History

Main article: History of the iPhone Development of an Apple smartphone began in 2004, when Apple started to gather a team of 1,000 employees led by hardware engineer Tony Fadell, software engineer Scott Forstall, and design officer Jony Ive, to work on the highly confidential "Project Purple". Then-Apple CEO Steve Jobs steered the original focus away from a tablet (which was later revisited in the form of the iPad) towards a phone.Apple created the device during a secretive collaboration with Cingular Wireless (later renamed AT&T Mobility) at the time—at an estimated development cost of US$150 million over thirty months. According to Jobs in 1998, the "i" word in "iMac" (and therefore "iPod", "iPhone" and "iPad") stands for internet, individual, instruct, inform, and inspire. Apple rejected the "design by committee" approach that had yielded the Motorola ROKR E1, a largely unsuccessful "iTunes phone" made in collaboration with Motorola. Among other deficiencies, the ROKR E1's firmware limited storage to only 100 iTunes songs to avoid competing with Apple's iPod nano. Cingular gave Apple the liberty to develop the iPhone's hardware and software in-house, a rare practice at the time, and paid Apple a fraction of its monthly service revenue (until the iPhone 3G), in exchange for four years of exclusive U.S. sales, until 2011. Jobs unveiled the first-generation iPhone to the public on January 9, 2007, at the Macworld 2007 convention at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The iPhone incorporated a 3.5-inch multi-touch display with few hardware buttons, and ran the iPhone OS operating system with a touch-friendly interface, then marketed as a version of Mac OS X.It launched on June 29, 2007, at a starting price of US$499 in the United States, and required a two-year contract with AT&T.On July 11, 2008, at Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2008, Apple announced the iPhone 3G, and expanded its launch-day availability to twenty-two countries, and it was eventually released in 70 countries and territories. The iPhone 3G introduced faster 3G connectivity, and a lower starting price of US$199 (with a two-year AT&T contract). Its successor, the iPhone 3GS, was announced on June 8, 2009, at WWDC 2009, and introduced video recording functionality.The iPhone 4 was announced on June 7, 2010, at WWDC 2010, and introduced a redesigned body incorporating a stainless steel frame and a rear glass panel.At release, the iPhone 4 was marketed as the "world's thinnest smartphone"; it uses the Apple A4 processor, being the first iPhone to use an Apple custom-designed chip. It introduced the Retina display, having four-times the display resolution of preceding iPhones, and was the highest-resolution smartphone screen at release; a front-facing camera was also introduced, enabling video calling functionality via FaceTime. Users of the iPhone 4 reported dropped/disconnected telephone calls when holding their phones in a certain way, and this issue was nicknamed "antennagate". In January 2011, as Apple's exclusivity agreement with AT&T was expiring, Verizon announced that the would be carrying the iPhone 4, with a model compatible with Verizon's CDMA network releasing on February 10. The iPhone 4S was announced on October 4, 2011, and introduced the Siri virtual assistant, a dual-core A5 processor, and an 8 megapixel camera with 1080p video recording functionality. The iPhone 5 was announced on September 12, 2012, and introduced a larger 4-inch screen, up from the 3.5-inch screen of all previous iPhone models, as well as faster 4G LTE connectivity.It also introduced a thinner and lighter body made of aluminum alloy, and the 30-pin dock connector of previous iPhones was replaced with the new, reversible Lightning connector.

Production

Up to the iPhone 4, all iPhones and other iOS devices were manufactured by Foxconn, based in Taiwan. In 2011, new CEO Tim Cook changed Apple's manufacturing strategy to diversify its suppliers. The iPhone 4S in 2012 was the first model to be manufactured simultaneously by two stand-alone companies: Foxconn and Pegatron, the latter also based in Taiwan. Although Foxconn still produces more iPhones, Pegatron's orders have been slowly increased: the company made part of the iPhone 5C line in 2013, and 30% of iPhone 6 devices in 2014. The 6 Plus model was produced solely by Foxconn. In 2019, Apple investigated reports that some Foxconn managers had used rejected parts to build iPhones. In India, Apple pays Wistron, a Taiwan-based manufacturer with a plant near Bangalore, to assemble iPhones to sell in the region. In 2022, Apple announced that a portion of iPhone 14 would be manufactured in Tamil Nadu, India, as a response to China's "zero-COVID" policy that has negatively affected global supply chains for many industries. Apple has stated that they plan to shift 25% of iPhone production to India by 2025.

