The Best is Yet to Come From Apple

Ten years ago, Apple stunned the world with the first iPhone and the entire smartphone industry changed forever. It was one of the single biggest disruptions in the tech industry. All the popular smartphone brands of that era looked obsolete in front of Apple and its multiple innovations. It was an all-out attack on the set smartphone standards of that time and Steve Jobs led it in terms of design, user interface, and usability.

With iPhone, Apple introduced three path-breaking products rolled into one: smartphone, a widescreen iPod, and a breakthrough internet communications device.

It defined the modern era of touchscreen smartphones with an ultimate product which was 5 years ahead of its competitors. Today, the iPhone is the single most important product in Apple's entire lineup and has made it the most valuable company in the world.

"It is amazing that from the very first iPhone through to today's newest iPhone 7 Plus, it has remained the gold standard by which all other smartphones are judged. For many of us, iPhone has become an essential device in our lives and we love it," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing. "iPhone is how we make voice and FaceTime calls, how we shoot and share Live Photos and 4K videos, how we listen to streaming music, how we use social media, how we play games, how we get directions and find new places, how we pay for things, how we surf the web, do email, manage our contacts and calendars, how we listen to podcasts, watch TV, movies and sports, and how we manage our fitness and health. iPhone has become all of these things and more. And I believe we are just getting started."

The design has always remained a central and integral part of Apple’s philosophy.

In Steve Jobs, the authorized self-titled biography book written at the request of Jobs by Walter Isaacson, Jobs said that design was something that always mattered to him. He further went on to add that he was inspired by real-estate developer Joseph Eichler who was building houses that were greatly designed at a fraction of a cost. He said as he pointed out the clean elegance of the Eichlers. “It was the original vision for Apple. That’s what we tried to do with the first Mac. That’s what we did with the iPod.”

Unique design factor paired with minimalist aspects of Zen philosophy became the hallmark of Apple products under Jobs. In an era not particularly known for great industrial designers, Jobs’ partnerships with Hartmut Esslinger and then with Jony Ive created an engineering and design aesthetic that set Apple apart from other technology companies.

It is expected that this year, Apple will create a 10th anniversary iPhone— with a complete redesign that would be a game changer again which is rumored to have an edge-to-edge OLED display that could hide components, like Touch ID, the home button, earpiece and FaceTime camera —within or behind the display, presenting users with a true edge-to-edge screen.

Other rumored features of the so-called iPhone 8 include a glass back, curved screen, wireless charging, and a new 10-nanometer "A11" processor.

Steve Jobs was a significant figure in the history of design and Apple being an early adopter in an industry where others applied a wait-and-watch approach, changed the way we interact with smartphones and computing devices.