld
''Macworld'' is a website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG Inc. It started life as a print magazine in 1984 and had the largest audited circulation (both total and newsstand) of Macint ...
'', (January 9, 2007) Retrieved February 3, 2007[Block, Ryan]
Live from Macworld 2007: Steve Jobs keynote
, ''Engadget
''Engadget'' ( ) is a multilingual technology blog network with daily coverage of gadgets and consumer electronics. ''Engadget'' manages ten blogs four of which are written in English and six have international versions with independent editori ...
'', (January 9, 2007) Retrieved February 1, 2007[Grossman, Lev]
The Apple Of Your Ear
''Time
Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, to ...
'', (January 12, 2007) Retrieved February 1, 2007 Jobs ended up pushing for a touch-screen device that many have noted has similarities to Apple's previous touch-screen portable device, the
Newton MessagePad
The MessagePad is a discontinued series of personal digital assistant devices developed by Apple Computer for the Newton platform in 1993. Some electronic engineering and the manufacture of Apple's MessagePad devices was undertaken in Japan ...
. Like the MessagePad, the
iPhone is nearly all screen. Its
form factor is credited to Apple's
Chief Design Officer Chief Design Officer (CDO), or design executive officer (DEO), is a corporate title sometimes given to an executive in charge of an organization's design initiatives. The CDO is typically responsible for overseeing all design and innovation aspects ...
,
Jonathan Ive
Sir Jonathan Paul Ive (born 27 February 1967) is a British industrial and product designer, as well as businessman. Ive was the chief design officer (CDO) of Apple Inc. from 1997 until 2019 (known as senior vice principal of industrial design ...
.
Jobs expressed his belief that tablet PCs and
traditional PDAs were not good choices as high-demand markets for Apple to enter, despite receiving many requests for Apple to create another PDA. In 2002, after the
iPod
The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...
launched, Jobs realized that the overlap of mobile phones and music players would force Apple to get into the mobile phone business. After seeing millions of Americans carrying separate BlackBerrys, phones, and Apple's iPod MP3 players; he felt eventually consumers would prefer just one device.
Jobs also saw that as cell phones and mobile devices would keep amassing more features, they will be challenging the iPod's dominance as a music player. To protect the iPod new product line, which by the start of 2007 was responsible for 48% of all of Apple's revenue, Jobs decided he would need to venture into the wireless world.
So at that time, instead of focusing on a follow-up to their
Newton PDA
The Newton is a series of personal digital assistants (PDAs) developed and marketed by Apple Computer, Inc. An early device in the PDA category (the Newton originated the term), it was the first to feature handwriting recognition. Apple started ...
, Jobs had Apple focus on the
iPod
The iPod is a discontinued series of portable media players and multi-purpose mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. The first version was released on October 23, 2001, about months after the Macintosh version of iTunes ...
. Jobs also had Apple develop the
iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
software, which can be used to synchronize content with iPod devices. iTunes had been released in January 2001.
Several
enabling technologies made the iPhone possible. These included
lithium-ion batteries
A lithium-ion or Li-ion battery is a type of rechargeable battery which uses the reversible reduction of lithium ions to store energy. It is the predominant battery type used in portable consumer electronics and electric vehicles. It also se ...
that were small and powerful enough to power a mobile computer for a reasonable amount of time;
multi-touch
In computing, multi-touch is technology that enables a surface (a touchpad or touchscreen) to recognize the presence of more than one somatosensory system, point of contact with the surface at the same time. The origins of multitouch began at CER ...
screens; energy-efficient but powerful CPUs, such as those using the
ARM architecture
ARM (stylised in lowercase as arm, formerly an acronym for Advanced RISC Machines and originally Acorn RISC Machine) is a family of reduced instruction set computer (RISC) instruction set architectures for computer processors, configured ...
