IPhone
line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple Inc.
The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at Macworld 2007, and first launched in June 2007. Since then, Apple has annually released new iPhone models and iOS versions; the current lineup consists of the iPhone 17, the lower-end iPhone 17e, the lighter and thinner iPhone Air, the higher-end iPhone 18 Pro and Pro Max, and the foldable iPhone Duo. As of July 2025, more than 3 billion iPhones have been sold. Apple has been the largest vendor of mobile phones since 2023.
The original iPhone was the first mobile phone to use multi-touch technology. Throughout its history, the iPhone has gained larger, higher-resolution Retina displays, video-recording functionality, waterproofing, and many accessibility features. Up to the iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, iPhones had a single button on the front panel, with the iPhone 5s and later integrating a Touch ID fingerprint sensor. Since the iPhone X, models have switched to a nearly bezel-less front screen design with Face ID facial recognition in place of Touch ID for authentication, and increased use of gestures in place of the home button for navigation.
The iPhone, which operates using Apple's proprietary iOS operating system, is one of the two major smartphone platforms in the world, alongside Android.
Begin with the source’s own compact description: “IPhone” is line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple Inc. The dossier treats that line as a proposition to test through IPhone, line and smartphones, not as a finished interpretation.
Why this record matters
The phrase “line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple Inc” supplies a clear boundary for inquiry. It also exposes the unanswered questions: who defined that boundary, when it became stable and which sources sit outside it.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 17, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2766. The Library of Congress control number is sh2007007371. 1 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 1 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2007, 2025 and 2023.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “IPhone”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow IPhone primary sources, IPhone archive and IPhone research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “IPhone”?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
- Which cited source is closest to the event, object or claim?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “IPhone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.