| Company | Apple |
| Website | apple.com/iphone |
| Stage | Live |
| Launched | 6/07 |
Apple’s iPhone was introduced at MacWorld in January 2007 and officially went on sale June 29, 2007, selling 700,000 units within 2 days of launch. The phone has been hailed as revolutionary with its bundle of advanced mobile web browsing, music and video playback, and touch screen controls. The iPhone is exclusively carried on AT&T Wireless’ network in the US.
While the phone has been hailed critically, even being named as Time Magazine’s Invention of the Year, the product has gone through rocky times as well. In September 2007 the price was cut $200 to $399.99, which prompted outrage amongst early adopters and caused Steve Jobs to issue an open apology and offer existing iPhone customers a $100 credit with Apple. There also have been issues with programs that enabled owners to unlock the iPhone and use it on other wireless carriers (subsequent software updates from Apple made unlocked phones unusable) as well as legal actions in European countries over the exclusive carrier agreements (Vodafone’s lawsuit over the exclusive carrier arrangement between Apple and T-Mobile in Germany was thrown out of court).
Despite any bad press and consumer reactions, the iPhone continues to be a hot product, and with a 3G version of the iPhone due in the US in 2008, Apple continues to march towards Steve Jobs’ goal of selling 10 million iPhones by the end of 2008.
