These days it is unusual to walk down the street or catch public transport without catching at least a glimpse of an Apple product. When the instantly recognisable ‘Tri-Tone’ ringtone sounds in a public space, more than one of the people nearby will reach into a pocket to check their iPhones for incoming messages. The iPhone is not the only touchscreen smartphone on the market, but it is certainly one of the most iconic.
The iPhone did not simply spring forth from the minds of the Apple engineering team and into the eager hands of the consumers. No, the design and development process was a long and arduous journey; fraught with failed prototypes, untold costs, and frightening new territory for Apple. Insiders estimate that Apple spent approximately $150 million in developing the iPhone. (Wired, 2008)
Preliminary development on the iPhone began not long after the release of the first iPod in 2002. CEO at the time and Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, was initially interested in the prospect of multi-touch touchscreen devices and had a small group of engineers investigate the possibilities. While the iPod, in all of its incarnations, sold millions of units and fast became, ‘…the defining hand-held consumer appliance and fashion statement in the last half-decade.’ (New York Times, 2007), Jobs toyed with the idea of a Newton-esque tablet that would utilize the newly developed multi-touch functionality. Capitalising on Apple’s success in the portable music marketplace, Jobs eventually developed the concept that would become the iPhone – a multi-touch touchscreen device, which functioned somewhere between the intersection of a mobile phone, a personal computer and a music player. The next challenge was to create it.
The original iPhone, the very first model, was released in 2007 after months of speculation following its announcement. The generous screen size, the sleek design and a clever marketing campaign made the first generation iPhone look like the sexy older brother of the iPod family. While the initial release price was quite steep at $599USD, early-adopters scrambled to get their hands on the smartphones. The marketing campaign was simple and effective, showcasing the impressive functionality of the device without too much fanfare. Apple released snippets of information piece by piece in the lead up to the release, building the hype until it became somewhat of a consumer frenzy. The first iPhone sold approximately 6.1 million units worldwide during its lifetime. Its successor, the iPhone 3G sold a million units in just three days following its release. (Apple, 2008)
Boasting faster processors, assisted GPS, access to the 3G data network and redesigned shell, the iPhone 3G resolved some the questions asked about the original iPhone. The curved plastic body of the phone changed the shape slightly, affording users a better grip on the device. Unlike its predecessor, the iPhone 3G heralded the introduction of the App Store, Apple’s digital application marketplace. This innovation allowed users to fill their phones with a personal selection of applications and games, which was previously only achievable by jail-breaking the original iPhone. This change significantly altered the target audience for the phone. Previously, the target audience was tech-savvy consumers with a disposable income, as neither the phone nor the obligatory contract with the carrier came cheap. With the introduction of the App Store and the possibilities this gave the users for personalization, the target audience adjusted too. Phone contracts became more affordable and often included the cost of the handset. Suddenly, it was not uncommon to see a teenager walking down the street with an iPhone in their hands. With the release of the iPhone 3GS model, this only became more common. The price of the iPhone 3G was slashed and it was marketed as the budget iPhone model.
The iPhone 3GS was released in 2009, only a year after its predecessor. This new model was faster again, and now supported voice-control, video recording and included a higher resolution camera. Several exclusive features were added to the model, including a magnetometer to power the included Compass app. With the original marketing slogan, ‘The most powerful iPhone yet’, few market analysts were surprised that this model, too, sold over a million units over the first weekend of sales. (Engadget, 2009) With the announcement and subsequent release of the iPhone 4, this slogan was changed to, ‘More to love, less to pay’. While the iPhone 4 is the current model, the 3GS is still in production. Like the 3G model before it, it is now marketed as the budget iPhone.
The release of the iPhone 4 signaled a new breed of iPhone. Gone were the curves of the previous models. Instead, designer Jonathan Ive created a smartphone characterized by sleek rounded corners, a wraparound antenna and a slim body. Considerably smaller than its forerunners, the new design responded to occasional complaints that the phones were too bulky. An updated operating system, iOS 4, and twice as much RAM as the iPhone 3GS boosted performance speed once again, as well as providing a range of new functions and features. With face-to-face video calling application, FaceTime, an LED flash, and a gyroscope to improve its motion-sensing capabilities, there are several hardware features that could not be passed on to the iPhone 3GS through firmware updates. The new model sports another significant hardware upgrade in terms of the screen. Marketed as the ‘Retina Display’, the screen boasts 326 pixels-per-inch on a 960x640 display, trumping the 163 pixels-per-inch and 480x320 display of the previous model. The iPhone 4 trumped previous sales records for its predecessors, selling 1.7 million units within the first three days of its release. (Apple, 2010)
The evolution of the iPhone from the first aluminium model to the current glass incarnation has seen the target audience and intended user market evolve as well. While the first models were costly and very much perceived as a ‘luxury item’, the addition of the iPod Touch to the iOS stable and the decrease in the prices of the later model iPhones has made the devices much more accessible to the general public. The intended audience for the first generation was tech-savvy early-adopters with a disposable income. With the addition of the App Store, the advent of iPhone gaming and the decreasing prices, the target audience of the latest models is much different. While the tech-savvy early adopters with disposable incomes maybe the first to place their preorders and get their hands on the latest models, they are not the only ones. Like the iPods before them, iPhones and other smartphones are becoming the ‘must-have’ accessories of the younger generations. Of a group of ten randomly selected university students, six had iPhone 4s, two had Samsung touchscreens phones running the Android operating system, one had a business model Nokia, and the last had a well-loved iPhone 3G. While this sample is not indicative of the current market share, it certainly demonstrates that the iPhone is no longer the phone of the upper middle-class businessperson. Apple has cleverly marketed its phones to several different demographics with its current range of video commercials. The commercials focus on different aspects of the iPhone’s capabilities, from games and music, to greater communication via the calendars and FaceTime, making the smartphone simultaneously appealing to very different user groups.
The overwhelmingly positive response to previous models, and the improvement and development of the technologies behind the iPhone 4 meant that Jobs was able to realise his original concept of the multi-touch touchscreen tablet computer. Between the launch of the iPhone 3GS and the iPhone 4, the iPad was released. Apple’s answer to the tablet computer, the iPad borrowed much of its technological ideas from the iPhone. With a similar industrial design, thanks to designer Ive, the iPad looks like a grown-up iPhone and fits somewhere in between the smartphone and the laptop computer on the spectrum of functionality. Similarly, the operating system and many of the technologies were also scaled down to produce the iPod Touch range, first released in 2007 along with the original iPhone. As the iPhone range has grown and developed, the iPod Touch range has directly benefitted from its technological advances, with the latest models sporting FaceTime and the ‘Retina Display’ of the iPhone 4. Regular firmware upgrades are available for the iOS family via iTunes, allowing Apple to resolve any bugs or glitches in a timely manner, and helping to ensure continued customer satisfaction. With such a lucrative family of iOS devices, it is likely that Apple will continue to develop and release updated models of its portable music players, smartphones and tablet computers. Indeed, with the release of the iPad 2 earlier this year, the announcement of iOS5, and the predicted release of the iPhone 5 for late 2011, Apple is continuing this trend and only increasing their market share.
- Maxine Lines
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