History of the iPhone 2007-2017

It's difficult to overstate the impact the iPhone has had on the smartphone market: by eschewing the keypad for a touchscreen and adding advanced computer-like capabilities that hadn't been seen before, it set the standard for this modern device. "Apple is going to reinvent the phone," said Steve Jobs at the time, and he was right - but the original iPhone had no third-party apps, no GPS and no video recording.
Also missing from the original iPhone was 3G support, the top data speed of the time, though this was added to the second generation the following year (along with GPS). The first iPhone had been warmly received but by the 3G model people were really starting to see its long-term potential - and the concurrent launch of the App Store was a huge part of that, a true watershed moment in smartphone history.
And so began the Apple tradition of adding an 'S' to the end of the name for a minor iPhone upgrade. The 2009 model of the iPhone did bring with it video recording capabilities for the first time, and the camera itself got an upgrade too. The "S" ostensibly stood for speed and reflected the improvements in the internal components, and Voice Control (not yet called Siri) was added to the iPhone too.
If the iPhone 3GS was a smaller step forward, the iPhone 4 was a big one - it had a new, sleeker, more modern look, and massively increased the pixel count while keeping the same 3.5-inch display size (this was the first Retina display). It was the first iPhone with a front-facing camera, the first iPhone with some level of multitasking, and one of the most significant iPhones Apple has ever made.
If the iPhone 3GS was a smaller step forward, the iPhone 4 was a big one - it had a new, sleeker, more modern look, and massively increased the pixel count while keeping the same 3.5-inch display size (this was the first Retina display). It was the first iPhone with a front-facing camera, the first iPhone with some level of multitasking, and one of the most significant iPhones Apple has ever made.
Apple swung back to the minor "S" upgrade for 2011's iPhone 4S, so there's not too much to write home about in terms of new specs and new features. The camera did get an upgrade up to 8 megapixels and perhaps the biggest improvement on the software side (we're up to iOS 5.0 now) was the arrival of Siri, the digital assistant that now plays such a major role on the iPhone.
True to the earlier pattern set down by previous generations, the iPhone 5 was a major upgrade. It added an extra row of icons with an extra-tall screen (remember that?), introduced the Lightning connector and had a lighter, aluminium casing. It really did usher in the modern iPhone era. On the iOS side, we got our first look at a rather buggy Apple Maps, taking over from Google Maps as the default option.

In 2013 Apple decided to start releasing not one but two iPhones every September. The iPhone 5C was very much a rebadged iPhone 5 with a few cosmetic changes, giving iPhone buyers an option that was cheaper but still brand new for the first time. iOS 7 was launched at the same time, bringing true multitasking for apps and introducing the Control Centre for more convenient access to the iPhone's settings.
The iPhone 5S was the flagship model for 2013, with a revamped design and a little feature called Touch ID introduced to the iPhone line-up for the first time. Another first was the 64-bit A7 processor inside the phone, an architecture change that other manufacturers have since followed. iOS 7 had a visual overhaul as well, introducing the bright icons and translucent menus that are still in place today.
We're back up to date with the iPhone 6 Apple launched last year and the one still currently on sale as the flagship. As well as another design revamp, the iPhone 6 extended the display size to 4.7 inches and added in more pixels to boot. Also worth noting is the introduction of NFC for Apple Pay and other services, plus a significant upgrade for the camera, giving better photo and video results than ever before.
We're back up to date with the iPhone 6 Apple launched last year and the one still currently on sale as the flagship. As well as another design revamp, the iPhone 6 extended the display size to 4.7 inches and added in more pixels to boot. Also worth noting is the introduction of NFC for Apple Pay and other services, plus a significant upgrade for the camera, giving better photo and video results than ever before.
This one was a bit of a surprise. We'd expected a smaller iPhone with a lower price tag, but we didn't expect it to look like the iPhone 5 but with completely whizz-bang up-to-date innards. In our iPhone SE review we said "you won't buy this phone - but you will tell someone else to". Compared with its bigger screened bretheren it represented genuine value for money - although not compared to the huge number of Android alternatives of course.
After the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus it seems nailed on we'll get a new iPhone 7S and iPhone 7S Plus this year. And the iPhone 7S rumor mill is already well underway.
After the iPhone 7S line-up, we'll probably get an all-new iPhone in 2018. Here's the full lowdown on what we want to see from the next all-new design: iPhone 8 rumours and what we want to see