;
mobile phone
A mobile phone, cellular phone, cell phone, cellphone, handphone, hand phone or pocket phone, sometimes shortened to simply mobile, cell, or just phone, is a portable telephone that can make and receive calls over a radio frequency link whil ...
networks; and
web browser
A web browser is application software for accessing websites. When a user requests a web page from a particular website, the browser retrieves its files from a web server and then displays the page on the user's screen. Browsers are used on ...
s.
Apple approached glass manufacturer
Corning in 2005 to investigate the possibility of a thin, flexible, and transparent material that could avoid the problem of metal keys scratching up phone screens. Corning reactivated some old research material that had not yet found an application to produce
Gorilla Glass
Gorilla Glass is a brand of chemically strengthened glass developed and manufactured by Corning, now in its seventh generation. Designed to be thin, light and damage-resistant, the glass gains its surface strength, ability to contain flaws, and c ...
.
Beta to production
The iPhone beta was created in 2004 to test the device and its functions. The beta version enabled Apple to develop the phone's capabilities before launching a final product. While it may technically have been the first iPhone that was created, it was never released to the public, so it has not been considered the first iPhone.
In an effort to bypass the carriers, Jobs approached Motorola. On September 7, 2005, Apple and
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. () was an American Multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, United States. After having lost $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009, the company split into two independent p ...
collaborated to develop the
Motorola ROKR E1
The Motorola ROKR (), the first version of which was informally known as the iTunes phone, was a series of mobile phones from Motorola, part of a 4LTR line developed before the spin out of Motorola Mobility. ROKR models were released starting in ...
, the first mobile phone to use
iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
. Steve Jobs was unhappy with the ROKR, among other deficiencies, the ROKR E1's firmware limited storage to only 100
iTunes
iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...
songs to avoid competing with Apple's
iPod nano
The iPod Nano (stylised and marketed as iPod nano) is a discontinued portable media player designed and formerly marketed by Apple Inc. The first generation model was introduced on September 7, 2005, as a replacement for the iPod Mini, usin ...
. iTunes Music Store purchases could also not be downloaded wirelessly directly into the ROKR E1 and had to be done through a PC sync.
Apple therefore decided to develop its own phone, which would incorporate the iPod's musical functions into a smartphone.
Feeling that having to compromise with a non-Apple designer (Motorola) prevented Apple from designing the phone they wanted to make,
Apple discontinued support for the ROKR in September 2006, and, after creating a deal with AT&T (at the time still called Cingular), released
a version of iTunes that included references to an as-yet unknown mobile phone that could display pictures and video. This turned out to be the first
iPhone (iPhone 2G).
On June 29, 2007, the first iPhone was released.
The
iPod Touch
The iPod Touch (stylized as iPod touch) is a discontinued line of iOS-based mobile devices designed and marketed by Apple Inc. with a touchscreen-controlled user interface. As with other iPod models, the iPod Touch can be used as a music pl ...
, which came with an iPhone-style touchscreen to the iPod range, was also released later in 2007. The
iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
followed in 2010.
Public announcement
On January 9, 2007, Steve Jobs announced the first iPhone at the
Macworld
''Macworld'' is a website dedicated to products and software of Apple Inc., published by Foundry, a subsidiary of IDG Inc. It started life as a print magazine in 1984 and had the largest audited circulation (both total and newsstand) of Macint ...
convention, receiving substantial media attention. Jobs announced that the first iPhone would be released later that year. On June 29, 2007, the first iPhone was released.
On June 11, 2007, Apple announced at the
Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference that the iPhone would support
third party applications using the
Safari
A safari (; ) is an overland journey to observe wild animals, especially in eastern or southern Africa. The so-called "Big Five" game animals of Africa – lion, leopard, rhinoceros, elephant, and Cape buffalo – particularly form an importa ...
engine. Third parties would be able to create
Web 2.0
Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...
applications, which users could access via the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
. Such applications appeared even before the release of the iPhone; the first of these, called OneTrip, was a program meant to keep track of users'
shopping list
A shopping list is a list of items needed to be purchased by a shopper. Consumers often compile a shopping list of groceries to purchase on the next visit to the grocery store (a grocery list). The shopping list was known 2000 years B.C. in anci ...
s.
