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Apple releases the iPhone, launching the smartphone era

29 June 2007·Science, technology & invention·United States·
29 June 2007Date
Science, technology & inventionCategory
0Empires active
Date
29 June 2007
Category
Science, technology & invention
Region
United States
Era
Contemporary
Significance

Unveiled by Steve Jobs on 9 January 2007 and released in the United States on 29 June 2007, Apple's iPhone combined a music player, mobile phone and internet device in a single product controlled almost entirely by a finger-driven touchscreen, dispensing with the physical keypads and styluses common at the time.

Although smartphones existed before it, the iPhone's intuitive interface, mobile web browsing and, from 2008, its App Store transformed the mobile phone from a communications tool into a pocket-sized general-purpose computer. It triggered a global wave of competition, most notably Google's Android operating system, and within a few years smartphones became the primary means by which billions of people, including many in the Global South, accessed the internet for the first time. The device reshaped industries from photography and music to navigation, retail, transport and media, enabled an enormous app economy, and altered daily habits, social interaction and the attention economy. The iPhone stands as one of the defining products of the digital revolution and a turning point in the spread of mobile internet access.

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