This week saw the announcement of the 9th generation iPhone, so it’s a good time to look back through its family tree. Welcome back for another weekend trip down memory lane.

Apple iPhone

It was the phone that changed the industry – not the first smartphone, not even the first phone with a capacitive touchscreen, but its influence in phone design is still felt today. Part of the credit goes to Steve Jobs’ dislike for styluses – the standard tool for touchscreens at the time – so he guided his team to design a user interface built from the ground up to be used with fingers.

At the time, touch phones tried to mimic mouse-driven desktop UIs, perhaps because that’s what users were familiar with. But Apple did what Apple does best – create an accessible experience and get users to do things The Right Way™.

However, “smartphone” wasn’t quite part of Steve’s original vision – no native apps were allowed, only “web apps.” And the Safari browser meant to run them supported neither Flash nor Java, which were still the predominant way to create apps for the web.

The original iPhone had plenty of limitation though. Its camera was very basic (no autofocus, no videos), there was no 3G for faster access to those web apps, Bluetooth file sharing was nowhere to be found, heck, you couldn’t even set a ringtone.

So how could such a limited phone shake the industry to its core? Well, Apple had one thing right – specs wars don’t matter if you can offer the best experience.

Apple iPhone 3G

The Apple iPhone 3G fixed many of the initial limitations. After unofficial ways to install apps became popular, Apple introduced the official App Store with iPhone OS 2.0. The new phone would also add 3D connectivity for faster internet access and added GPS for Google Maps.

Official photos of Apple iPhone 3G

Apple left some things unchanged though – the iPhone 3G used the same 2MP camera as the original, so no autofocus and no video. No video calls over 3G either, a feature other smartphones flaunted.

The phone also dropped the aluminum casing of the original and went with glossy plastic, making it the ugly ducking in an otherwise very nice looking family.

Apple iPhone 3GS

The birth of the S iPhones – the models that improve last year’s model, without any major design changes. Except the iPhone 3G brought relatively small improvements (really things that should have been part of the original), while the 3GS actually set the stage for some of Apple’s major iPhone features to come.

First, the camera was spruced up – autofocus added (with 10cm macro mode) and video capture was enabled at VGA @ 30fps (even though the competition was taking the first steps to 720p). An editor was added to trim your videos.

Voice control was added – not Siri, but its great-grandfather. Similarly Nike+ was precursor to Apple Health, hardware encryption was enabled too.

Apple iPhone 4

Even Apple’s magic couldn’t stave off the specs war and the Apple iPhone 4 (no more “G”) was a big change in direction. The Retina display bumped the pixel density to an unheard of 326ppi, kicking off the resolution race. It was a high-quality IPS display with great viewing angles and contrast too.

It was also the first iPhone to get serious about the camera – the 5MP/720p shooter was not impressive on paper, but produced spectacular photos. The iPhone 4 also added a camera on the front – not for 3G calls, but for Apple’s custom FaceTime.

Apple iPhone 4

Apple’s design was always a selling point, but the iPhone 4 took it to a new level. Thin (9.3mm) with a sleek metal-and-glass body, it was quite a looker. The return to a metal chassis brought connectivity issues with it though.

Along with the new iPhone Apple unveiled a tablet too – the iPad – but that’s a story for another time.

Apple iPhone 4S

Apple turned the screws on Android makers further with the iPhone 4S. It matched them at 1080p video with the new 8MP camera, which was nothing short of amazing. The 8MP/1080p camera, with minor updates each year, lasted Apple four generations. It was finally changed in full with the iPhone 6s, but that’s a highly impressive track record.

Apple also stepped up its performance game and introduced its first dual-core processor. Multitasking still wasn’t a thing though, not true multitasking that is (and…

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