Apple iPhone 3G

The history of the iPhone isn’t just the history of a mobile phone; it really is the history of a true phenomenon. No other phone in history has caught the public’s attention like the Apple iPhone, making it easily one of the most talked about mobile phones in history. It really does seem that whether you’re fans of the iPhone or not, you just can’t stop talking about it.

The story of the iPhone actually began way before its launch in 2007, when Apple made a mobile version of iTunes, which sat in a Motorola phone. It was hardly a match made in heaven, however, becoming something of a novelty item; and on top of that, it was a novelty item that not many people loved. However, that iTunes-enabled phone caused the first stirrings of a question to arise in many people’s minds: what would a phone made by Apple themselves be like?

In 2007, the world got its answer, thanks to the unveiling of the original Apple iPhone. While 2008’s iPhone 3G raised the bar, with new features such as 3G internet access and GPS, it was that first iPhone that set the template for what would follow.

But what has made the iPhone such a phenomenon? What is it that’s so special about the iPhone experience?

The first factor must surely be the interface. Based on OS-X, the interface within the iPhone took user-friendliness to a whole new level, with sweeping gestures on the screen making the iPhone dance to your tune. In that same arena, the screen was unlike anything on previous mobile phones, has the iPhone featured multitouch. Being able to touch more than one point on the screen simultaneously let you do all manner of cool things, such as the now infamous ’pinch’ motion to zoom in and out on photos and web pages. Put simply, the iPhone let you interact with it in ways you never could on previous mobile phones, and made those interactions both easy and fun.

One of the other key things that’s made you all fall in love with the iPhone is the dazzling internet experience every model in the series gives you. Whichever model you have, whether it’s an iPhone or an iPhone 3G or so on, you get the phenomenal Safari web browser, which takes the same ethos of finger controls and sweeping gestures, and applies them to web browsing. So, with the iPhone, you flick through pages with just the tip of a finger. With the iPhone, you use the same ’pinch’ motion to zoom in and out on pages. With the iPhone, you get a stunning internet experience that few phones can even come close to.

The statistics on mobile internet use are telling, as well; in terms of mobile internet access, the most frequently used phone to get online with is, you guessed it, the iPhone. Maybe it’s because it’s so easy to get online with the iPhone, or maybe it’s because once you are online, the internet on the iPhone is more fun. Whatever the reason, Apple’s baby leads the way!

There’s one other fact about the iPhone that its fans, and independent reviewers alike, hold up as one of the big reasons why it’s so popular, and it’s something that is now being seen on many more mobile phones. However, it’s the Apple App Store, and the iPhone was the first phone to make it easy to buy and download extra software for your phone. Sure, many previous phones could run third party software well before the iPhone was even a gleam in Apple’s eye, but it was this unique phone that first made it easy to download software directly through the phone, and install it on the fly, no matter where you were.

So, with the App Store, the iPhone truly became a phone of a thousand faces. It could be whatever you wanted your phone to be, whether that meant becoming a handheld games console, or a canvas for you to finger-paint on, or even a spirit level to check if a shelf is straight. It’s the App Store that makes that possible, and to many fans, the App Store is the best thing about the iPhone.

One thing’s for sure, though: no phone in history is as talked about as the iPhone, and there seems to be not much middle ground. Fans absolutely adore it, critics tend to really dismiss it, but no-one can stop talking about it. The iPhone has earned it; it’s the first phone in history to move from just being a phone, and become a legitimate phenomenon.

That is the heart of it; that simple fact is why the iPhone is so special.