Cycle 1: Project Purple, the first generation of the iPhone and the beginning of the era of touch phones

In the early 2000s, the restless Steve Jobs gathered key Apple engineers to create a secret Purple project. The idea of the project was to turn the iPod player into a mobile phone, but the idea of controlling with a wheel did not take off and the project was temporarily closed to return to it in half a year. A few years later, in June 2007, Jobs took the stage and showed the audience the Purple 2 working project, which was called the iPhone. If you think that he was almost deafened by the applause, then you are very mistaken.

As was then customary with Apple, the idea of replacing the QWERTY keyboard with touch screens seemed more insane than ingenious. Competitors made fun of the head of Apple, "Who will buy a phone without a keyboard for $ 500" — the CEO of Microsoft asked? Even some Apple engineers, who were more or less responsible for development, did not believe in it. Moreover, with the exception of the touch screen, the device did not impress with the characteristics and irritated with the closeness of the system. But Jobs looked three moves ahead and turned all the bugs into features. Closeness became a symbol of reliability, the lack of customization and a familiar file system simplified interaction with a smartphone, and the inability to install applications in the future blocked a rich selection in the App Store.

There is often an opinion on the web that the iPhone 3G released a year later was a real breakthrough. In fact, he only slightly developed the ideas of the first Apple phone. Their design, hardware and screen were virtually identical, instead of aluminium, the case became plastic, and the main innovation was the built-in 3G modem. The breakthrough came from the other side: Apple officially launched the App Store, where the user could download any of the 50,000 applications that were available at the start. It was then that the idea of Jobs became clear, for whom iOS itself and the content sharpened for the touchscreen meant, perhaps, even more than the processor power or the size of the display.

In 2009, the three-year cycle ended on the iPhone 3GS model. It was then that Apple began to play with the advertising formula "The new iPhone is XX% thinner and lighter than the old one." The iPhone 3GS didn't bring anything radically new, but it had to be sold somehow. Therefore, they lured with an improved wand (a new Samsung Cortex-A8 processor, 256 GB of RAM, a PowerVR SGX 535 video core) and a 3 MP camera that finally learned how to shoot videos. And the letter S in the name of the smartphone meant an abbreviation of Speed. The most important thing is that the smartphone got rid of most of its shortcomings: an oleophobic coating appeared on the display to collect fewer fingerprints, multitasking appeared in iOS, and the smartphone itself learned to understand voice commands.

Cycle 2: the resounding success of the Quartet

After running in the "troika", Apple rolled out exactly the perfect smartphone that it originally promised. The iPhone 4 was such a breakthrough device that many of its ideas can be traced back to the company's modern handsets. It was here that we first saw a metal edging with antennas, a high-quality front-facing camera, a processor of our own production, a roof-top Retina display with a high pixel density and a camera with autofocus and HD video recording. As you can see, much of this has not lost its relevance even now. By the way, it was in the "four" that the visual aesthetics of the iPhone crystallized, which competitors tried to copy. Perhaps the most important killer feature was the display, which, with the same 3.5-inch diagonal, the resolution increased from 320x480 to 960x640 pixels. After five minutes of viewing photos and videos on the iPhone 4, I simply did not want to pick up other smartphones. But there was also a huge advantage in the face of a beautiful and progressive iOS, which stood out great against the background of the dying Symbian and the nascent Android.

On October 4, 2011, the iPhone 4S was released and, as Jobs promised, was a brought-to-mind version of the "four". The primary changes were hidden inside the case: a much more powerful dual-core Apple A5 took the place of the Apple A4 processor, the graphics core was pumped and a version with 64 GB of memory on board was released for the first time. This time, the letter "s" in the name indicated not the speed (although it also indicated it), but the presence of a Siri voice assistant. Good news: annual financial reports have shown that the iPhone brings in slightly more than half of the company's revenue. Bad news: Steve Jobs passed away the day after the presentation. The presentation of the iPhone 4S was held for the first time by his deputy Tim Cook.

Cycle 3: the "five" continues success

With the release of the iPhone 5, the halo of a God-like company has finally formed over Apple, whose things you will want to buy, even if you don't need them at all. While competitors were probing the capabilities of the "bucket" (note: Android was really not very good in those years), the Cupertinos released a completely advanced smartphone in an anodized aluminium case, an LTE modem, a licked operating system and a selfie camera. Formally, the front camera was still in the iPhone 4, but it was used for video conferencing. The novelty also allowed you to take selfies without distracting passers-by with requests to "take a picture of us." A year after the release of the "five", the Oxford Dictionary named "selfie" the word of the year. That's how one seemingly insignificant decision radically changed our habit of using smartphones.

In 2013, Apple changed traditions for the first time and presented two smartphones instead of one: the inexpensive 5C and the flagship 5S. The first one was aimed at young people, so the price dropped slightly, the iron was simplified, and the plastic case could be chosen in an unusual yellow or green colour for the first time. The idea failed, and the smartphone is still called one of the main failures in the iPhone line. But the 5S, on the contrary, has become one of the most successful smartphones not only in the history of Apple, but in general. If it weren't for the weak battery, surely many would still be walking with it. The new processor was 2 times faster than the previous one, the camera had a new aperture and a flash on LEDs, and the device could be locked using the fingerprint sensor built into the Home button. In the same year, the company's new chief designer, Joni Ive, brought iOS to its current look. As an alternative to the classic black coloring, "cosmic" grey and gold appeared, which became the company's business card.

