The iOS Evolution
From the start until now, Apple’s made some serious changes to our constant companion: our technology.
It’s been nearly ten years since Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone from Apple. Though the iPhone has become an undeniable fixture of modern life, few people really appreciate the fact that it is the software of the iPhone—the iOS operating system—rather than the hardware, that continually sets the Apple smartphone apart from others.
In the Beginning…
It’s easy to forget the significant fact that the very first iPhone, released in 2007, was the first device to introduce the idea of a touchscreen interface to the masses. It’s a testament to the Apple mindset that we’ve simultaneously come to expect game-changing moves such as this one, while also expecting that the devices and software we use will not be overly complicated. In general, iOS tends to be the kind of software that someone can use without having to read instructions or have prior knowledge of the system. This intuitive design is a hallmark of the Apple brand, and by most accounts it has improved over time. Now that most iPhone users are well familiar with the iOS mindset, and the small changes that come with each new version can take on elevated meaning.
Let’s look back at some of the most significant developments in the evolution of iOS over the last decade:
One Button to Rule Them All
Though the general format of a grid of small app icons looks the same as it does today, the first iteration of Apple’s operating system, iOS1, could not be more different from today. In addition to establishing the idea of having a single home screen button to navigate the phone, other notable first-time features included multi-touch gestures, visual voicemail, mobile web browsing on Safari and a YouTube app. With iOS2 came the App Store, and the entire mobile ecosystem changed. Allowing third party apps onto the iPhone essentially created an entire sector of the economy, as anyone with an idea could build an app and get it to the masses.
Can You See Me Now
The next major leap forward came with iOS4, which introduced the feature of FaceTime, allowing users to replace calling with a purpose-built app for communicating among Apple devices. Other more minor feature changes in this update included zooming in the camera app, and the organizational ability to put apps into folders. iOS5 was no less a jump forward, with features such as iMessage, which effectively meant the end of texting for people with iPhones, as well as better integration with social media sites like Twitter, and Siri, the digital assistant that everyone loves to hate.
Jumping forward to iOS7 and we saw the first time that Jonathan Ive was put in charge of the operating system, after his predecessor was ousted over a failure to take accountability for the failed rollout of Apple Maps in the iOS6 launch. This marked the end of what is called “skeuomorphic design”, or when digital iterations are meant to look like their real-life counterparts (like how the Notes app used to look like a legal pad).
Which Brings Us to Now
Finally, the most recent leap forward to iOS10 has continued the Jonathan Ive aesthetic and fixed some long-standing bugbears of longtime iOS users. These include the ability to delete apps like stocks and compass, which take up space but few people use, and the ability to listen to music while opening the camera app.
While the changes in iOS over the past decade seem incremental, taken as a journey it really is remarkable how much our usage of the iPhone has matured alongside the technology. The things we’ve come to expect of our phones today—that many might perhaps say they can’t live without—are the things that we could have only dreamt of when the phone was first released.