Repairability

Only Apple Stores and Apple Authorized Service Providers are allowed by Apple to perform genuine replacements.Apple has taken steps to make third-party repairs more difficult. iPhone components are soldered, and many are glued together.[118] iPhones receive low repairability scores, in part due to the difficulty of obtaining genuine parts, and the difficulty undertaking each repair.This has given rise to the right to repair movement, aimed at giving users cheaper options for repairing their phones. Apple has lobbied against right to repair legistation.Multiple jurisdictions aim to introduce right to repair laws, including the EU,U.K.and U.S. In the past, Apple bricked iPhone 6 models after their home buttons were replaced, displaying an Error 53 message; Apple called this a bug, and released an udate to address the issue On iPhones with a Touch ID sensor, the home button cannot be replaced by users or independent repair shops without losing Touch ID functionality, since Apple has not made their calibration tool public. In more recent models, starting with the iPhone XR, Apple displays warnings in the Settings app if the battery, display, or camera are replaced by a third party.Additionally, some features are disabled when a part labelled "non-genuine" is detected, like True Tone, or the battery health measurement. iFixit notes that a proprietary, cloud-linked System Configuration tool is required to "complete" a part repair, meaning that even replacing a genuine part with another genuine part will fail Apple's "genuine parts" check unless said tool is used. In 2022, Apple rolled out a self-service repair program, allowing any user to buy parts, rent repair tools from Apple, and obtain repair manuals. The program received a degree of praise by iFixit and repair advocates, who also critically noted that Apple maintains control over the parts supply.

Software

Operating system Main articles: iOS and iOS version history The iPhone runs iOS. It is based on macOS's Darwin and many of its userland APIs, with Cocoa replaced by Cocoa Touch, and AppKit replaced by UIKit. The graphics stack runs on Metal, Apple's low-level graphics API. The iPhone comes with a set of bundled applications developed by Apple, and supports downloading third-party applications through the App Store. Apple provides free updates to iOS over-the-air, or through Finder and iTunes on a computer. Major iOS releases have historically accompanied new iPhone models.

Marketing

The original iPhone was heavily rumoved before its official announcement, creating buzz and anticipation. Upon its release, it was marketed heavily in television, web and print ads created in partnership with TBWA/Chiat/Day. Apple's premium market positioning has led the iPhone to be seen as a status symbol. The Apple ecosystem has been described as a key moat that increases iPhone brand loyalty. iMessage has especially been singled out, with its "green bubbles" phenomena. In iMessage, SMS messages from Android users appear as green bubble, rather than the blue bubbles used for texts from other iPhone users. Group chats between iOS and Android are poorly supported; reactions display as text, rather than bubbles, and images are sent through MMS, which degrades image quality. Some teens have described being "ostracized" after switching to Android, which Google has labelled "bullying." This has been described by critics as a key factor leading 87% of U.S. teenagers to use iPhones.

Sales

Steve Jobs's initial target was to reach 1% of phone market share in 2008. Apple sold 6.1 million units of the original iPhone between Q3 FY2007[note 1] and Q4 FY2008, and 11.3 million units of the iPhone 3G in Q4 FY2008 and Q1 FY2009.In 2008, the iPhone reached 1.1% of worldwide mobile phone market share, and 8.2% of the smartphone market. iPhone sales have grown continuously year-over-year since its introduction until Q2 FY2016.[194][195] The iPhone briefly surpassed BlackBerry in Q4 FY2008, and permanently overtook it starting in Q3 FY2010.By 2011, Apple sold 100 million iPhones worldwide, and became the largest mobile phone vendor in the world by revenue, surpassing long-time leader Nokia. Q1 FY2012 marked Apple's best quarterly earnings in its history, with 53% of the company's revenues coming from iPhone sales. Phone sales are strongly seasonal, peaking in the holiday season (Apple's Q1). With the release of the iPhone 13 in Q1 FY2022, Apple temporarily topped Samsung, with 84.9 million units shipped compared to Samsung's 68.9 million. In most quarters, Apple is the second largest smartphone vendor by units.[note 2] Today, Samsung and Apple dominate the smartphone market, with 21.8% and 15.6% worldwide market share respectively. Due to Apple's small lineup, Apple often dominates the list of bestselling smartphone models. Despite its lower market share, the iPhone's premium positioning has led it to capture nearly half of global smartphone revenue,and 80% of global smartphone profits, with Samsung taking the other 20%. Carriers compete with each other to subsidize iPhone upgrades, which is seen as a significant factor in iPhone sales, though this has reduced carrier profits.On July 27, 2016, Apple announced that it had sold their 1 billionth iPhone. Compared to other high-tech products, a greater proportion of iPhone users are female.The iPhone has been adopted by both consumers and business users. iPhone users are wealthier and spend more time on their phones than Android users on average. The iPhone is especially popular in the U.S., where it has a 50% market share,and is used by 87% of teenagers.[109] Worldwide, the iPhone accounts for 78% of the high-end ($1,000+) smartphone market. Android overtook the iPhone's installed base in 2010, according to NPD Group.During Apple's earnings call on January 27, 2021, Tim Cook said that 1 billion iPhones were being actively used worldwide. Emerging markets While other manufacturers make separate entry-level phones, Apple's entry-level phones are the previous years' models, part of an effort to increase its market share in emerging markets without diluting its premium brand.It also considers emerging market tastes in its product designs; for example, it introduced a gold iPhone after finding that gold was seen as a popular sign of a luxury product among Chinese customers.In 2017, Apple started manufacturing previous years' iPhone models in India; in 2022, began manufacturing the current iPhone 14 there too. Analysts have speculated that this was partly caused by Apple's desire to reduce its dependence on China, and to overcome Indian import duties.

SIM unlocking

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