Cycle 4: iPhone 6 can't stand high expectations

In parallel with the popularity of Apple, the army of critics is also growing. The presentation of the sixth iPhone added fuel to the fire, where they constantly talked about how much thinner, lighter and faster the new generation had become, and then showed the Plus-size version of the "six". The Phablets won. Almost the main innovation was the big screen: the iPhone 6 had a 4.7-inch Retina, the iPhone 6 Plus had a diagonal that grew to 5.5", which gave rise to a wave of memes about a long smartphone. Watching videos or flipping through the Instagram feed on such a diagonal was much more convenient, but for this I had to sacrifice the convenience of one-handed control. RAM was the same gigabyte as in the iPhone 5S, and the Apple A8 processor was not far from its predecessor, which is why many fans of the company thought that updating a smartphone every year might not be the best idea. Moreover, the hitherto durable metal case of the iPhone suddenly became soft and fragile.

A year later, the Cupertinos thoroughly sat down for homework and corrected most of the shortcomings with the fragility of the case, thoroughly finished the camera software and updated the hardware to a more powerful one. The main innovation of the iPhone 6S has become a display that can recognize the force of pressing. This time they got really good smartphones, but Apple failed to develop the success of the "five". And somehow it was necessary to earn money, so six months after the release of the iPhone 6S, Tim Cook again took the stage, holding a new iPhone SE smartphone in his hands. The new smartphone was actually the same iPhone 5S with updated hardware and refreshed functionality. Despite this, Apple hit the bull's-eye, people were tired of the dominance of the phablet and the lack of choice, so the miniature iPhone SE 2020 was swept off virtual shelves, making it one of the most popular smartphones of the year.

iPhone 6 models

Cycle 5: iPhone 7, iPhone 8 and Transition period

In 2016, Apple engineers did everything wisely, for the first time the iPhone became waterproof, the camera of the usual "seven" received optical stabilization, the iPhone 7 Plus it became dual, and the engine of the system was a quad-core processor (we are talking about Apple A10 Fusion). Plus, fans finally understood the company's plan to produce two phones each. Those who were looking for convenience bought a regular iPhone 7, connoisseurs of phablets chose the iPhone 7 Plus. The company managed to anger the public only in one case, when they decided to replace the classic audio jack with a universal Lightning. As a result, this controversial decision gave rise to a new industry of wireless headphones, of which Apple with its AirPods became the king.

The following year, the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus were introduced. The appearance of the devices remained the same, exactly like last year's "sevens". With only one difference — the back panel has become glass. Inside, a new six-core Apple A11 Bionic processor was installed (+25% to power, +70% to energy efficiency), wireless charging was added, and the camera's software capabilities improved. The revolution did not happen, but it was not planned, because in parallel with the release of the "eights" Apple presented a radically new iPhone X, which gave rise to the current life cycle.

iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 models

Cycle 6: from iPhone X and monobrow to the present times

So, on the same day of the iPhone 8 presentation, Tim Cook brought to the stage a brand new iPhone X, which was radically different from its predecessors. That is why the model range abandoned the number 9, immediately switching to 10. "The first iPhone changed the face of the industry for a decade, the iPhone X will do the same," Tim Cook said at the time. The list of numerous improvements was really impressive: the "face" of the smartphone had changed beyond recognition, almost the entire front panel was now occupied by a frameless 5.8-inch OLED display with a textbook cut-out bangs, and a complex facial recognition system took the place of the fingerprint scanner. Despite the mixed results and unjustified statements about the impossibility of hacking it, the Face ID system became the most recognizable feature of the new generation of Apple handsets, and the design with a cutout for a monobrow was then found in every second Android smartphone.

iPhone X models

In 2018, representatives of the company again came to the annual Keynote event with three new smartphones: iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max and iPhone Xr. The iPhone Xs looks similar to the iPhone X, and the iPhone Xs Max is essentially an enlarged copy of it. All three received hardware updates (Apple A12 Bionic) and improved cameras, but somehow told the same story as the iPhone X. iPhone Xs and Xs Max received an OLED display with HDR technology, and the iPhone Xr had a Liquid Retina LCD display. All three of them worked with the new A12 Bionic processor and promised a lot of "unique" camera improvements, which in fact have already been tested in Huawei camera phones. The same thing was said about the processor, that it was the world's first mobile chip made using a 7-nanometer process technology, although the first in the world was Huawei's Kirin 980. This generation turned out to be a turning point for many, it became obvious that Apple had moved into a catch-up position and, against the background of constantly rising prices, the company was not ready to offer something truly unique.

iPhone models 11

Years later, iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max were replaced by iPhone 11, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, which were practically no different from their predecessors, neither in design nor in size. This time Apple decided to regain the title of the main specialist in mobile photography by adding more photo sensors to the new generation and combining them into a scary square camera unit. In short, the cameras really pumped up, artificial intelligence helped to improve the quality of photos, and the night mode turned out to be really impressive. However, the champion belt of the most sophisticated camera phone did not stay long for the iPhone 11 Pro Max, since Huawei Mate 30 Pro (and then a bunch of everything from China) entered the market very soon, which moved the iPhone from first place in the DxOMark camera phone rating.

iPhone models 12

And all this brings us to the current days and the current line of iPhone 12. For the first time, Apple showed not three, but four smartphones: iPhone 12 Mini, iPhone 12, iPhone 12 Pro and iPhone 12 Pro Max. This line brought to a logical conclusion the concept laid down earlier: the cutout with a monobrow has not gone away, the square camera unit too, but the new items look more neat than the 10th and 11th generation of the iPhone. The main technical innovation was 5G receivers, a new A14 six-core processor and MagSafe magnetic wireless charging. By the way, for the first time in history, Apple did not cut the capabilities of the younger smartphone in the line, providing it with the same camera, processor and display (but smaller) as the usual iPhone 12. You can read more about it in our special material "iPhone 12 and other novelties: the results of the presentation of the new generation of Apple iPhone" with preliminary reviews of all four models of the new generation.