Happy Birthday iPhone. While you were announced in January of 2007, you were not released until June 29th. With just 5 versions of the iPhone since its release, it has created one of the biggest world-wide phenomenons. Nothing from Apple matched iPods success until the iPhone. As a matter of fact, Steve Jobs created the iPhone to protect his music investment. It worked. The iPhone is one of the most successful media players on the planet. The iPhone has been severely cutting into the iPods success. Apple may be the ultimate leader in the music player market but the market is shrinking. The iPod, while it is a success, is no longer as important as it used to be for Apple’s success. They still need to keep the iPod line around for a while, but there might be a day where iPhone outshines it completely.
Apple has sold an estimate of 250 million iPhones. That is 1/28th of the population of the world. The iPhone has provided an astonishing $150 billion worth of revenue for Apple, an incredible amount. The amount of iPhones sold and the amount of revenue will only continue to rise in the coming years. The iPhone is a huge part of Apple’s business and would not be as successful today if it wasn’t for it. I bet you all of the Flashaholics and naysayers are wishing they thought about what they were saying before they said it when they called out the iPhone.
Of course, the iPhone would not be as successful today if Apple didn’t create the biggest App Store in the world. There are currently over 650,000 apps on the App Store, a very incredible feat for only being around for a little over 4 years (the App Store was released along side iPhone 3G, Apples 2nd Gen iPhone). There have been over 30,000,000,000 (30 billion) downloads on the App Store alone. Since its release, Apple has made billions off of the Apps on the store. Apps on the iPhone make the iPhone, the iPhone.
Due to all of these apps being sold, the iPhone has assisted people in everything from internet browsing, finding new places, taking excellent photos and editing them like a professional, keeping occupied with games in the office (just don’t tell the boss:), keeping in touch with people, helping kids learn, helping autistic people (children and adults), helping people see their sick grandma or aunt or whoever, while still being thousands of miles away, assisting blind people, assisting deaf people and just making the lives of millions easier. The iPhone has truly changed the world. Apple didn’t just reinvent the phone, they reinvented the world.
Thanks for reading,
Joe