Connection to AT&T
When Apple announced the
iPhone on January 9, 2007, it was sold only with
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
(formerly
Cingular
AT&T Mobility LLC, also known as AT&T Wireless and marketed as simply AT&T, is an American telecommunications company. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of AT&T Inc. and provides wireless services in the United States. AT&T Mobility is the th ...
) contracts in the United States.
After 18 months of negotiations,
Steve Jobs
Steven Paul Jobs (February 24, 1955 – October 5, 2011) was an American entrepreneur, industrial designer, media proprietor, and investor. He was the co-founder, chairman, and CEO of Apple; the chairman and majority shareholder of Pixar; a ...
reached an agreement with the wireless division of AT&T to be the iPhone's exclusive carrier. Consumers were unable to use any other carrier without
unlocking their device.
Apple retained control of the design, manufacturing and marketing of the iPhone.
Since some customers were
jailbreaking their iPhones to leave their network, AT&T began charging them a $175 early-termination fee for leaving before the end of their contract.
Court cases
Questions arose about the legality of Apple's arrangement after the iPhone was released. Two
class-action lawsuits were filed against the company in October 2007: one in
Federal court and the other in
state court. According to the suits, Apple's exclusive agreement with AT&T violated
antitrust law
Competition law is the field of law that promotes or seeks to maintain market competition by regulating anti-competitive conduct by companies. Competition law is implemented through public and private enforcement. It is also known as antitrust ...
.
The state-court suit, filed by the law office of
Damian R. Fernandez on behalf of California resident Timothy P. Smith,
sought an injunction barring Apple from selling iPhones with a software lock and $200 million in damages. In ''Smith v. Apple Inc.'', the plaintiffs said that Apple failed to disclose to purchasers its five-year agreement with AT&T when they bought iPhones with a two-year contract and cited the
Sherman Act's prohibition of monopolies.
The second case was filed in the
. The plaintiff, Paul Holman, filed a complaint against Apple and AT&T Mobility that he could not switch carriers or change
SIM card
file:SIM-Karte von Telefónica O2 Europe - Standard und Micro.jpg, A typical SIM card (mini-SIM with micro-SIM cutout)
file:Sim card.png, A smart card taken from a Global System for Mobile Communications, GSM mobile phone
file:Simkarte NFC SecureE ...
s without losing iPhone improvements to which he was entitled. Holman also cited a Sherman Act violation by the defendants. On July 8, 2010, the case was affirmed for class certification. On December 9 the court ordered a
stay
Stay may refer to:
Places
* Stay, Kentucky, an unincorporated community in the US
Law
* Stay of execution, a ruling to temporarily suspend the enforcement of a court judgment
* Stay of proceedings, a ruling halting further legal process in a tri ...
on the case, awaiting the Supreme Court's decision in ''
AT&T v. Concepcion'' (disputed whether the state's basic standards of fairness were met by a clause in AT&T's contract limiting complaint resolution to arbitration). On April 27, 2011, the Supreme Court ruled that AT&T met the state's fairness standards.
In 2017, Apple was sued after they admitted to slowing down older phone models. The plaintiffs, Stefan Bogdanovich and Dakota Speas, filed the lawsuit when their iPhone 6S was slower after an update. The plaintiffs were entitled to compensation due to the interferences and the economic damages they suffered.
United States release
On June 28, 2007, during an address to Apple employees, Steve Jobs announced that all full-time Apple employees and those part-time employees who had been with the company for at least one year would receive a free iPhone. Employees received their phones in July after the initial demand for iPhones subsided.
