
iPhone
The iPhone is a line of smartphones designed and marketed by Apple Inc. All generations of the iPhone use Apple‘s iOS mobile operating system software. The first–generation iPhone was released on June 29, 2007, and multiple new hardware iterations with new iOS releases have been released since.
The user interface is built around the device‘s multi–touch screen, including a virtual keyboard. The iPhone has Wi–Fi and can connect to cellular networks. An iPhone can shoot video, take photos, play music, send and receive email, browse the web, send text messages, record notes, perform mathematical calculations, and receive visual voicemail. Other functionality, such as video games, reference works, social networking, and GPS navigation, can be enabled by downloading mobile apps.
As of January 2017, Apple‘s App Store contained more than 2.2 million applications available for the iPhone. The original iPhone was described as “revolutionary“ and a “game–changer“ for the mobile phone industry. Subsequent iterations of the iPhone have also garnered praise, with some each year being called the “best smartphone available at the time“. The iPhone is one of the most widely used smartphones in the world, with over 1 billion active users as of 2016.