The iPhone is a line of Internet- and multimedia-enabled smartphones designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It functions as a camera phone (also including text messaging and visual voicemail), a portable media player (equivalent to a video iPod), and an Internet client (with e-mail, web browsing, and Wi-Fi connectivity). The user interface is built around the device’s multi-touch screen, including a virtual keyboard in lieu of a physical keyboard. Third-party applications are available from the App Store, which launched in mid-2008 and now has well over 100,000 “apps” approved by Apple, with functionalities ranging from games to reference to productivity.
Apple announced the iPhone on January 9, 2007,[16] after months of rumors and speculation.[17] The original (labeled retroactively) iPhone was introduced in the United States on June 29, 2007 before being marketed in Europe. It featured quad-band GSM with EDGE. Time magazine named it the Invention of the Year in 2007.[18] Released July 11, 2008, the iPhone 3G supports faster 3G data speeds via UMTS with 3.6 Mbps HSDPA, and assisted GPS.[19] Apple released version 3.0 of the iPhone OS for the iPhone (and iPod Touch) on June 17, 2009.[20] The iPhone 3GS has improved performance, a camera with higher resolution and video capability, voice control,[21] and support for 7.2 Mbps HSDPA downloading (but remains limited to 384 Kbps uploading as Apple has not implemented the HSPA protocol).[22] It was released in the U.S., Canada and six European countries on June 19, 2009,[3] in Australia and Japan on June 26,[23] and internationally in July and August 2009. The original iPhone was discontinued with the introduction of the iPhone 3G, which remains available alongside the iPhone 3GS.
