History of Apple Inc.
The first version of the iPhone became publicly available on June 29, 2007 in selected countries/markets. It was another 12 months before the iPhone 3G became available on July 11, 2008. Apple announced the iPhone 3GS on June 8, 2009, along with plans to release it later in June, July, and August, starting with the U.S., Canada and major European countries on June 19. This 12-month iteration cycle has continued with the iPhone 4 model arriving in similar fashion in 2010, a Verizon model was released in February 2011, and a Sprint model in October 2011, shortly after Jobs' death.
IPhone
Before the release of the iPhone, handset manufacturers such as Nokia and Motorola were enjoying record sales of cell phones based more on fashion and brand rather than technological innovation. The smartphone market, dominated at the time by BlackBerry OS and Windows Mobile devices, was a "staid, corporate-led smartphone paradigm" focused on enterprise needs. Phones at the time were designed around carrier and business limits which were conservative with regards to bandwidth usage and battery life. Phones were sold in a very large number of models, often segmented by marketing strategy, confusing customers and sapping engineering resources. For example, phones marketed at business were often deliberately stripped of cameras or the ability to play music and games. Apple's approach was to deliberately simplify its product line by offering just one model a year for all customers, while making it an expensive, high-end product.