Apple iPhone history: the evolution of the smartphone that started it all
In this article, we take a look at the innovation that came with each new iPhone, all the major features that each model brought, starting from the very first one and going to the most recent phones. Join us for this ride right below.
Apple iPhone History:
- iPhone (2007)
- iPhone 3G (2008)
- iPhone 3GS (2009)
- iPhone 4 (2010)
- iPhone 4s (2011)
- iPhone 5 (2012)
- iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c (2013)
- iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus (2014)
- iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus (2015)
- iPhone SE (2016)
- iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus (2016)
- iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus (2017)
- iPhone XR, XS and XS Max (2018)
- iPhone 11, 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max (2019)
Original iPhone
June 2007
“iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with a desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device.”
The original iPhone was the thing that started it all for modern smartphones: while there were smartphones before it, they were nothing like Apple’s iPhone that trumped them with its radically bigger screen, innovative multi-touch interface, and the first on-screen keyboard that actually worked well. It was the ultimate Apple 3-in-1, but while Apple thought of the original iPhone as a phone first, iPod second and a ‘communicator’ third, it’s interesting how most people would probably rank the ‘communicator’ aspect as what makes the iPhone and smartphones special.
The list of breakthrough innovations in the original iPhone is so long and there is so much history behind each of them that an article (nay, a book) won’t be enough to properly describe it, but here is a very short summary:
- 3.5-inch display with a resolution of 320 x 480 pixels
- iOS, a new multi-touch interface controlled entirely by your finger
- Internet Connectivity (2G) with native email client and web browser
- 2-megapixel photo camera with NO video recording capabilities
- Ambient light sensor, proximity sensor
- On-screen keyboard
- 4GB / 8 GB / 16GB storage models
- YouTube and Google Maps applications, Google Search
- iPod music / video player with support for iTunes
iPhone 3G
July 2008
Just a day before the launch of Apple’s second-generation handset, the iPhone 3G, on July 10th, 2008, the App Store officially opened for business. It was made available on the original iPhone, of course, and in hindsight it was clearly as big of an event as the phone launch itself.
The iPhone 3G kept the same screen size as the original, but went with a new, glossy plastic design and added 3G connectivity, making it much faster to load web pages. The iPhone 3G was also the first iPhone with GPS, the satellite communication that allows your phone to know its exact position and a quintessential part of a better maps and navigation experience.
The iPhone 3G did away with the 4GB storage option and was only available in an 8GB and 16GB versions. This new iPhone also fixed an important oversight: the 3.5mm jack on the original iPhone was deeply flawed, it was way too recessed inside the body of the device and this made actually using many headphones impossible without an adapter (ah, the irony!). Apple itself admitted on its website for the OG iPhone that “some stereo headphones may require an adapter (sold separately) to ensure proper fit.”
The iPhone 3GS was a gradual upgrade rather than a radical move, but it still brought important speed improvements and faster 3G connectivity.
The S in 3GS stood for speed, as the phone was more powerful, zippier, but its most important novelty was probably that it was the first iPhone that could record video. The iPhone 3GS’ new 3-megapixel camera debuted a video mode and was able to record videos at VGA (480p) resolution.
It was also the first iPhone with a digital compass that allowed it to correctly show you your orientation in space in Maps.
The rest of the innovation here was a lot about software: core features like copy and paste, push notifications, landscape keyboard and more arrived in 2009.
iPhone 4
June 2010
For many Apple customers, the iPhone 4 was the best iPhone design of all time. The iPhone 4 was the first major redesign within the iPhone series, introducing a stunning for the time glass construction with a metal frame. It was also the first iPhone to come with a ‘Retina’ display, a new screen resolution of 640 x 960 pixels that was so sharp Apple said it compares to the the natural limits of the human retina. This was the first phone with such a high resolution and it remained so for the next couple of years.
There was also a big scandal around the iPhone 4, the so-called antenna-gate. The issue was that when held a certain way, cellular signal got easily blocked by your hand and while Apple never formally fixed this, it did offer free bumpers that alleviated the issue.
The list of innovations in the iPhone 4 is too long, so we’ll just quickly go through the most important ones right below:
- Highest phone resolution of the time, ‘Retina’ display
- First iPhone with a front-facing, selfie camera
- New 5-megapixel camera capable of 720p HD video recording
- Smaller, micro-SIM card slot
- New glass-and-metal design
- Secondary mic for noise cancellation
A few months after its launch on AT&T, Apple’s exclusive partner, the iPhone 4 finally launched on Verizon Wireless in the beginning of 2011.
iPhone 4s
September 2011
2011 was probably the toughest and saddest year for Apple, its fans and the community: on October 5th, 2011, just a day after the introduction of the iPhone 4s, Steve Jobs, the man that created Apple, shaped it as a company and single-handedly led it with his unique vision for technology passed away. Jobs left Tim Cook, Apple’s former logistics chief as the CEO, and Cook hosted the iPhone 4s unveiling.
