The ten-year-old iPhone
This year marks the tenth year of the iPhone and a lot has changed since the first iPhone came out. During the announcement of the iPhone 3 in 2007, Steve Jobs, the creator of Apple, stated “Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone.” Seems like Steve Jobs wasn’t lying; because the iPhone completely changed our habit and became our daily must-bring gadget.
Compare the newest iPhones, the very first iPhone was pretty basic. It only included simple functions such as music player, internet access, touch screen, camera, and phone. Surely, other phones had those functions too, but its simple design brought refreshing changes to the industry.
Just one year after launching the iPhone 3, Apple introduced the iPhone 3G, which is “twice as fast, at half the price”. With the iPhone 3G, they debuted App Store. Up until July of 2008, Apple allowed third-party app building. Now, App Store have over 200 Millions apps and has changed our ways of doing daily activities. Such as calling an Uber and Lyft instead of hailing a taxi and using Instagram or Snapchat to share our moments instead of journaling.
The iPhone 4 is known for the iPhone with the best design. Many people gushed over the glass back screen and thought it was the perfect size. Apple also debuted the front-facing camera, which was eye-opening, seeing how selfies and the use of front-facing cameras were omnipresent seven-years later. This was also the first iPhone with FaceTime.
Siri, a voice-controlled digital assistant, was introduced alongside of the iPhone 4S in 2011. iOS5 was also released with the 4S. It introduced functions such as iPhone-to-iPhone, “iMessage”, banner notification, and other upgrades. The iPhone 4S is notable, because it was the last iPhone that Steve Jobs had worked on.
From Siri to iPhone 5’s Touch ID to iPhone 6’s 3D touch, Apple has had many inventions that were once beyond our dreams. But throughout the last few years, this company has been slacking off ever since Steve Jobs’ death. From iPhone 5 to iPhone 7, their designs seemed overwhelmingly similar, the phone just keeps getting slimmer, the border gets smaller, the screen gets bigger, and more colorful. The only thing new about the iPhone 7 is the missing headphone port. Apple doesn't have enough features to fulfill buyers and to release a new device every year.