Apple Inc. advertising
Apple released the first advertisement for the iPhone in February 2007 during the national broadcast of the Academy Awards. The 30-second commercial featured cuts of famous figures answering their telephones, all saying “Hello”. As it progressed, the ad showed more recent versions of the telephone; it ended with a preview of the first generation iPhone to draw a connection between the iPhone and the newest technology available. To accompany the initial sneak peek at their latest product, Apple released several new ads for the iPhone through “television, web-based, and print ads designed to show off the disappearing and reappearing touch keypad”. Other features included in those advertisements were email, camera, and general touchscreen capabilities.
App store
Apple released iPhone OS 2.0 in July 2008 for the iPhone, together with the App Store, officially introducing third-party app development and distribution to the platform. The service allows users to purchase and download new apps for their device through either the App Store on the device, or through the iTunes Store on the iTunes desktop software. While Apple has been criticized by some for how it operates the App Store, it has been a major financial success for the company. The popularity of Apple's App Store led to the rise of the generic term "app store", as well as the introduction of equivalent marketplaces by competing mobile operating systems: the Android Market (later renamed to Google Play) launched alongside the release of the first Android smartphone (the HTC Dream) in September 2008, BlackBerry's App World launched in April 2009, as well as Nokia's Ovi Store and Microsoft's Windows Marketplace for Mobile both launching that year too.