Emily Miller
Mr. Stowe
English 103, Section 20
Research Paper Outline
I. Introduction
1. Hook: June 29, 2007, the first generation iPhone went on sale and changed the mobile-phone business forever. Ever since the launch of the first iPhone, the mobile-phone industry has been significantly changed. Steve Jobs changed the world’s preconceived views about cell phones and technology forever.
2. Thesis: The iPhone has significantly changed the world of mobile phones and beat out all its competition with its incredible software and design, its groundbreaking applications, and its ability to take advantage of iTunes; proving it is the best mobile phone in the world.
3. Implications: The scope of my paper will range from discussing the background of the iPhone and it’s first launch in 2007, to describing the most up to date applications and software that have made the iPhone grow into the best mobile phone in the world. I will look at the plans for the original iPhone as well as the initial sales and revenue. I will also look at the growth in sales and improvements over the years. This will lead me into discussing the features the iPhone has which other phones do not; such as its software, design, applications, and iTunes.
II. Background
1. Since the 1980’s Steve Jobs has pushed the use of touch screens within Apple. In 1999 Steve Jobs and Apple reserved the name iPhone, however having no plans at the time to make a phone. Not until 2002 did Steve Jobs really consider breaking into the mobile phone business, after Apple had had such a success with the iPod. In the midst of Apple’s attempts to mastermind a tablet, they were continuously thinking about a mobile phone, even though no one at Apple had any expertise in this field.
2. A secret meeting with Cingular held in 2005 secured the fate of the iPhone and in February of that same year Steve Jobs became determined to create and master this new innovative phone; the beginning of Project Purple 2.
3. The initial decisions about the phone are centered on the idea that it will be a touch-sensitive screen with the MacOS X software. The operation is in full motion, with one team at Apple dealing with the phone itself, and the other developing the software.
4. By 2006, even though the contract with Cingular isn’t completed, the prototypes are made but the internal components still up in the air.
5. Steve Jobs delays other Apple products and moves engineers over to the Purple 2 team to move the iPhone along.
6. (Data on initial sales and consumer reviews of first iPhone)
First Generation iPhone. Digital image. The Evolution of the IPhone. IPhone5release.org, 29 Apr. 2011. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. <http://iphone5release.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/iphone1stgen.jpg>.
Steve Jobs & IPhone. Digital image. Eworldpost. 17 July 2010. Web. 20 Oct. 2011. <http://www.eworldpost.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/steve_jobs_iphone.jpg>.
III. Software & Design
1. First Generation: glass covers the front touch-screen, with aluminum to make up the rest. There is a camera with 2.0 megapixels and the applications are just beginning.
2. The iPhone 3G came in black and white with a glossy plastic finish on the back instead of the silver metallic backing of the first one. Came with 16GB storage. Apple sold 3 million units in its first month, hugely different than the 270,000 the first generation sold.
3. The iPhone 3GS was announced in June 2009. Camera was upgraded to 3.0 megapixels; the CPU was upgraded to 833 MHz. It was physically the same as the previous iPhone however twice as fast.
4. The iPhone 4 was released in 2010 and has the highest resolution of any iPhone, and is the first iPhone to have a front camera to utilize ‘Face Time’ and a camera on the back. It runs iOS 4, the most advance software Apple has. iOS 5 ha just recently come out in October of 2011. The sleekness of the iPhone 4 puts all the others to shame and it is the lightest. It is the thinnest smartphone on the planet.
5. Apple takes design very seriously, which has only worked in its favor. Good design is as important as good technology.
a) Apple didn’t invent the touch-screen; they just knew what to do with it. Apple’s engineers used tactics to make the user feel like they are manipulated the screen as they flip through their music, iBook’s, or stretching and shrinking photographs merely with their fingers.
6. The iPhone uses OS X software, something that was made for full-featured operating systems. This essentially means the iPhone is a hand-held, walk around computer.
IV. Applications
1. The App Store has taken off with its endless amounts of useful and not so useful applications.
2. The categories of apps available on the iPhone are: Apple apps, business, travel, sports and fitness, social networking, news, lifestyle, games, entertainment, education, family & kids, and music. The amount of apps has grown to over 500,000 of some of the most useful/ entertaining/ funny/ arbitrary things you could possibly want on your cell phone.
V. iTunes Availability
1. “Play, buy, and enjoy your music, movies, TV shows, apps, and more. Everywhere.” (Apple Inc.) The iTunes store is available directly on any iPhone, and all your music, shows, and movies can be transferred directly to and from your computer.
2. iTunes alone has reinvented the music industry completely. There is now no need to buy an entire album or CD if you only want one song from it. iTunes has made this easy, and the iPhone has made it even easier.
VI. iPhone Success & Popularity
This video is from June 29, 2007 and depicts customers outside an Apple store in Orlando awaiting the very first iPhone. There are thousands of people, and a countdown displayed in the window of the Apple store. The Apple employees are giving high fives to the first people in line for the spectacle.
2. The success of the iPhone led to the sell of T-Mobile as a company.
3. The iPhone has reinvented technology and created an outlet for other companies to ‘mimic’ the ideas of the iPhone. Ex) the droid
4. In April 2009 Apple sold 3.8 million iPhones in the last 3 months and generated $1.5 billion in revenue; and this was during a recession. "I don't think it's necessarily a substitute for a netbook, maybe for some, but it's more that people view the mobile phone as the most important piece of technology they can own. It's a crude generalization, but it's true, there's lots of research that backs that up, and that's why people will give up their landline or even Internet access before they give up their mobile phone" (Greg Sterling, senior mobile analyst with Local Mobile Search) Megna, Michelle. "What's Behind the IPhone Success Story?" InternetNews.com. QuinStreet Inc., 27 Apr. 2009. Web. 10 Oct. 2011. <http://www.internetnews.com/bus-news/article.php/3817276/Whats+Behind+the+iPhone+Success+Story.htm>.
iPhone Sales Per Quarter. Digital image. Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Apple Inc. Web. 19 Oct. 2011. <http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d9/IPhone_sales_per_quarter_simple.svg>.
Each color in the image above represents a different iPhone. The blue represents the first generation iPhone, the green is the iPhone 3G, the orange is the iPhone 3GS and the purple is the iPhone 4. This graph clearly displays the growth in iPhone sales over the years and also represents how many were sold during that quarter.
5. The iPhone is a well-known non-duplicable brand created by the genius: Steve Jobs
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