Biography
In the first decade of the millennium, Apple dominated the MP3 player marketplace and mindshare with its stylish and easy-to-use iPod. Rumors of the corporation expanding into mobile phone manufacturing caused a pop-cultural commotion long before any call was made. With intensifying anticipation on the part of Apple enthusiasts, a billow of attention from the media, and a little last-minute reckoning over the rights to the name, the iPhone was officially announced on January 9, 2007. It went on sale June 29, 2007. At the time, in the United States, iPhone could only be used with AT&T mobile service. Other exclusivity agreements with other mobile service providers existed in other regions.
The iPhone runs a modified version of the Macintosh OS X operating system and is used similarly to a contemporary Mac computer, with application icons and a "dock" area for shortcuts to the most frequently used programs. The device has a power-saving ARM-based central processing unit and a co-processor for 3D graphics. The earliest iPhone model had 4GB of storage space, but 8GB and 16GB models soon became the standards. The operating system takes less than 500MB, leaving most of the space for music, movies, software, and games.
The two main user interfaces on the iPhone are the touch screen and the tilt sensitivity. The touch screen can display virtual buttons and keyboards for users to tap, and it allows for gesture-based controls such as pinching two fingers together or spreading them apart to zoom in or out. A three-axis accelerometer gives the device attitude awareness (in the aeronautic sense), such that it can always determine which direction is up, no matter how it is being held. Ultimately, all iPhone games rely on one or both of these two functions for their player controls. In the realm of gaming, both of these interface mechanisms were previously explored and developed by Nintendo. Tilt sensitivity plays a central role in Game Boy carts such as Kirby Tilt and Tumble and WarioWare Twisted!, as well as in many Wii games. The touch-screen is a primary feature of the best-selling Nintendo DS handheld. Some early iPhone games were inspired by (or are direct ports of) games originally designed for Nintendo platforms.
Other iPhone games are based on old arcade games, successful Macintosh games, and generic sports and board games. Accessible puzzle and word games are prominent in the first few years of the iPhone catalog, but more sophisticated, attention-demanding titles become common as the system gains recognition as a distinct gaming platform of its own, drawing a greater diversity of developers. All sanctioned third-party software for the iPhone is available from only one source: Apple's online App Store. For a relatively low fee, anyone can submit software to be sold in the App Store, pending Apple's approval. This allows the creators of independent and original games to sell their wares alongside household names such as Tetris or SimCity. It also creates a staggering breadth of choice for iPhone users. Less than two years following the launch of the iPhone, thousands and thousands of applications were available for purchase at the App Store, including hundreds and hundreds of brand-name and indie video games.
Because the two devices use similar processing hardware and run the same operating system, most games developed for iPhone also can be purchased and downloaded for play on iPod Touch, which launched in September of 2007. The iPod Touch is a compact portable media player, like earlier iPod models, but similar to the iPhone, it has a three-axis accelerometer, a touch screen, and Wi-Fi connectivity, including Bluetooth support. An additional software update, for a small fee, is required before the iPod Touch can download and run software from the App Store.
