Happy Belated 14th Anniversary to the Apple iPhone

Some of us knew it at the time, but others didn't. When the late Steve Jobs introduced the Apple iPhone on January 9th, 2007, the world was soon about to undergo a seismic change. Sure, the iPhone wasn't the first smartphone ever made, but with the touch screen and intuitive software and interface, it was a huge jump over what passed for a smartphone at the time. Faster than you might imagine, smartphones were everywhere.

Last September, Apple introduced the iPhone 12 line, the first iPhone series to support 5G. Which brings us back to the original iPhone which ran on AT&T's slow as molasses EDGE network. With EDGE, iPhone users had a choice; they could use the browser or the phone. If you happened to be looking up something online, phone calls would be automatically sent to voicemail. Well, not just voicemail but visual voicemail. The OG iPhone also lacked MMS, stereo Bluetooth and a few other features. But it wasn't enough to deter consumers from falling in love with the device.

Apple fell into the pattern of updating the iPhone every year immediately adding some of the things it failed to deliver on the OG model such as 3G support. The App Store was one of the most important additions (especially for Apple's bank account) to the 2007 model.

The popularity of the iPhone continued to grow and it wasn't until the Motorola DROID launched in November 2009 that a proper challenger to the iPhone surfaced. With HTC, Motorola, Samsung and others producing various Android models, the cost of purchasing a smartphone dropped and soon everyone was walking down the street and looking down at their screens as smartphone penetration grew. Thanks to the lower-priced iPhone SE and older models selling on eBay, just about anyone who wants an iPhone can buy one. But the problem is that by increasing availability, the magic starts to disappear. That is why Apple set a goal to double the revenue of its Apple Services unit from $25 billion to $50 billion from fiscal 2016 to fiscal 2020. Apple did indeed hit the goal this past fiscal year thanks to recurring subscriptions for Services like Apple Music, Apple News+, Fitness+ and more.

How can we tell that when it comes to the iPhone the bloom is off the rose? Well to be honest with you, yours truly forgot the anniversary this year which explains why this story is a day late. Still, with the added 5G support for the iPhone 12 line, some analysts expect to see a record number of iPhone units ship this year. Even though Samsung ships more phones than Apple does worldwide, when it comes to individual models it is usually an iPhone at the top of the charts. For example, the iPhone 11 was the most popular phone on the planet last year.

Over the last 14 years, we've seen Apple increase the size of the 3.5-inch display on the phone, switch from LCD to OLED panels, add more memory and storage, lengthen battery life and add many more changes. Some might say that Apple has lost its way and that the iPhone can no longer surprise us thanks to a lack of innovation. Others might point out how poorly Siri performs compared to Google Assistant or bring up some of the failures of the past such as Apple Maps. And Apple is knocked often for not leading the way when it comes to features such as offering a 120Hz refresh rate on the latest models. Despite all of these issues, it is still the iPhone that generates the most attention among smartphones year-after-year.

So blow out the candles on the cake as we pass along (again, belatedly we should add) our 14th anniversary wishes to the iPhone.