Articles about iPhone turns 5

Fifth in a series. To commemorate iPhone's fifth-anniversary, we present several stories looking at its debut and colorful history -- so far.

I remember my first smartphone -- Sony Ericsson W950i. It had no camera, but a touchscreen (you probably don't know how horrible touchscreens were before the iPhone) and ran Symbian 9.1. I got all this and a 2.6-inch display. It sounded great at the time, but wasn't enough. Before iPhone, I didn't think much of smartphones. They didn't feel special, with the OS being a big reason why. I didn't much like Symbian, and Windows Mobile was a miniaturized Windows, which didn't do it any favors.

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Fourth in a series. To commemorate iPhone's fifth-anniversary, we present several stories looking at its debut and colorful history -- so far. This one is different from the others, as it's a work of fiction, looking at a possible, alternative timeline.

Apple, the trendsetter of design and function has made good on their WWDC 2012 promise. Today marks their release of what they dub the very first smart phone, the iPhone. But the big question: Are they a little too late to the game now? The new phone marks a 180-degree turn from the past statements of Apple cofounder Steve Jobs, who asserted Apple is, or was, a computer, media and services company first.

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Third in a series. Editor's note: To commemorate iPhone's fifth-anniversary, we present several stories looking at its debut and colorful history -- so far.

iPhone is five years old today, and what a half-decade it has been. Apple launched the handset on June 29, 2007, marking its first foray into the cellular device market and with a single carrier: AT&T, which was Cingular before the launch. There were risks all around: Apple leapt into a market of sharks -- Nokia and Research in Motion, namely; AT&T bet the brand on the one device; and iPhone sold, locked and unsubsidized for $499 and $599 -- who would pay unlocked-mobile prices for a device that wasn't? One million people through early September 2007. For these early buyers, and perhaps for bazillion more who followed, iPhone isn't a phone but a cultural phenomenon.

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Second in a series. Editor's note: To commemorate iPhone's fifth-anniversary, we present several stories looking at its debut and colorful history -- so far. Who says you need the newest tech to be productive, eh?

As a writer and freelance IT contractor, I am in effect running my own business. I have multiple clients, assignments with deadlines, meetings with suppliers and contacts, and lots of marketing to arrange. Over the last few years I’ve noticed that I can manage all of these activities from my humble iPhone 3G. In effect I’m running my business from my phone, which is pretty amazing when you think that the original iPhone is only five years old today. In that short time the ‘God phone’, as some dubbed it at the time, has completely transformed what a phone can be.

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