Apple introduced the original iPhone back in 2007, instantly obsoleting every other smartphone on the planet in every way that mattered. Over the next two years, with the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS, Apple increased functionality while simultaneously lowering price, taking the smartphone fully out of the niche and making it mainstream. The iPhone 4 and iPhone 4S continued that evolution, bringing support for broader carriers and faster speeds, better displays and new, natural language interfaces. The iPhone 5 took manufacturing to new levels and the screen to new heights, but most importantly it set the stage for what's coming next - iOS 7, the iPhone 5s and iPhone 5c, and more. Before we embark on that brave new future, however, we're going to take a look back. This is the story of Apple's revolutionary phone. Of Steve Jobs' phone. Of the iPhone. And for many of us, our phone.Note: For length reasons we've broken this piece into separate articles and sections. You can jump to a section via the links below, or read through for an overview and individual links below.

On January 9, 2007 the late Steve Jobs put sneaker to Macworld stage to give one of the most incredible keynote presentations of his life - a life filled with incredible keynotes - and in the history of consumer electronics. There, he said he would be introducing a wide-screen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone, and a breakthrough internet device. But it wasn't three products. It was one product. We got it. It was the iPhone.

After setting up and knocking down everything from the physical keyboard and stylus pens that dominated BlackBerry, Motorola, and Palm smartphones of the day, Jobs went over the multitouch interface that let the iPhone smoothly pinch-to-zoom, and the delightful interface that included touches like inertia and rubber banding in the scrolling, and the multitasking that let him move seamlessly from music to call to web to email and back. Apple:“iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “We are all

born with the ultimate pointing device—our fingers—and iPhone uses them to create the most revolutionary user interface since the mouse.”

The original iPhone, code named M68 and model number iPhone1,1, had a 3.5-inch screen at 320x480 and 163ppi, a quad-band 2G EDGE data radio, 802.11b.g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, and a 2 megapixel camera. It was powered by an ARM-based Samsung 1176JZ(F)-S processor and PowerVR MBX Lite 3D graphics, with an 1400 mAh battery, and had 128MB of RAM on board, as well as 4GB or 8GB of NAND Flash storage. The iPhone could also be charged - and synced to iTunes - via the same 30-pin Dock connector as Apple's incredibly popular iPod.

The iPhone did include several sensors to enhance the user experience, including an accelerometer that could automatically rotate the screen to match device orientation, a proximity sensor that could automatically turn off the screen when close to the face, and an ambient light sensor to automatically

adjust brightness. It also had a remarkably good web browser and rendering engine, especially for its time, in Safari and WebKit.

What the original iPhone didn't have was CDMA and EVDO rev A network compatibly. That meant it couldn't work on two of the U.S.' big four carriers, Verizon and Sprint. Not that it mattered; the original iPhone was exclusive to AT&T. It also lacked GPS, or support for faster 3G UTMS/HSPA data speeds. In addition to no hardware keyboard or stylus, the iPhone also didn't have a removable, user-replaceable battery. None of that pleased existing power users of the time. Nor did the absence of features like MMS (multi-media messaging), an exposed file system, copy and paste or any form of advanced text editing, and, critically to many, support for third party apps.

The original iPhone's price was also high. It debuted at $499 for the 4GB and $599 for the 8GB model - on-contract. Those prices weren't unheard of at the time; early Motorola RAZR flip phones were pricey in

their day as well. However, it meant Apple couldn't penetrate the mainstream market

Lava

The original iPhone, code named M68 and model number iPhone1,1, had a 3.5-inch screen at 320x480 and 163ppi, a quad-band 2G EDGE data radio, 802.11b.g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.0 EDR, and a 2 megapixel camera. It was powered by an ARM-based Samsung 1176JZ(F)-S processor and PowerVR MBX Lite 3D graphics, with an 1400 mAh battery, and had 128MB of RAM on board, as well as 4GB or 8GB of NAND Flash storage. The iPhone could also be charged - and synced to iTunes - via the same 30-pin Dock connector as Apple's incredibly popular iPod.

