Apple’s iPhone was first released eight years ago this week, and we’ve spent quite a bit of time looking back. The device toppled industry leaders like Nokia and BlackBerry, which both failed to respond when Apple changed what users expected from their smartphones. Microsoft, fortunate that its core business lied elsewhere, is still floundering in its efforts to adapt to the new mobile landscape.
Apple’s iPhone is responsible for more than 90% of the smartphone industry’s profit each quarter, and each model remains the best-selling handset in its class by a wide margin. Now, it’s time to take a look at how far we’ve come.
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Apple sold 270,000 iPhones in the handset’s debut quarter in 2007. This past holiday quarter, Apple sold more than 74 million phones as the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus debuted. But sales only tell part of the story — from a technology standpoint, it’s pretty incredible how far the iPhone has come.
Late Apple co-founder Steve Jobs was never one to focus on the technology inside the iPhone. Instead, he focused on what the device could do for users. Even today, the iPhone 6 is hardly a class leader on paper in terms of specs, but of course we all know that specs only tell part of the story: The iPhone is indeed a class-leader when it comes to performance.
So how far have we come in eight years? How does the iPhone 6 Plus compare to the original iPhone? Here’s a great scrollable comparison that tells an impressive story:
