An Analysis of Apple's Market Strategy in The Release of The First Generation Iphone

The First Generation iPhone was released in June of 2007 and, in my opinion, pushed the boundaries of what a consumer’s phone could offer them. The new phone was likely built to be user friendly with its multi-touch screen. The First Generation iPhone has only very basic buttons on the outside of the screen such as volume control, power, and a home button. I believe it was built to have endless possibilities at the swipe or tap of a finger with its three and a half inch screen face. I feel as though the iPhone was also marketable because it can connect to WiFi networks in addition to cellular networks. At the time of its release, June 29, 2007, WiFi on phones was a new idea to me and relatively rare. E-mail can be accessed from this phone as well. Another new feature to the phone market in 2007 that the First Generation iPhone was able to showcase was the ability to store and play music. It could also access applications from the App Store. These applications could be anything from games to GPS navigators to a level tool to social media. As the saying created by Apple goes, “There’s an app for that”.

Apple primarily markets and sells products in the Americas, for 824 of the 1,764 units they sold in the 3rd quarter of 2007 were sold in the Americas. In the Americas, I have witnessed what I understand to be a cultural movement for society to want everything in the palm of their hand and to want to use technology for absolutely everything. I think that the iPhone satisfied this need by giving customers the ability to control all aspects of their life in one phone. With a starting price of $599 United States Dollars, the iPhone may have been marketed to mostly the middle and upper class. Basic flip phones satisfy basic cell phone needs, but the people who bought the First Generation iPhone likely wanted the bells and whistles and could also afford them.

In 2006, a year before the release of the First Generation iPhone, the growing economy began to slow down and employment growth slowed down as well. The key here though is that the economy, despite the slowed growth, was still growing during the time that the First Generation iPhone was being engineered. It wasn’t until late 2007, after the phone’s release, that the economy started actually dropping. Because of this, I don’t think the First Generation iPhone’s design was not impacted by a slowing economy. In fact, it was the growing economy of 2005 and 2006 that likely gave Steve Jobs and Apple the confidence to engineer such a new phone design at a higher price point.

Apple probably planned for the release of the First Generation iPhone to make a large impact on the lifestyles of its customer base. With a phone that could do so much, Apple likely hoped that their customers would be able to keep all of the different areas of their life more organized. Apple also likely hoped to take the use of the cell phone to the next level and planned for the iPhone to be a larger part of its owner’s life than their previous phone was. The leaders of the company foresaw cell phones becoming more popular and started developing touch-screen technology before the idea of the iPhone had even been created. I think that the First Generation iPhone altered the lifestyle of Apple’s consumer base because now people spend much more time each day on their phones. I also think that the First Generation iPhone was also intended to create a safer world. In my opinion, the easy-to-use multi-touch screen allows for quick calls in case of emergency and the WiFi connection may allow someone to look up directions in an area that they are unfamiliar with.

There is little to no evidence left of efforts made by the engineers of the First Generation iPhone to make the phone and its production more environmentally friendly. There has however, been many complaints over the years about how environmentally unfriendly iPhones are. Apple responded to these complaints by creating a page on their website titled Environmental Responsibility. Today, Apple engineers work to use greener materials and avoid causing a negative impact on climate change. The release of the First Generation iPhone likely made a negative impact on the environment because it caused millions of old phones to be thrown away as consumers upgraded to an iPhone.

I believe that the hard work and innovative thinking by Apple that went into the creation of the First Generation iPhone payed off. The release of the phone very well may mark a breakthrough in the phone industry. I see the phone’s large, multi-touch screen as a must-have for many phone customers all over and the lifestyles of many of Apple’s consumers may have changed for forever.