Here we ago again. The Apple iPhone, unveiled on January 9th, 2007, represents Apple's present. Since 2001, Apple changed completely and took the world with it to introduce a new culture, Apple's culture; and all of this, began thanks to the iPod. From 2001 to 2006, Apple sold over 70 million iPods, and was ready to show the world it's new invention... the iPhone.
Starting from 2002, Steve Jobs focused on smartphones; even though the Palm Treo was being an outstanding success, Steve knew the future was on smartphones and not in PDAs. In 2004, Jobs finally decided to build his own phone, and embarked in a mission that would change the mobile industry forever. At that time, carriers dominated the industry, and manufacturers where only contracted to build devices as told by carriers; unlike today, manufacturers would not build a phone, and start selling it through different carriers, because no single carrier would agree to sell it. Steve wanted to build his phone, and he did not want any carrier to tell him how to build it, so he approached AT&T (at that time Cingular), and proposed to offer an exclusive phone to the carrier built by Apple, as long as Apple kept full control over the phone, its content and advertising. It wasn't an easy decision for AT&T, but they agreed because it was Apple, and Apple built the iPod.
In 2004, Motorola built the most famous smartphone, the RAZR, so it seemed natural for Apple to make a deal with Motorola too, and let Moto build the hardware while Apple focused on what it did best: software. The result, was the Motorola ROKR, which went on sale on 2005. (Picture above) Not only was it panned by critics, but it was panned by Steve Jobs himself, because Motorola and Apple could not agree in any of the device's features during production; this made Steve understand that only Apple could build his phone. Since 2002, Steve had put a team to work on touchscreens, and received report that a touchscreen for a phone could be built; moreover, ARM had their ARM11 chip specifications ready, which for the first time, could deliver the performance Steve Jobs required, and so, Apple started to build the iPhone, all by itself. Steve contacted AT&T for a new phone, built entirely by Apple; this time, it took nearly 8 months for AT&T to agree with Steve's terms, because it was something no other carrier had ever done, as Apple was in full control, and AT&T was left as simply the network provider. Steve was so sure of his product, that he would've turned Apple into a carrier had AT&T not agreed.
During those 8 months, Apple was hard at work on the iPhone, and Steve contacted Verizon, North America's largest wireless carrier, just in case AT&T pulled out, and found out Verizon didn't want anything to do with the iPhone. Finally, AT&T executives agreed, and signed with Apple. With an estimated cost of 150$ million, endless hours of work from its engineers, and the vision of Steve Jobs, Apple announced the iPhone at 2007's MacWorld Expo. (Video below)
The rest, is history. Six months later, the iPhone went on sale with AT&T, and destroyed all records; the iPhone became the fastest selling smartphone ever, and changed the mobile industry. Verizon, Sprint and T-Mobile started losing customers to AT&T, which had an exclusive deal for the iPhone, and understood that contracts for cheap featurephones were not the only form of steady revenue; if people want a phone, they'll do anything to get it, including contracts and data plans, which are much more profitable than call plans. Soon, all carriers, including AT&T, dropped their restrictions for phones that were allowed in their networks, and started looking for high-end devices which attracted people to their services using exclusivity deals. In Europe, users are used to buying the phone of their choice, unlocked, and using it on their networks, but in the US, this was totally unbelievable before the iPhone. (First iPhone commercial below)
Today, the iPhone is the standard all smartphones look at, but Apple's move into the mobile industry (by this we mean the iPhone, not the ROKR) was also met with skepticism; many doubted Apple, and thought that the iPod maker could do no better than the ROKR. Many, upon the launch of the iPhone, thought its revolutionary concept of touch-screen, user interface (UI) and virtual keyboard would fail to reach mainstream consumers and would be left with only Apple loyalists as users. In fact, in the beginning, many iPod fans doubted the iPhone was a serious competitor to Nokia and its flagship N95, having no 3G connection, no multi-tasking and no copy & paste functions. All of these issues however, though many have been addressed, were not really important in the first place, because the iPhone was Apple's product, and since the iPod, everybody knew what Apple products were all about. And the iPhone did not disappoint; it might've not had 3G, multi-tasking or copy & paste, but it was an Apple product, and as such, it was simply perfect, and its user experience was like nothing no one had ever seen before. Apple thus, had again a Joker, the same it still plays with the iPod: "you can have a phone, or you can have the Apple iPhone."
We agree; in the smartphone market, it's not as easy as saying: "that's just another MP3, but mine's an iPod", because we do have a market, built by Nokia, Sony-Ericsson, Samsung, Research in Motion, LG, Motorola, Palm and so many others. But then again, in people's minds, it's very easy; they might not know what smartphones are, but they do know what an iPhone is, and that it simply doesn't dissapoint. The iPhone, like the iPod, has become a lot more than a revolutionary device, it has become a symbol by itself, a symbol of status, a symbol capable of making consumers adjust to Apple's standards and buy only products compatible with their iPods and iPhones, a symbol that again represents Apple in its finest, which is always guarantee of amazing user experience, and how can that not draw consumers of any kind?
Apple has to do something very very wrong to lose this; all of its rivals have to fight not only with Apple's products, but also with Apple's brand and the ideals set in consumer's minds thanks to the iPod. Right now, we live in an era where Apple's every move only makes the whole tech industry stop and look, to see if Steve Jobs has again turned the world upside down.
References:
http://hubpages.com/hub/iPod_a_history__iPhone_and_beyond
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