Steve Jobs 1955 2011 In 2007 Steve Jobs the head of Apple Inc made a presentation that has now become legendary Pacing on the stage he announced that Apple was introducing three products that would change everything a music player with touch controls a revolutionary mobile phone and an Internet communication device Then he delivered the punch line These are not three separate devices This is one device and we are calling it iPhone Hundreds of customers waited in line outside Apple stores to buy the first iPhones in June 2007 6
STEAM Fast Fact The iPhone came with apps like email an Internet browser and maps already installed Soon users of the phone were able to download additional apps from an online store Other brands and types of smartphones now compete with the iPhone and people all over the world increasingly rely on smartphones in their daily lives Apple awarded prizes to the users who downloaded milestone apps from its App Store A woman in England downloaded Paper Glider as the 10 billionth app a man in China downloaded Where's My Water a physics based puzzler as the 25 billionth app and a man from Ohio downloaded a word game Say the Same Thing as the 50 billionth app Total App Downloads from Apple's App Store 100 billion 50 billion 25 billion Worldwide iPhone availability iPhone availability since the release of iPhone 3G 10 billion 1 billion Launch July 2008 April 2009 January 2011 March 2012 May 2013 June 2015 7
STEAM Fast Fact Apple Google and Amazon are giant companies in the world of mobile apps Apps for Apple devices come from the online App Store Google developed the Android operating system that runs on devices made by a number of companies Google Play and Amazon App store are online stores for downloading apps to Android devices Having a touch screen and the ability to download apps from an online store are the two features that now qualify a phone as a smartphone People can download those same apps onto their larger devices known as tablets 8
Smartphones and tablets together make up the category of mobile devices When people talk about apps they usually mean native mobile apps or apps designed specifically to run on mobile devices rather than on desktop or laptop computers Let’s take a closer look at those features that mobile devices have in common touch screen and download capability 9
