 It's been seven years since Steve Jobs first introduced the iPhone and the first iteration of Apple's mobile platform, iOS. The next version is coming this fall, but how did we get here? Let's go back to January 2007, the Macworld keynote. This is Steve Jobs. Today, we're going to show you a software breakthrough. Software that's at least five years ahead of what's on any other phone. When the original iPhone was introduced, it was actually well behind the competition in a strict feature-by-feature comparison. Windows Mobile, Palm OS, Symbian, and even Blackberry were all established systems in 2007 with a wide and deep array of features. Instead, Apple focused on the core experience. As Steve Jobs put it, the iPhone was three things. A phone, a web browser, and an iPod. It had a capacitive touchscreen with pinch-to-zoom and inertial scrolling. It had a Safari app that nearly matched the power of a desktop browser, although Apple famously refused to support Flash. And it also had the best Google Maps you could find on the go. But big changes came with the iPhone 3G and the iPhone OS 2.0. It's at that point in 2008 that Apple opened the doors for third-party developers to create iPhone apps. Critically, the app store existed both on the device itself and within iTunes, where users could easily browse and install apps. Let's talk about what's next. And that is iPhone OS 3.0. With version 3.0 and the iPhone 3GS, Apple focused on cleaning up any little messes it had made in its previous versions. It was released in June of 2009, and like the 3GS itself, it didn't necessarily have any single headline feature. Instead, Apple filled in all sorts of gaps with a massive list of functionality and app updates touching every corner of the operating system. These included cut, copy, and paste, spotlight search across multiple apps, and push notifications for third-party apps, even if they did get annoying. And then, of course, version 3.2 brought iOS to Apple's newest device, the iPad. June 2010 marked a major turning point for the iPhone legacy, if only because they changed the name of the operating system to iOS. iOS 4 was mainly about one thing, adding features for power users. The headline improvement was multitasking, or rather, Apple's version of multitasking. Developers could now run portions of their app in the background, like music, GPS navigation, and save states for fast switching. iOS 4 also added FaceTime video chat and support for the retina display, all of which went to showcase the company's redesigned iPhone 4. iOS 5 came with a lot of personality, and she was named Siri. Yes, sometimes she was unable to connect to the web to perform either voice recognition or transcription, and other times she returned with strange results. But still, as a natural user interface, she was one of the more promising things we'd seen on a phone. In iOS 6, Siri and Notification Center got upgrades, and Apple also introduced a potential dark horse with Passbook. But the big headline was what Apple took out. Google Maps had long been considered the benchmark in online mapping, but it's also made by one of Apple's biggest rivals. With iOS 6, Apple dumped Google and introduced its own Maps app. It had turn-by-turn navigation, a 3D flyover mode, and, well, a lot of embarrassing issues. It also nixed public transit directions entirely, something Apple still hasn't managed to bring back. As part of the follow-up for the Maps debacle, iOS VP Scott Forstall left Apple, with lead industrial designer Johnny Ive taking over for the, quote, human interface efforts. And with iOS 7, we saw the fruits of his labor. Gone were the famous glossy icons, the rich textures, and, for the most part, the skeuomorphic apps. Replaced by flattened graphics, colorful gradients, and transparencies, it was a stark visual change. Apple also used this chance to clean up and add some new touches to its core apps like Photos and Camera. iOS 7 also added some features, like a swipe-up control center and iTunes Radio, its Pandora-like music streaming service. All of which brings us up to today with iOS 8, a refinement on the design iOS 7 established. The most impressive new feature is what Apple is calling Continuity. Basically, it's a seamless pass of information between your mobile device and your Mac, so you can start on one device and move over to the other, or even take calls from your desktop. The most exciting parts of iOS 8 won't be made by Apple, they'll be made by its developers. HealthKit and HomeKit are major pushes into the healthcare and smart home industries. Touch ID can be used by third parties in lieu of a password, and, for the first time, apps are going to be allowed to talk to each other. And, thankfully, there's now widgets and third party keyboards. And on top of all that, Apple has also introduced a brand new programming language called Swift. This new Apple is definitely catering to developers in a way it never has before, and, in a very real way, they'll get to decide how the next version of iOS will work. And if the rumors of a bigger iPhone pan out, those developers will have a much bigger canvas to work with.