Initially priced at $499 () and $599 () for the 4 GB models and 8 GB models respectively, the iPhone went on sale on June 29, 2007. Apple closed its stores at 2:00pm local time to prepare for the 6:00pm iPhone launch, while hundreds of customers lined up at stores nationwide.
In the US and some other countries, iPhones could be acquired only with a credit card, preventing completely anonymous purchases of iPhones. At the time, there was no way to opt out of the bundled AT&T data plan. At first, iPhones could not be added to an AT&T Business account, and any existing business account discounts could not be applied to an iPhone AT&T account. AT&T changed these restrictions in late January 2008.
The
Associated Press
The Associated Press (AP) is an American non-profit news agency headquartered in New York City. Founded in 1846, it operates as a cooperative, unincorporated association. It produces news reports that are distributed to its members, U.S. newspa ...
also reported in 2007 that some users were unable to activate their phones because, according to AT&T, "
high volume of activation requests
astaxing the company's computer servers."
Early estimates by technology analysts estimated sales of between 250,000 and 700,000 iPhones in the first weekend alone, with strong sales continuing after the initial weekend. As part of their quarterly earnings announcement, AT&T reported that 146,000 iPhones were activated in the first weekend. Though this figure does not include units that were purchased for resale on
eBay
eBay Inc. ( ) is an American multinational e-commerce company based in San Jose, California, that facilitates consumer-to-consumer and business-to-consumer sales through its website. eBay was founded by Pierre Omidyar in 1995 and became a ...
or otherwise not activated until after the opening weekend, it is still less than most initial estimates. It is also estimated that 95% of the units sold were the 8 GB model.
Oversized bills
Stories of unexpected billing issues began to circulate in
blog
A blog (a truncation of "weblog") is a discussion or informational website published on the World Wide Web consisting of discrete, often informal diary-style text entries (posts). Posts are typically displayed in reverse chronological order ...
s and the technical press a little more than a month after iPhone's heavily advertised and anticipated release.
The
300-page iPhone bill
A 300-page iPhone bill from AT&T Mobility mailed in a box was the subject of a viral video made by YouTube personality Justine Ezarik, best known as iJustine, which became an Internet meme in August 2007. Ezarik's video focused on the unnecess ...
in a box received by
iJustine
Justine Ezarik ( ; born March 20, 1984) is an American YouTuber. She is best known as iJustine, with over one billion views on her YouTube channel. She gained attention as a lifecaster who communicated directly with her millions of viewers on ...
on Saturday, August 11, 2007 became the subject of a
viral video
A viral video is a video that becomes popular through a viral process of Internet sharing, typically through video sharing websites such as YouTube as well as social media and email.Lu Jiang, Yajie Miao, Yi Yang, ZhenZhong Lan, Alexander Haupt ...
, posted by the following Monday, which quickly became an
Internet meme
An Internet meme, commonly known simply as a meme ( ), is an idea, behavior, style, or image that is spread via the Internet, often through social media platforms. What is considered a meme may vary across different communities on the Internet ...
.
This
video clip
Video clips refer to mostly short videos, most of the time called memes, which are short videos of silly jokes and funny clips, most of the time coming from movies or any entertainment videos such as YouTube. The term is also used more loosely to ...
brought the voluminous bills to the attention of the
mass media
Mass media refers to a diverse array of media technologies that reach a large audience via mass communication. The technologies through which this communication takes place include a variety of outlets.
Broadcast media transmit information ...
. Ten days later, after the video had been viewed more than 3 million times on the Internet,
and had received international news coverage, AT&T sent iPhone users a
text message
Text messaging, or texting, is the act of composing and sending electronic messages, typically consisting of alphabetic and numeric characters, between two or more users of mobile devices, desktops/ laptops, or another type of compatible comput ...
outlining changes in its billing practices.
Price drop outcry
On September 5, 2007, the 4 GB model was discontinued, and the 8 GB model price was cut by a third, from US$599 to US$399.
