10 years ago, the world changed forever. The iPhone went on sale, which had a huge impact not only on technology, but also, no matter how pathetic it may sound, the history of mankind as a whole.
At the same time, the very first iPhone was not perfect: it was scolded for its inability to work with 3G networks, the lack of a memory card (which was important in those days) and poor connection quality. However, it was the Apple smartphone that was destined to revolutionize the industry and turn the phone from just a device for communication into an indispensable attribute of a modern person. - about why he succeeded.
Touchscreen display and "adaptive" interface
There were touchscreen smartphones before the iPhone, but it was Apple's development that took touch control to a whole new level. While other manufacturers were bundling styluses with their communicators, Jobs's team worked hard to relieve smartphone users of the need to use additional devices. Why do you need a stylus when there is a much more convenient and familiar tool - your fingers.
iPhone, 2007 © apple.com
The iPhone debuted multitouch technology - the smartphone display was able to recognize several taps at the same time. The iPhone operating system was entirely designed for finger and gesture control, which set it apart from, for example, Windows Mobile, which was essentially a significantly stripped-down version of desktop Windows. In the iPhone OS (as it was then called), the interface was "adaptive": it automatically adjusted to running applications, and additional functions appeared on the screen only when the user needed them. You could navigate the menus with simple swipes, scroll through pages by sliding your finger across the screen, and enlarge pictures by simply pushing your fingers apart. Now it is difficult to imagine that you can control your smartphone in any other way, but then these possibilities seemed incredible. Just revisit the presentation of the first iPhone - at the moment of the demonstration of the approach of the photo, the audience cannot contain an amazed exhalation.
Equally impressive was the ability to simply rotate the smartphone and change the display orientation from vertical to horizontal. In addition, such an interface allowed Apple to remove the physical keyboard, typical for communicators of that time, from the phone case, and transfer it to the display, thereby increasing the size of the screen itself and making it widescreen.
The management principles of the very first iPhone are still the cornerstone of all mobile operating systems. After Apple's presentation, the Android development team, which was preparing for launch at the time, had to rework the system almost from scratch.
Web browser
Now any Android smartphone for 5 thousand rubles can go to the Internet site, but in 2007 the “mobile” versions of web pages were not much like the original ones. Safari on iPhone was the first browser to try to make the phone experience complete. Many functions did not work (for example, Flash), but the very ability to get your phone out of your pocket, go to The New York Times and read any article as if you were sitting in front of a computer screen became one of the main advantages of the iPhone over competitors.
© apple.com
App Store
But engineering marvels alone weren't enough to turn a disruptive smartphone into the world's most popular mobile device. Apple needed another trump card - the App Store.
The American company was not the first in the field of creating an app store - but it was she who was able to bring the concept to mind, turning a promising idea into a complete, viable and useful service. The app store allowed iPhone owners to expand the functionality of their smartphone infinitely. Any developer could create his own program and put it in a single store, to which every iPhone owner had access. This was a milestone. In 2008 there were 500 apps in the App Store - now there are about two million.
© apple.com
The decision was clever, no matter how you looked at it. First, thanks to the app store, the iPhone ecosystem developed almost independently - by the hands of third-party programmers and app authors. Secondly, Apple takes 30% of App Store sales, which at the end of the year usually translates into amounts comparable to the profits of large companies. And thirdly, messengers and games, Prisma and Google Photos, Uber and Yandex. Taxi”- everything that many of us cannot imagine a modern smartphone without, became possible largely thanks to the appearance of the App Store.
Siri
Siri is the world's first modern digital assistant for smartphones. Artificial intelligence in your cell phone sounds fabulous. Unfortunately, Siri's functionality has been somewhat limited and hasn't developed much since its presentation in 2010. The assistant can google information on the network for you or set a reminder, but he is still very far from full-fledged AI.
© apple.com
However, it was Siri that in fact gave a "kick" to the development of artificial intelligence, and, raising the seemingly abandoned banner by Apple, other companies continued the business much more successfully. For example, Google, which introduced Google Now in Android 4.4, and Google Assistant in last year's Pixel. Now is a separate tab in the system, where Android groups a lot of useful information - from articles that you might be interested in, to the timetable of the buses you use. Google Assistant can recognize context and can, for example, search for photos from your library using keywords.
With iOS 11, Apple promises to bring Siri up to the level of the competition, so it remains to wait until September when this update comes out.
The fingerprint scanner
Touch ID is one of those features that caused mixed reactions after the presentation, but then became the standard in the mobile world. The fingerprint scanner debuted in the iPhone 5s in 2013. It was built into the Home button, and with it, you could quickly unlock your smartphone without having to enter a pin code.
© apple.com
The opportunity turned out to be so convenient that now its absence in a smartphone can be safely recorded as significant disadvantages. And again, Apple was not the first to introduce a scanner into a mobile device - six years earlier, Toshiba did it with its Portege G500. Then the idea was laughed at and abandoned - and Apple remembered it and refined it.>
