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Development of the iPhone began in 2005 with Apple CEO Steve Jobs' direction that Apple engineers investigate touchscreens.[6] He also steered the original focus away from a tablet, like the iPad, and towards a phone.[7] Apple created the device during a secretive collaboration with AT&T Mobility—Cingular Wireless at the time—at an estimated development cost of US$150 million over thirty months.[8]
Apple rejected the "design by committee" approach that had yielded the Motorola ROKR E1, a largely unsuccessful[9] collaboration with Motorola. Instead, Cingular gave Apple the liberty to develop the iPhone's hardware and software in-house[10][11] and even paid Apple a fraction of its monthly service revenue (until the iPhone 3G),[12] in exchange for four years of exclusive U.S. sales, until 2011.
Jobs unveiled the iPhone to the public on January 9, 2007 at the Macworld 2007 convention at the Moscone Center in San Francisco. The iPhone went on sale in the United States on June 29, 2007, at 6:00 pm local time, while hundreds of customers lined up outside the stores nationwide.[13] The passionate reaction to the launch of the iPhone resulted in sections of the media christening it the 'Jesus phone'.[14][15] The original iPhone was made available in the UK, France, and Germany in November 2007, and Ireland and Austria in the spring of 2008.
On July 11, 2008, Apple released the iPhone 3G in twenty-two countries, including the original six.[16] Apple released the iPhone 3G in upwards of eighty countries and territories.[17] Apple announced the iPhone 3GS on June 8, 2009, along with plans to release it later in June, July, and August, starting with the U.S., Canada and major European countries on June 19. Many would-be users objected to the iPhone's cost,[18] and 40% of users have household incomes over US$100,000.[19]
In an attempt to gain a wider market, Apple retained the 8 GB iPhone 3G at a lower price. When Apple introduced the iPhone 4, the 3GS became the less expensive model. Apple reduced the price several times since the iPhone's release in 2007, at which time an 8 GB iPhone sold for $599. An iPhone 3GS with the same capacity now has no cost to the customer, as of the release of the iPhone 4S. However, these numbers are misleading, since all iPhone units sold through AT&T require a two-year contract costing several thousand dollars, including an early termination fee,[20] and a SIM lock.
Apple sold 6.1 million original iPhone units over five quarters.[21] Recorded sales have been growing steadily thereafter, and by the end offiscal year 2010, a total of 73.5 million iPhones were sold.[22] By 2010/2011, the iPhone had a market share of barely 4% of all cellphones, but Apple still pulls in more than 50% of the total profit that global cellphone sales generate.[23] Sales in Q4 2008 surpassed temporarily those of RIM's BlackBerry sales of 5.2 million units, which made Apple briefly the third largest mobile phone manufacturer by revenue, afterNokia and Samsung.[24] Approximately 6.4 million iPhones are active in the U.S. alone.[19] While iPhone sales constitute a significant portion of Apple's revenue, some of this income is deferred.[25]
The back of the original iPhone was made of aluminum with a black plastic accent. The iPhone 3G and 3GS feature a full plastic back to increase the strength of the GSM signal.[26] The iPhone 3G was available in an 8 GB black model, or a black or white option for the 16 GB model. They both are now discontinued. The iPhone 3GS was available in both colors, regardless of storage capacity.
The white model was discontinued in favor of a black 8 GB low-end model. The iPhone 4 has analuminosilicate glass front and back with a stainless steel edge that serves as the antennas. It was at first available in black; the white version was announced, but not released until April 2011, 10 months later.
The iPhone has garnered positive reviews from such critics as David Pogue[27] and Walter Mossberg.[28][29] The iPhone attracts users of all ages,[19] and, besides consumer use, the iPhone has also been adopted for business purposes.[30]
Users of the iPhone 4 reported dropped/disconnected telephone calls when holding their phones in a certain way. This became known as antennagate. [31]
On January 11, 2011, Verizon announced during a media event that it had reached an agreement with Apple and would begin selling aCDMA2000 iPhone 4. Verizon said it would be available for pre-order on February 3, with a release set for February 10. In February 2011, the Verizon iPhone accounted for 4.5 percent of all iPhone ad impressions[vague] in the U.S. on Millennial Media's mobile ad network.[34] On March 2, 2011, at the iPad 2 event, Apple announced that they have sold 100 million iPhones worldwide.[35]
On Tuesday, September 27, Apple sent invitations for a press event to be held October 4, 2011 at 10:00AM at the Cupertino Headquarters to announce details of the next generation iPhone, which turned out to be iPhone 4S. Over 1 million 4S models were sold in the first 24 hours after its release in October 2011.[36] Due to large volumes of the iPhone being manufactured and the its high selling price, Apple became the largest mobile handset vendor in the world by revenue, in 2011, surpassing long-time leader Nokia;[37] however, later that year, it was surpassed by Samsung, a major manufacturer of Android phones.[38] American carrier C Spire Wireless announced that it would be carrying the iPhone 4S on October 19, 2011.[5] In February 2012, ComScore reported that 12.4% of US mobile subscribers use an iPhone.[39] The iPhone 4S launch was also the biggest launch [40] for any smartphone in the history of mobile device market.
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