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
(September 5, 2007)
Apple Sets iPhone Price at 399 for this Holiday Season
. Press release
A press release is an official statement delivered to members of the news media for the purpose of providing information, creating an official statement, or making an announcement directed for public release. Press releases are also considere ...
Retrieved September 5, 2007 Those who had purchased an iPhone in the 14-day period before the September 5, 2007, announcement were eligible for a US$200 "price protection" rebate from Apple or AT&T. However, it was widely reported that some who bought between the June 29, 2007, launch and the August 22, 2007, price protection kick-in date complained that this was a larger-than-normal price drop for such a relatively short period and accused Apple of unfair pricing.
In response to customer complaints, on September 6, 2007, Apple CEO Steve Jobs wrote in an open letter to iPhone customers that everyone who purchased an iPhone at the higher price "and who is not receiving a rebate or other consideration", would receive a US$100 credit to be redeemed towards the purchase of any product sold in Apple's retail or online stores.
iPhone 3G pricing model changes
With the July 11, 2008, release of the iPhone 3G, Apple and
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
changed the US pricing model from the previous generation. Following the
de facto
''De facto'' ( ; , "in fact") describes practices that exist in reality, whether or not they are officially recognized by laws or other formal norms. It is commonly used to refer to what happens in practice, in contrast with ''de jure'' ("by la ...
model for mobile phone service in the United States, AT&T would
subsidize a sizable portion of the upfront cost for the iPhone 3G, followed by charging moderately higher monthly fees over a minimum two-year contract.
iPhone 4 CDMA release
There had been ongoing speculation in the United States that Apple might offer a
CDMA
Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communication ...
-compatible iPhone for
Verizon Wireless
Verizon is an American wireless network operator that previously operated as a separate division of Verizon Communications under the name Verizon Wireless. In a 2019 reorganization, Verizon moved the wireless products and services into the divi ...
. This speculation increased on October 6, 2010, when
The Wall Street Journal
''The Wall Street Journal'' is an American business-focused, international daily newspaper based in New York City, with international editions also available in Chinese and Japanese. The ''Journal'', along with its Asian editions, is published ...
reported that Apple would begin producing a CDMA-compatible iPhone, with such a model going on sale in early 2011.
On January 11, 2011,
Verizon
Verizon Communications Inc., commonly known as Verizon, is an American multinational telecommunications conglomerate and a corporate component of the Dow Jones Industrial Average. The company is headquartered at 1095 Avenue of the Americas in ...
announced during a media event that it had reached an agreement with Apple and would begin selling a
CDMA
Code-division multiple access (CDMA) is a channel access method used by various radio communication technologies. CDMA is an example of multiple access, where several transmitters can send information simultaneously over a single communication ...
iPhone 4
The iPhone 4 is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the fourth generation of the iPhone lineup, succeeding the iPhone 3GS and preceding the 4S. Following a number of notable leaks, the iPhone 4 was first unvei ...
. The Verizon iPhone went on sale on February 10, 2011. The CDMA version was a bespoke model, lacking a SIM slot and with a revised metal chassis, the design of which would be reused on the iPhone 4S.
During Apple's official unveiling of
iPhone 4S
The iPhone 4S (originally styled as iPhone 4 S, retroactively stylized with a lowercase 's' as iPhone 4s as of September 2013) is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iOS devices, fifth generation o ...
on October 4, 2011, it was announced that
Sprint would begin carrying the reconfigured CDMA iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S in the US on October 14.
Cricket Wireless
Cricket Wireless is an American prepaid wireless service provider, owned by AT&T. It provides wireless services to ten million subscribers in the United States. Cricket Wireless was founded in March 1999 by Leap Wireless International. AT&T ac ...
announced on May 31, 2012, that it would become the first prepaid carrier in the US to offer iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S, beginning June 22, 2012. A week later,
Virgin Mobile USA
Virgin Mobile USA was a no-contract Mobile Virtual Network Operator. It used Sprint's network for coverage. It licensed the Virgin Mobile brand from United Kingdom-based Virgin Group. Virgin Mobile USA was headquartered in Kansas City, Misso ...
became the second American prepaid carrier to offer iPhone 4 and 4S, announcing plans to release the phones on June 29, 2012.
