Steve Jobs’ iPhone is Ten Years Old

EghtesadOnline: The smartphone continues to change the world a decade after the debut of the iPhone, even as Apple is under pressure to come up with a new wonder.

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09 January 2017

The iPhone – introduced by late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007 – set the stage for mobile computing and an entire industry revolving around it.

The handsets built on successful iPod digital music players and featured touch screens at a time when the smartphone market was ruled by BlackBerry devices with keypads.

Jobs billed his smartphone approach as blending liberal arts, design and technology.

What was not obvious at the time was how iPhone’s focus on apps would send people rocketing along a path to tweeting, Snapping, Pokemon Go, live streaming video, and more, Financial Tribune reported.

Smartphones are even playing a big role in the virtual reality trend, with people using handsets as screens inserted into headsets for exploring fantasy realms.

Apple does not attend CES tech event. But its trend-setting power was felt at the event from cars boasting “infotainment” systems that synch with iPhones, to smart-home networks controlled by mobile apps and rival smartphones mirroring iPhone features.

Changed Industry

The iPhone, in a way, was a seed around which the consumer electronics industry has crystalized, according to Maxwell Ramsey of mobile phone news website phoneArena.com.

Putting the internet in people’s pockets, and on tablet computers, has profoundly changed the way people watch films, get news, socialize and work.

Apple chief executive Tim Cook and other top executives saw their compensation for 2016 cut because internal income targets were missed, according to a filing Friday with US regulators.

Apple reported net sales of $215.6 billion for the fiscal year, with an operating income of $60 billion, the filing indicated.

Cook’s pay will tally $8.75 million as compared with $10.3 million in 2015. His base pay jumped to $3 million from $2 million.

Apple’s profit in the quarter ending September 24 slumped on a widely expected drop in iPhone sales, but gains in services offered optimism on company efforts to curb dependence on its smartphone.