The youth of today may find it hard to believe but there was a time when we didn't have the Apple iPhone in our lives — or any mobile phone for that matter.
Just imagine having to call someone to communicate rather than using WhatsApp, taking photos with an actual camera and watching television on, well, your TV instead of squinting at your phone in the dark. You could even have a conversation with a stranger in the lift instead of burying yourself in those gorgeous pixels.
Life, as many of us know it, changed on January 9, 2007, when Steve Jobs started talking on stage about, every once in a while, introducing a “revolutionary product that changes everything".
This time, it was not just one product, but three: a widescreen iPod with touch controls, a revolutionary mobile phone … and a breakthrough internet communicator.
After teasing the crowd by repeating the three creations over and over, he exclaimed: “This is one device.”
And there the iPhone was born, along with a new use for fingers which have since been almost glued to the increasingly responsive screens.
Yearly updates have given us bigger screens, sharper cameras and faster loading times, but what comes next? Will Apple, now under the leadership of Tim Cook, reinvent the wheel again?
We found out at its Far Out event on September 7, when the iPhone 14 made its first appearance. Reinvent the wheel? Not quite.
The iPhone 14 and iPhone 14 Plus will be powered by the A15 bionic chip that was introduced with the iPhone 13 series last year.
All new iPhones also feature an emergency SOS service through satellite connectivity and a crash detection feature. That, however, is about it apart from the usual camera upgrades.
At its March 2022 event, another new phone rolled out - this time the third generation of the iPhone SE. Again, nice update, but nothing massively new.
To relive the journey of the iPhone, scroll through the gallery at the top of the page.