T-Mobile USA
T-Mobile US, Inc. is an American wireless network operator headquartered in Overland Park, Kansas and Bellevue, Washington, U.S. Its largest shareholder is a multinational telecommunications company Deutsche Telekom AG, which , holds 48.4 perc ...
's inability to provide iPhone to customers raised its subscription
churn rate
Churn rate (sometimes called attrition rate), in its broadest sense, is a measure of the number of individuals or items moving out of a collective group over a specific period. It is one of two primary factors that determine the Steady state, stead ...
, decreased the percentage of lucrative
postpaid
The postpaid mobile phone is a mobile phone for which service is provided by a prior arrangement with a mobile network operator. The user in this situation is billed after the fact according to their use of mobile services at the end of each mon ...
customers, and contributed to parent
Deutsche Telekom
Deutsche Telekom AG (; short form often just Telekom, DTAG or DT; stylised as ·T·) is a German telecommunications company that is headquartered in Bonn and is the largest telecommunications provider in Europe by revenue. Deutsche Telekom was ...
's decision to sell it to
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications holding company headquartered at Whitacre Tower in Downtown Dallas, Texas. It is the world's largest telecommunications company by revenue and the third largest provider of mobile tel ...
in March 2011, although AT&T canceled the deal in December 2011 because of antitrust concerns.
T-Mobile began offering iPhone on April 12, 2013.
iPhone 5
iPhone 5 was released on September 21, 2012. It had two versions, 5S and 5C. 5S was released a year later.
iPhone 6
iPhone 6 was released on September 19, 2014.
More
See
list of iphones
Apple Inc. has developed four Unix-like operating systems, namely iOS, iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS. Devices using these systems include the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, which are mobile devices; the Apple TV, which is a digital media player; an ...
for more history.
International release timeline
The international release of iPhone was staggered over several months. Today, the iPhone is available in most countries.
† iPhone offered by multiple carriers under contract from Apple (country not carrier-exclusive)
‡ iPhone offered without contract and without carrier lock
§ MVNO
A mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) is a wireless communications services provider that does not own the wireless network infrastructure over which it provides services to its customers. An MVNO enters into a business agreement with a mobile ...
with O2
Activation and SIM lock bypassing
Intellectual property
Apple has filed more than 200
patent applications
A patent application is a request pending at a patent office for the grant of a patent for an invention described in the patent specification and a set of one or more claims stated in a formal document, including necessary official forms and re ...
related to the technology behind the iPhone.
LG Electronics claimed the design of the iPhone was copied from the
LG Prada
The LG KE850, also known as the LG Prada, is a touchscreen mobile phone made by LG Electronics. It was first announced on December 12, 2006 and was created in collaboration with Italian luxury designer Prada. It was made official in a press rele ...
. Woo-Young Kwak, head of LG Mobile Handset R&D Center, said at a press conference: "we consider that Apple copied Prada phone after the design was unveiled when it was presented in the iF Design Award and won the prize in September 2006."
Conversely, the iPhone has also inspired its own share of high-tech clones.
On September 3, 1993,
Infogear filed for the U.S. trademark "I PHONE"
and on March 20, 1996, applied for the trademark "IPhone".
"I Phone" was registered in March 1998,
and "IPhone" was registered in 1999.
Since then, the I PHONE mark had been abandoned.
Infogear trademarks cover "communications terminals comprising computer hardware and software providing integrated telephone, data communications and personal computer functions" (1993 filing),
and "computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks" (1996 filing).
In 2000, Infogear filed an infringement claim against the owners of the iPhones.com domain name.
