With over 100 million devices sold, the iPhone is certainly the most popular smartphone in the world, and is shaking the world of mobile phones since its launch in 2007. Today, June 29, the unit celebrates five years of existence, considering the date of arrival of the first model to the market. Thus, the TechTudo created a special list showing the main innovations brought to the appliance business of technology since its launch today.
A design that became standard
One of the great marks left by the iPhone was the idealization of their drawing as the basics of smartphones. Being modern and elegant at the same time, size and thickness suitable for user comfort, the design of the model dictated the fashion of all the various devices that would follow. Even the current trend of testing new sizes, shapes and colors comes from a desire to move away from the design of the iPhone.
The appearance of the cell was so right that Apple uses almost the same design today in every generation of smartphones, changing only minor details. And, as might be expected, competitors also love to copy ...
The end of the stylus pen
The arrival of the iPhone is not impressed by the presence of Wi-Fi or an operating system itself, since such functions existed since PDAs and BlackBerry devices. The big attraction of the smartphone was the presence of a multi-touch screen that took up almost the entire front of the model and received commands directly from fingers without a stylus.
"Nobody wants a stylus. You have to catch it, save it, you can lose it ... No. We will use the best attachment point of the world, and we all are born with 10 of them. We will use our fingers, " said Steve Jobs during the keynote presentation of the first iPhone in January 2007.
Of course, the unit brought many other incredible innovations, as the sensor and the gravitational interaction with Google Maps. But the function of the iPhone that would be as revolutionary to the progress of smartphones would only come after, and beyond the control of Steve Jobs ...
The emergence of applications
The first iPhone model, oddly enough, had no applications, now so common even in the simplest cell. It had some features like a calendar and mp3 player, but nothing like the current range of programs. However, contrary to what might be thought, the idea of filling the smartphone with programs of various types did not come from Jobs, or any Apple executive. It arose from an initiative of hackers.
When the iPhone became popular, many users have realized that this was more than a phone mixed with iPod and Internet access. The apparatus was practically a handheld computer, operating system and many complex skills. Thus, programmers began to develop some specific programs for the iPhone. However, by having a closed platform, it was only possible to install such apps when iPhone system was released, i.e., suffered a jailbreak.
Apple executives, of course, would not let such a good idea go blank. Thus, in 2008, the company launched the apple store App Store applications, integrated into virtual iTunes music store, and began to encourage developers to create their own programs for the phone. The practice of downloading third-party apps, so just came to be popular even with the arrival of iPhone 3G model which included a shortcut to the App Store and still had the mobile connection per data packet, the 3G.
The phone replaces the camera
Compact cameras have gradually been replaced by versions integrated into the cell. It makes more sense to take an extra phone to take pictures, because you can make great images using your own cell phone. In the photo-sharing site Flickr, for example, smartphones have the spotlight as professional cameras of renowned brands. The iPhone goes further, and today ranks among the devices most commonly used to make photographs. It was not always so.
In 2007, when the first model of Apple's smartphone was launched, camera device was not given much importance. Steve Jobs would rather invest more in new roles for the cell than in an advanced camera. Still, the original iPhone went on sale with a 2 megapixel camera, which took not great photos, but marked its presence on the unit and began to gain the interest of users.
Currently, the camera is an essential part of any smartphone, and some of the most popular applications are precisely those that deal and share images, such as Instagram and Pinterest. If Apple's ads before releasing their phones did not give much attention to the camera, it is now easy to see that this has changed since the 8-megapixel sensor is one of the biggest lures of the iPhone 4S.
Talking to the cell
Launched in 2011, the iPhone 4S came as a perfect version of Apple's phone: had top-line specifications, Retina display with impressive graphics and, most importantly, the brand's most popular smartphone in the world. But the innovation that marked the model was the inclusion of a virtual personal assistant that meets the user's commands through voice: Siri.
The function is not only able to answer objective questions like "what are the best restaurants around this place?", or direct commands such as "call somebody." It also has the ability to interact with more personal messages such as "I love you", for example, turning the smartphone into a true companion.
The utilities and the curiosity of having a virtual assistant on the phone hit the other phone models too, and other similar applications have been developed by companies competing to bring resources like the Krusty systems Android and Windows Phone. It can be argued that the existence of a virtual assistant is already a mandatory feature in any new top-end smartphone that can arise on the market.
The legions of iPhone fans
As Steve Jobs premeditated the presentation of the first model of the iPhone, the device has revolutionized the mobile industry. What is surprising, however, is the amount of hardcore fans that the unit raised. With each new model launched, long lines are formed in the door of the Apple Stores, plenty of users who need to have the appliances before all.
This devotion is only stronger with the arrival of other family members iOS like the iPad and Apple TV. The company has been adding apple fans who buy all their products and still defend them fiercely against any competitor.
With each piece of news about the next iPhone, not only these enthusiasts, but anyone connected to technology is tuned to find out what the next big innovation is which Apple will arise with.