Apple Mobile Phones

As if the Macintosh and the iPod weren't enough of a milestone, Apple Inc. dabbled into the colorful world of mobile technology, changing the face of the earth forever. Or you could say it's just another ripe one thrown into its brimming fruit basket.

Apple 101

On January 3, 1977, long before any Apple mobile phones was even a splice of an idea, Apple was officially incorporated and was known as "Apple Computer Inc." The American multinational corporation established in Cupertino, California, would since then become one of the world's largest developers of a series of personal computers, related software, hardware and hardware accessories.

It was only on January 9, 2007 that the company dropped "Computer" from its corporate name to underscore efforts of expanding further into the consumer electronics market.

Lisa, Macintosh and Friends

Apple Inc.'s success blast is not that hard to imagine, especially since in 1983, just a few years after its incorporation, the Lisa personal computer was introduced. It's the first machine to employ a graphical user interface (GUI), not to mention the first ever to have the mouse. This eventually led to the development of the legendary computing machine, Macintosh, in 1984. The Mac featured a more user-friendly GUI and was therefore set for greater heights.

Just among the newer successors of the 1984 Macintosh are the PowerBook line of portable computers introduced in 1991; the iMac, first introduced by Apple in 1998; and the Mac mini, the company's consumer sub-desktop computer released in January 2005.

iPod Success to iPhones Revolution

With the 1990s seeing Apple's market share fall as competition from Microsoft Windows and IBM grew, the company modified production strategies beginning 2000.

Apple expanded its focus on software to include video, music, and photo production solutions. On October 23, 2001, Apple introduced the iPod digital music player. And as of September 2007, four variants of the initially monochrome-screen, 5GB-gadget were born: the iPod shuffle, iPod nano, iPod classic and iPod touch.

Shortly after the famed iPod success, the first of the Apple mobile phones, iPhone, was introduced in the US on June 29, 2007.

The Apple iPhone combines a mobile camera phone, a widescreen iPod with multi-touch screen, and an internet communications facility into one compact device. Internet services supported by the Apple iPhone include e-mail, web browsing, and local Wi-Fi connectivity. It is a quad-band mobile phone with GSM standard and is EDGE network-enabled.

Anytime this year, a new addition to Apple mobile phones - one that is capable of operating on faster 3G cellular networks - will come to life, as announced by no other than Apple CEO Steve Jobs himself in a press conference at the Regent Street Apple store in London in September 2007.