The owners of the iPhones.com domain name challenged the infringement claim in the Northern District Court of California. In June 2000, Cisco Systems acquired Infogear, including the
iPhone trademark.
In September 2000, Cisco Systems settled with the owners of iPhones.com and allowed the owners to keep the iPhones.com domain name along with intellectual property rights to use any designation of the iPhones.com domain name for the sale of cellular phones, cellular phones with Internet access (WAP PHONES), handheld PDAs, storage devices, computer equipment (hardware/software), and digital cameras (hardware/software). The intellectual property rights were granted to the owners of the iPhones.com domain name by Cisco Systems in September 2000.
In October 2002, Apple applied for the "iPhone" trademark in the United Kingdom, Australia, Singapore, and the European Union. A Canadian application followed in October 2004, and a New Zealand application in September 2006. As of October 2006, only the Singapore and Australian applications had been granted.
In September 2006, a company called Ocean Telecom Services applied for an "iPhone" trademark in the United States, United Kingdom, and Hong Kong, following a filing in Trinidad and Tobago. As the Ocean Telecom trademark applications use exactly the same wording as the New Zealand application of Apple, it is assumed that Ocean Telecom is applying on behalf of Apple. The Canadian application was opposed in August 2005, by a Canadian company called
Comwave who themselves applied for the trademark three months later. Comwave has been selling VoIP devices called iPhone since 2004.
Shortly after Steve Jobs' January 9, 2007, announcement that Apple would be selling a product called iPhone in June 2007, Cisco issued a statement that it had been negotiating trademark licensing with Apple and expected Apple to agree to the final documents that had been submitted the night before.
On January 10, 2007, Cisco announced it had filed a lawsuit against Apple over the infringement of the trademark iPhone, seeking an injunction in federal court to prohibit Apple from using the name.
In February 2007, Cisco claimed that the trademark lawsuit was a "minor skirmish" that was not about money, but about interoperability.
On February 2, 2007, Apple and Cisco announced that they had agreed to temporarily suspend litigation while they held settlement talks, and subsequently announced on February 20, 2007, that they had reached an agreement. Both companies will be allowed to use the "iPhone" name in exchange for "exploring interoperability" between their security, consumer, and business communications products.
On October 22, 2009,
Nokia
Nokia Corporation (natively Nokia Oyj, referred to as Nokia) is a Finnish multinational corporation, multinational telecommunications industry, telecommunications, technology company, information technology, and consumer electronics corporatio ...
filed a lawsuit against Apple for infringement of its GSM, UMTS and WLAN patents. Nokia alleges that Apple has been violating ten Nokia patents since the iPhone initial release.
In December 2010,
Reuters
Reuters ( ) is a news agency owned by Thomson Reuters Corporation. It employs around 2,500 journalists and 600 photojournalists in about 200 locations worldwide. Reuters is one of the largest news agencies in the world.
The agency was estab ...
reported that some iPhone and
iPad
The iPad is a brand of iOS and iPadOS-based tablet computers that are developed by Apple Inc. The iPad was conceived before the related iPhone but the iPhone was developed and released first. Speculation about the development, operating s ...
users were suing
Apple Inc.
Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, United States. Apple is the largest technology company by revenue (totaling in 2021) and, as of June 2022, is the world's biggest company ...
because some applications were passing user information to third-party advertisers without permission. Some makers of the applications such as Textplus4,
Paper Toss,
The Weather Channel
The Weather Channel (TWC) is an American pay television channel owned by Weather Group, LLC, a subsidiary of Allen Media Group. The channel's headquarters are in Atlanta, Georgia. Launched on May 2, 1982, the channel broadcasts weather forecas ...
,
Dictionary.com
Dictionary.com is an online dictionary whose domain was first registered on May 14, 1995. The primary content on Dictionary.com is a proprietary dictionary based on ''Random House Unabridged Dictionary'', with editors for the site providing new ...