The big feature of the iPhone 4s was Siri, the smart voice assistant that impressed with its ability to ask tricky questions with a pinch of humor and who would console you with a joke when you need it. It also set alarms and calendar appointments. The newer iPhone, however, remained a 3.5-inch phone, smaller than the Android competition that was getting a foothold among customers who wanted bigger devices.
The iPhone 4s debuted with a new, two-antenna design and fixed the dreadful ‘antenna-gate’ problems of the iPhone 4. The major new features introduced with the iPhone 4s included a more powerful, dual-core chip, the Apple A5, a new 8-megapixel camera capturing more detailed pictures, with better white balance, and iCloud, a cloud-storage solution.
In October 2011, Sprint also finally got the rights to sell Apple’s iPhone and started offering the iPhone 4s, iPhone 4 and iPhone 3GS to its customers.
The Apple iPhone 5 brought a slightly bigger and taller display than previous iPhones, but it was not the radical change that many users expected: it grew from 3.5 inches to 4 inches in screen size, and with it came a 16:9 aspect ratio (different from the 3:2 used before), which proved to be more practical for video, traditionally shot in 16:9.
The iPhone 5 also marked a monumental moment for Apple: it was the first phone with a chip that Apple itself made as it sought independence from Qualcomm. The Apple A5 impressed with its design and speed improvements, and set an important foundation. Apple was now able to better optimize the performance of its phone to the chip that it itself made. The new iPhone 5 design was also thinner and lighter.
It was – finally! – the first iPhone with 4G LTE support. The display was also improved in terms of color, it was well-balanced for the sRGB standard used across the web for images and video.
Months after the launch of the iPhone 5, the last big U.S. carrier finally got the rights to sell it: T-Mobile joined AT&T, Verizon Wireless and Sprint in carrying the iPhone. This was around the time when John Legere started the massive change at T-Mobile and grew it to where it is now.
iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c
September 2013
iPhone 5s
iPhone 5c with its plastic colorful body
As competitors had already moved to bigger-screen phones as the standard, all eyes were on Apple in late 2013. Everyone expected a bigger phone, but the company was not yet ready to show that. What it had up its sleeve was the iPhone 5s, which featured the same size and design.
Yet still, this was an important ‘S’ update with two key features that were years ahead of the competition: a new Apple A7 ‘Cyclone’ chip, the first 64-bit chip on a phone, years before others even had started work on 64-bit chips, and then also ‘Touch ID’, the fingerprint-based secure identification system that would take years to properly implement on Android phones. It also brought improvements to low-light camera performance and other minor enhancements.
The iPhone 5s also marks a new era for iOS: in June 2013 at WWDC, Apple announced a radical change to the iOS design with iOS 7. The new Jony Ive-designed interface did away with the old-fashioned elements in iOS in favor of a flatter, transparency-rich interface that felt like a huge step forward.
Let’s also not forget about the iPhone 5c, the colorful plastic iPhone with an affordable price that many people bought.
iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus
September 2014
iPhone 6 (left), iPhone 6 Plus (center) and iPhone 5s (right)
iPhone 6 (left) and iPhone 6 Plus (right)
In 2015, after years of waiting, Apple – finally! – showed an iPhone with a bigger screen. In fact, there was two of them: the 4.7-inch iPhone 6 and the 5.5-inch iPhone 6 Plus.
The pair sold like hotcakes: it brought both a Galaxy S and a Galaxy Note competitor, but it was also clearly better designed, with a thin and streamlined, durable aluminum body. It felt on another level than the cheap-feeling plastic designs from Samsung. It’s safe to say now that the iPhone 6 was an important step towards establishing premium, metal designs as the standard among flagships.
The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus also introduced a much better camera with faster auto-focusing and support for continuous auto-focus in videos.
There was a change in storage options: the iPhone 6 base model was still a 16GB one, but there were 64GB and 128 gig options for more demanding users.
iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus
September 2015
iPhone 6s with its new 3D Touch system
iPhone 6s Plus
After going on a crusade for thicker iPhones, in 2015, for the first time, Apple actually increased the thickness of its new iPhones. The main reason for the thicker body of the new iPhones was a new display technology that allowed the phone to sense the force of a touch. Apple called the tech 3D Touch and introduced it to a lot of its own apps. It all worked a bit as a right click, a neat time-saving shortcut for many apps.
