The new iPhone 15 was just released September 22nd of this year after an entire year of anticipation from Apple locations all over the world. We’ve come a long way from the very first iPhone, so let’s learn some of the history behind it.
The idea for the Apple iPhone initially arose from software engineer, Jean-Marie Hullot. He convinced Steve Jobs, co-founder of Apple, to start the company, creating the first team in Paris, 2004. The team began working on the project more seriously in the United States, until Hullot resigned from Apple with his team.
Another engineer, Henri Lamiraux, became the new head of the project, along with Scott Forstall, to develop the iPhone software. They called this highly confidential project “Project Purple” and began the creation of the first iPhone.
The first original iPhone was released in 2007 as a combination of an iPod and a phone. The iPhone was sold at prices ranging from $399 to $499 depending on how much storage people wanted their phone to have, ranging from 4 GB to 8 GB. Each iPhone created after the previous ones gained new features, such as better camera quality or a new charging port. As of August 2023, the iPhone 14 had all the features the first iPhone contained with the addition of several new features, including splash, water, and dust resistance, face recognition, Siri, and a lightning connector used to charge the phone.
After switching carriers from T-Mobile to AT&T, Junior, Isaak Morales, was able to trade in four iPhone 13s in exchange for four brand new iPhone 15s for him and his family. When asked about any new features he’s noticed on his phone, Morales replied with “the charging port, action button and the dynamic island.”
The charging port for iPhones changed from a “Lightning connector”, specifically designed for Apple products, to the USB-C input, which is a connector standard among other companies. The action button is a new feature located above the volume buttons that can be used to turn a setting on or off. It takes the place of the mute switch that has been on every iPhone since the very first iPhone. The dynamic island is a pill-shaped cutout used to house the TrueDepth camera hardware. It appears at the top of the screen, changing size and shape to accommodate various types of alerts, notifications, and interactions, turning it into a kind of information hub.
The iPhone 15 is now selling for $799 in local Apple stores and network stores such as Verizon and T-Mobile.