, Talking Tom Cat and Pumpkin Maker have also been named as co-defendants in the lawsuit.
In August 2012, Apple won a
smartphone patent lawsuit in the U.S. against
Samsung
The Samsung Group (or simply Samsung) ( ko, 삼성 ) is a South Korean multinational manufacturing conglomerate headquartered in Samsung Town, Seoul, South Korea. It comprises numerous affiliated businesses, most of them united under the ...
, the world's largest maker of smartphones; however, on December 6, 2016,
SCOTUS
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. Federal tribunals in the United States, federal court cases, and over Stat ...
reversed the decision that awarded nearly $400 million to Apple and returned the case to Federal Circuit court to define the appropriate legal standard to define "article of manufacture" because it is not the smartphone itself but could be just the case and screen to which the design patents relate.
Legal battles over brand name
In
Mexico
Mexico (Spanish: México), officially the United Mexican States, is a country in the southern portion of North America. It is bordered to the north by the United States; to the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; to the southeast by Guatema ...
, the trademark iFone was registered in 2003 by a communications systems and services company, iFone. Apple tried to gain control over its brand name, but a Mexican court denied the request. The case began in 2009, when the Mexican firm sued Apple. The
Supreme Court of Mexico upheld that iFone is the rightful owner and held that Apple iPhone is a trademark violation.
In
Brazil
Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...
, the brand IPHONE was registered in 2000 by the company then called Gradiente Eletrônica S.A., now IGB Eletrônica S.A. According to the filing, Gradiente foresaw the revolution in the convergence of voice and data over the Internet at the time.
The final battle over the brand name concluded in 2008. On December 18, 2012, IGB launched its own line of Android smartphones under the tradename to which it has exclusive rights in the local market.
In February 2013, the Brazilian Patent and Trademark Office (known as "Instituto Nacional da Propriedade Industrial") issued a ruling that Gradiente Eletrônica, not Apple, owned the "iPhone" mark in Brazil. The "iPhone" term was registered by Gradiente in 2000, seven years before Apple's release of its first iPhone. This decision came three months after Gradiente Eletrônica launched a lower-cost smartphone using the iPhone brand. In June 2014, Apple won, for the second time, the right to use the brand name in Brazil. The court ruling determined that the Gradiente's registration does not own exclusive rights on the brand. Although Gradiente intended to appeal, with the decision Apple can use freely the brand without paying royalties to the Brazilian company.
In the
Philippines
The Philippines (; fil, Pilipinas, links=no), officially the Republic of the Philippines ( fil, Republika ng Pilipinas, links=no),
* bik, Republika kan Filipinas
* ceb, Republika sa Pilipinas
* cbk, República de Filipinas
* hil, Republ ...
, Solid Group launched the
MyPhone brand in 2007. Stylized as "my, phone", Solid Broadband filed a trademark application of that brand. Apple later filed a trademark case at the Intellectual Property Office of the Philippines (IPOPHL) against Solid Broadband's MyPhone for "confusingly similar" to the iPhone and that it may likely "deceive" or "cause confusion" among consumers. Apple lost the trademark battle to Solid Group in a 2015 decision made by IPO director Nathaniel Arevalo, who also reportedly said that it was unlikely that consumers would be confused between the "iPhone" and the "MyPhone". "This is a case of a giant trying to claim more territory than what it is entitled to, to the great prejudice of a local 'Pinoy Phone' merchant who has managed to obtain a significant foothold in the mobile phone market through the marketing and sale of innovative products under a very distinctive trademark", Arevalo later added.
See also
*
Timeline of Apple Inc. products
This timeline of Apple products is a list of all computers, phones, tablets, wearables, and other products sold by Apple Inc. This list is ordered by the release date of the products. Macintosh Performa models were often physically identical to ot ...
*
References
Further reading
*
{{iOS
IPhone