The iPhone 6s and 6s Plus were the first iPhones able to record 4K video. Android phones had come with 4K video for years, but all of them had annoying limitations such as 5-minute limit to video clips and no ability to edit 4K footage on the phones. The iPhone 6s might have been late, but it got all those things right: video came very crisp, recorded at high bit-rates, and Apple updated its excellent iMovie with support for up to two 4K video channels. At the time, many laptops could not handle 4K video editing, outdone by a phone.
Other cool iPhone 6s features included Live Photos that recorded a short video before and after a still image, a set of new 3D Touch-enabled Motion Wallpapers, a new rose gold color, as well as support for ‘Hey, Siri’, a hands-free voice command that activated the smart iPhone assistant.
iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus
September 2016
In 2017, two big things happened to the iPhone: Apple killed the headphone jack and both new iPhones got water-proofing. In a ‘courageous’, typical Apple move, the company killed our good old pal, the 3.5mm headphone jack. The outcry was huge and while it did not affect sales much as the iPhone 7 broke all previous Apple sales records, many people were annoyed by this move.
Also, the iPhone 7 Plus for the first time differentiated itself as the more capable camera phone, with a dual camera system where a secondary, “telephoto” lens allowed taking zoomed-in photos and applying a new “Portrait mode” effect that would blur the background in an image for a professional, DSLR-like look. The little iPhone 7 also got a better camera: it now came with optical image stabilization (OIS), which contributed to more blur-free pictures and better video stabilization.
The other big news was the new jet black color that was available in very limited quantities and felt almost like glass, but got scratched extremely easily. A new, matte black color was also available and while not as stunning to look at, it was more practical and less prone to scratches.
Apple continued improving the displays of its iPhones as well by introducing a new, wide-color DCI-P3 mode that made everything look more vibrant, more impressive.
Apple iPhone X, iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus
September 2017
iPhone X and its signature Face ID system and notch
iPhone 8 (left), iPhone X (center) and iPhone 8 Plus (right)
Apple introduced a record three new iPhones in 2017 and back then kept the iPhone 7, 6s and SE series available, making its overall portfolio of iPhones the biggest ever offered.
This year also marked the first time we saw an iPhone priced at $1,000, much higher than the $750 that Apple typically asked for a Plus sized iPhone before.
And the iPhone X was really the iPhone that paved the way for the future: it was the first one with a bezel-less edge-to-edge screen (yes, with the notch) and it was the first with an OLED display. This also meant the demise of Touch ID fingerprint recognition: the brand new Face ID system that recognized your face proved more secure and easier to use.
iPhone XR, iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max
September 2018
iPhone XR (left), iPhone XS Max (center), iPhone XS (right)
iPhone XS Max (left), iPhone XS (right)
In late 2018, Apple cemented the tradition of launching three new phones at once, but this time all of the three new phones used the gesture navigation and Face ID systems that were the way for the future of the company.
The iPhone XR was the most affordable in the series, but still not cheap by traditional smartphone pricing terms with a price starting at $750. The XR introduced a colorful new design with vibrant tonalities for the back of the device. It used larger bezels on the front and Apple opted for the LCD screen technology with a quite low HD+ resolution, but kept the same powerful processor as on the XS series here and also used the very same main camera, factors that combined with the allure of the iOS ecosystem elevated the iPhone XR to become the best selling iPhone of the series.
iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max
September 2019
In 2019, Apple again launched three new iPhones that were quite similar to what it had offered in the previous year.
The main change was in the camera where all three iPhones received a brand new ultra-wide camera that allowed users to capture incredible landscape photos, as well as shoot in tight spaces.
The iPhone 11 Pro and 11 Pro Max got the ‘Pro’ moniker that Apple seemed to associate again with their high quality AMOLED screens. In 2019, Apple gave users what users had requested for years: slightly thicker phones with a much, much bigger batteries that finally elevated the Pro and especially the Pro Max to the top of battery life rankings. The other important feature that the phones got was Night Mode, a new camera mode that would have the phone smartly combine a long exposure image with multiple others in an automated, easy process that captured good images in very dim light.
The iPhone 11 was again the most popular model in the series. Apple smartly decided to lower its starting price to $700, $50 less than the starting price of the iPhone XR from the preceding year and that move helped further boost the iPhone 11 popularity. Critics, however, pointed out that Apple was still using an old LCD technology and low resolution panel in a phone that costs quite a lot, while the competition was ahead in this regard.