The Apple iPhone 3G is the second smart phone device from Apple Inc. The first Apple iPhone was introduced to the North American market in June 2007 amid much hype, fanfare and speculation. The development of the Apple iPhone was a collaboration commencing in 2005 between Apple Inc. and AT&T. Apple was well positioned to develop a new mobile computing device with their prior experience of the Apple 'Newton' in the early 1990s - a product that was conceivably ahead of its time.

Apple is notoriously secretive about its product development and stategies and so any statements regarding their motives are postulation - the following included. The development of the iPhone was prompted by the displacement and decline of the iPod as other manufacturers introduced the functionality of a portable media player to their mobile phones in the years following the introduction of the iPod (2001). This persuaded Apple Inc. to adapt the technological developments of their touch screen (that was to be applied to something like an iPad) to the production of a smart phone device - a move that would accelerate the redundancy of the iPod but replace it with a versatile Apple mobile product.

Whatever their motive the Apple iPhone has been an enormously successful product in both sales volumes and recognition of its innovations - in particular the iPhone touch screen, replacing a physical keypad with small display, offered a greater viewable surface and became a feature copied by all other mobile device manufacturers.

The iPhone helped sustain the rapid growth of Apple Inc. through the late 2000s following on from the success of the iPod and Apple stores. It became a platform for third party developed applications which only served to increase its appeal, acceptance and adoption.

Campbell Bickerstaff, 2012

A smartphone is also a very powerful computer in a very small package. It gives the user access to apps that perform complex calculations with just a few finger taps. This Apple 3GS iPhone was designed in the USA and made in China in 2008. Like other digital computers, it uses integrated circuits (chips) and software to do calculations that were once done using pencil and paper (perhaps with the help of printed tables of numbers), slide rules, or calculators equipped with gears, pinwheels, vacuum tubes or transistors.

Debbie Rudder