Apple’s iPhone is one of the most important consumer gadgets ever made, and it has a lot to do with these simple features.
While it may be difficult for Google’s (GOOG, GOOGL) Android fans to admit, Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone has become one of history’s most influential consumer electronics devices.
Today’s iPhone 7 and the upcoming iPhone 8 — or iPhone 10, or whatever it’s going to be called — is an amalgamation of the best aspects of its predecessors, as well as a number of ideas the company “borrowed” from its competitors.
But the additions Apple has made to its iconic handset don’ t all carry equal weight. These are the most important iPhone features to date.
The Home button has been with the iPhone since Apple launched its first handset in 2007. A simple circle designed to cup your thumb, the Home button has evolved significantly over the years. Today, the Home button is a solid-state button with an adjustable pressure sensor. Apple also did away with the small square located at the center of the Home button, and could kill off the circle entirely with the iPhone 8.
According to rumors, the next iPhone might use an on-screen Home button thanks to the handset’s edge-to-edge display. It’s not exactly a new idea, though. Samsung started using on-screen Home buttons with its Galaxy S8, and Google’s Pixel, as well as other Android phones, only use on-screen Home buttons.
Apple’s EarPods are technically an add-on to the iPhone, but the clean, all-white design of the in-ear headphones were hugely popular during the iPhone’s early days and continue to be used to this day. Apple’s decision to include the EarPods with every iPhone ensured consumers could show off how hip they were by letting them subtly show off the fact that they owned an iPhone without waving it in the face of every stranger they passed on the street.
Apple even included a pair with the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, though it’s unclear if that tradition will continue with the iPhone 8, as Apple is pushing consumers toward its wireless AirPods.
When Apple’s late co-founder and CEO Steve Jobs took the wraps off the original iPhone, the most impressive feature was its display. While other manufactures were still slapping physical keyboards on their devices, Apple decided that you’ d only be able to use a multi-touch panel to interact with the iPhone. And while physical keyboard traditionalists turned their noses up at Apple’s handset, the iPhone ended up the ultimate winner.
Over the years, Apple has steadily improved the iPhone’s panel, first by developing the high-resolution Retina display, then by stretching the screen’s size from 3.5 inches to 4 inches and finally to 4.7 inches with the iPhone 6 and 5.5-inches with the massive 6 Plus.