The iPhone did include several sensors to enhance the user experience, including an accelerometer that could automatically rotate the screen to match device orientation, a proximity sensor that could

automatically turn off the screen when close to the face, and an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust brightness. It also had a remarkably good web browser and rendering engine, especially for its time, in Safari and WebKit.

What the original iPhone didn't have was CDMA and EVDO rev A network compatibly. That meant it couldn't work on two of the U.S.' big four carriers, Verizon and Sprint. Not that it mattered; the original iPhone was exclusive to AT&T. It also lacked GPS, or support for faster 3G UTMS/HSPA data speeds. In addition to no hardware keyboard or stylus, the iPhone also didn't have a removable, user-replaceable battery. None of that pleased existing power users of the time. Nor did the absence of features like MMS (multi-media messaging), an exposed file system, copy and paste or any form of advanced text editing, and, critically to many, support for third party apps.

The original iPhone's price was also high. It debuted at $499 for the 4GB and $599 for the 8GB model

- on-contract. Those prices weren't unheard of at the time; early Motorola RAZR flip phones were pricey in their day as well. However, it meant Apple couldn't penetrate the mainstream market

Micromax

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Two-year-old Micromax becomes India's third-largest mobile phone vendorAmit Sharma, ET Bureau Apr 28, 2010, 12.22am IST

Tags: Vikas Jain | Samsung | Nokia | mobile phones | Micromax Technologies | IDC

NEW DELHI: Two years ago, when the Goliaths—Nokia, Samsung and LG—had a firm grip on one of the fastest growing mobile markets in the world, a David was born. Just two-years old, still in its nappies, this David has pushed Goliaths into a tight corner and is giving them a run for their money.

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Micromax, the David, is now the third-largest GSM mobile phone vendor in India, after Nokia and Samsung, with a market share of 6%, according to research firm IDC. The Rs 1,600-crore brand, which sells around 1 million mobiles every month, has a presence in more than 500 districts through 70,000 retail outlets.

A distribution company, Micromax Technologies, was engaged in reselling hardware since 2000. It subsequently did software projects for other big IT companies and later on graduated to become back-end partners of Nokia and Airtel, helping implement their different products and services.

It was in 2008 that four friends—Rajesh Agarwal, Sumeet Arora, Rahul Sharma and Vikas Jain—decided to diversify their IT hardware distribution business and start making mobile phones. The move towards selling handsets was a natural progression. "We saw that the MNC brands were not selling phones that suited Indian consumers' requirements. This void had to be filled. So in April 2008, we forayed into the handset market," said Vikas Jain, one of the four founders of Micromax Infomatics, the company that owns the Micromax Mobile brand.

Their first mobile phone boasted of a month's battery power, and further charged the ambitions of the friends. Like all leading players in the cell

phone industry, Micromax also gets its handsets contract manufactured from China. A zero-import duty on cell phones has helped the industry proliferate. After a slew of phones targeted specifically at the rural masses, the company made a shift towards selling handsets that come with features appealing to urban consumers such as music phones, qwerty and internet-enabled handsets.

"We wanted to approach the market in a different manner by first going to rural and semi-urban areas, establishing a good distribution base and then targeting the big cities," said Vikas Jain.

In a sea of me-too brands, Vikas feels that it is innovation and R&D that will power Micromax's growth and set it apart from the crowd. So, the brand has been integrating different solutions into one, to churn out mobile handsets that are unique and differentiated through the features that they provide.

The company already has a universal remote control phone, one that can be paired to household appliances like the TV, AC, to act as a remote control for them. Then there are gravity sensitive phones and a whole gamut of different feature laden phones that the company is guarded about, but is going to launch in the days ahead. "We have to be quick in launching new products as competitors can also copy a lot of this soon enough," reasons Jain.

Techcom India forays into mobile handset marketDecember 2, 2010

Videocon bets big on mobile handset marketJanuary 14, 2010

Weston forays into mobile handset marketSeptember 22, 2010

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