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One of the most famous examples of a revolution in design came with the introduction of Apple’s iPhone in early 2007. This GSM smartphone features a compact size; a highresolution, full-color screen almost as big as the unit itself; a built-in iPod music player; touch-screen functions for navigating menus; and an on-screen keyboard. Unprecedented publicity led to heavy demand. When it went on sale in the United States in June, some stores sold out within hours.
Apple stores sold an estimated 128,000 iPhones on the first day; Apple’s telecommunications partner, AT&T, sold an estimated 78,000 in the same period. Many observers, both inside and outside the mobile phone industry, heralded Apple’s entry into the cellular phone market. Citing the company’s history of innovation and userfriendly features in personal computing and portable music players, critics and consumers thought that the iPhone would be a hit. Certainly its sleek design, uncluttered by buttons and keys, seemed simple and elegant and added to its appeal. The iPhone’s beautiful design, intuitive user’s menu, and touch-screen technology that reacted to finger touches, sweeps, and flicks won raves from both users and critics. It received a variety of awards in 2008, including the prestigious Black Pencil Award for achievement in product design from D&AD, an educational charity that recognizes excellence in design and creativity. However, its hardware left some critics less than impressed. The original 2G model had just 4 gigabytes of memory.
Touch-screen technology had been available on an award-winning model from the company LG in 2006. The Nokia 9300i had a larger screen. The iPhone’s camera offered lower resolution than many other camera phones on the market, and it had no video recording capabilities. Additionally, many SMS enthusiasts and mobile marketing experts felt the touch screen forced the user to SMS using both hands, unlike phones with traditional keypads. Nevertheless, mobile marketing experts acknowledged that it was a hit with consumers. For example, the advanced iPhone 3G, with 8 gigabytes of memory, won the Phone of the Year Award for 2008 from Great Britain’s What Mobile magazine. It has become an extremely familiar model in a field of hundreds of other mobiles, and it serves as an example of how far mobile innovation and design have come in less than forty years.
As a way of measuring these advances, compare the first commercially available model, Motorola’s DynaTAC 8000X, to the iPhone. The DynaTAC weighed close to 2 pounds (907g), and measured 13 inches tall by 1.75 inches wide by 3.5 inches deep (33cm by 4.4cm by 8.6cm). The iPhone 3G weighs 4.7 ounces (133g), and measures 4.5 inches by 2.4 inches by 0.46 inches deep (11.4cm by 6.0cm by 1.2cm). The DynaTAC cost close to $4,000 in 1983; the iPhone today costs as little as $99.
Competition Leads to Variety
Consumers do not need to buy an iPhone to take advantage of advances in design and power. Complex chip sets and advanced electronics offer amazing speed, full-color graphics, and light weight in even inexpensive mobile phones. For example, a cell phone that debuted in October 2008 had a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, expandable memory up to 16 gigabytes, stereo sound, and a camera with the ability to capture images with a 2-megapixel resolution. The phone’s suggested retail price was $50.
Consumers do not need to buy an iPhone to take advantage of advances in design and power. Complex chip sets and advanced electronics offer amazing speed, full-color graphics, and light weight in even inexpensive mobile phones. For example, a cell phone that debuted in October 2008 had a slide-out QWERTY keyboard, expandable memory up to 16 gigabytes, stereo sound, and a camera with the ability to capture images with a 2-megapixel resolution. The phone’s suggested retail price was $50.
The competition among cellular phone manufacturers and network providers remains fierce. Within a year of the release of the iPhone 3G, several manufacturers offered phones with similar capabilities for a lower price than Apple’s device, or with more advanced features for a similar price. For example, the Samsung Omnia offers a 5-megapixel camera for roughly the same price as the iPhone which has a 2-megapixel unit. As consumers navigate the maze of competing devices, features, and networks, cellular companies are working to develop the next generations of connectivity. The changes from 1G devices and networks to 2G digitization were clear-cut; a device and a network were either digital or not. However, the advances beyond 2G are murkier waters.