Before and after photos show Apple's influence on Android manufacturers then and now

The original Apple iPhone was a huge influence in the design of competing smartphones. Before Apple's touchscreen handset was unveiled on January 9th, 2007, smartphones had physical keyboards, and users had to push buttons and turn dials to navigate their way around a phone. After the iPhone was launched, touchscreen phones were suddenly in vogue.

Thanks to some pictures posted by a Reddit poster with the handle of Saim_Ray10 (via Redmond Pie), we can see how influential Apple's handset was by looking at pictures of smartphones that were released before and after the OG iPhone. Apple used the same type of imagery during the first Apple v. Samsung patent infringement trial to prove that the Samsung Galaxy S and other Samsung models had infringed on Apple patents related to the design of the iPhone.

History has repeated itself. The Apple iPhone X was not the first smartphone to use a notch; that "honor" actually goes to the Sharp Aquos S2, which was released three days earlier than the Essential Phone. But those models didn't feature the kind of notch that was used on the Apple iPhone X. And as you can see from the before and after photos pertaining to the iPhone X (visit the slideshow at the bottom of this article), Apple's larger and wider notch (see image at the top of this article) ended up on the display of quite a few Android phones, including the Google Pixel 3 XL (not pictured).

Now, the newest trend is to use an in-display camera instead of a notch. This is an innovation that Apple cannot take credit for. But we suspect that it might take another full year before the influence of the iPhone X style notch starts wearing out completely.