Apple cunningly combined available electronic components in the iPod, a first successful mobile audio player using a small hard drive.
A decade after the Simon Personal Communicator was launched, many mobile electronic devices became available. One of these types was portable audio player for which the Walkman, introduced by Sony in 1979, marked the birth. The first of these devices used analogue tape cassettes, which later evolve towards digital versions using CDs or magnetic discs. Apple cunningly combined available electronic components in the iPod, a first successful mobile audio player using a small hard drive. The iPod became known for its handy user interface and iTunes store that was used to distribute audio and video. Then Apple integrated the iPod, Newton and mobile phone technology in a single device, the iPhone that it introduced in 2007. The first model could only use 2G-network technology and is therefore sometimes referred to as the iPhone 2G. The App Store was not yet available. We now know it was not the first device to combine functionality we now associated with the smartphone. Nevertheless it is now looked upon as the decisive step in the evolution of the smartphone as it was the first to completely do away the fixed keyboard and use a touch screen allowing multiple gesture control on a touch screen and included a camera. Besides, it combined not only basic application like phone, agenda and email but also a range of new applications. The new design with touch screen and the built in many sensors became a sensation and changed industries involved.