Apple's iPhone
When most people think of a smart phone the first thing that comes to mind is that iPhone, in fact for many people it is the only smart phone. The reason for this is largely that it has been marketed better than others but it is also due to the fact that when it was introduced the iPhone did bring a number of innovations that are now standard on smart phones.
The Apple iPhone is probably the best known of all smart phones, in large part because of the marketing success of the company. Since being released in 2007 the iPhone is already on its fifth generation. This is a good indicator of just how fast the technology in smart phones has changed. Each new edition of the iPhone was released following the development of a new operating system. Of course there are those who would say that Apple has updated the phone more than is really necessary in order to increase sales, regardless it is hard to argue with the success.
Although Apple were not the first to create a smart phone they have almost become synonymous with the term. The reason is that the phone that they did create was designed for more general use than the designs of other companies which were clearly aimed at business users. The result is that Apple included features like a camera and a video player. These have proved to be very popular and are now found on virtually every other smart phone on the market.
Perhaps the biggest reason for the success of the iPhone, besides the Apple marketing machine, is the app store. This is something that Apple created in order to allow people to buy apps from third party makers. This greatly enhanced the usefulness of the smart phone since people now had access to literally thousands of apps. Anybody who had a good idea for an app could create one and sell it through the app store. The result has been apps that most people would never have thought of but which have turned out to be very useful. The app store is another idea that virtually every other smart phone maker has borrowed from Apple.
Perhaps the biggest difference between the iPhone and its competitors is that the iPhone relies on a touch screen. Most other smart phones have a touch screen of course but they also tend to have a regular keypad as well. By using just the touch screen the iPhone has a look that is all its own and it much more sleek than other smart phones. Really the whole front of the phone is one big screen. You can be sure that the appearance of the iPhone is a major factor in its success as there are clearly people who buy it simply because they like the looks of it.