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 launched later that year. Since then, Apple has annually released new iPhone models and iOS versions; the most recent models being the iPhone 16 and 16 Plus, alongside the higher-end iPhone 16 Pro and 16 Pro Max, and the lower-end iPhone 16e. As of January 1, 2024, more than 2.3 billion iPhones have been sold, making Apple the largest vendor of mobile phones in 2023.The original iPhone was the first mobile phone to use multi-touch technology. Throughout its history, the iPhone has gained larger, higher-resolution 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, [note 2] iPhone 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 software, is one of the two major smartphone platforms in the world, alongside Android. The first-generation iPhone was described by Steve Jobs as a 'revolution' for the mobile phone industry. The iPhone has been credited with popularizing the slate smartphone form factor, and with creating a large market for smartphone apps, or 'app economy', laying the foundation for the boom of the market for mobile devices. In addition to the apps that come pre-installed on iOS, there are nearly 2 million apps available for download from Apple's mobile distribution marketplace, the App Store, as of August 2024.
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