iPhone 3G

Announced June 9 and released July 11, 2008, the headline here was price: $199 for 8GB and $299 for 16GB, a huge drop from the original iPhone's $499 and $599, though it now required signing up to a new two-year AT&T contract to get that rate. The iPhone 3G also launched far more widely than the original had, in 22 countries on day one rather than just six, with more than 70 planned by year's end.

The name gave away the main hardware upgrade: 3G cellular support, roughly twice the data speed of the original's EDGE-only connection, alongside a built-in GPS chip for the first time, letting Maps pinpoint your location properly rather than estimating it from Wi-Fi and cell towers. Apple also switched from the original's flat aluminium back to a curved plastic one, mainly to improve cellular reception, and fixed a common complaint by making the headphone jack sit flush with the body instead of recessed. It came in black at both storage sizes, with a white option added for the 16GB model.

The biggest change was on the software side. The App Store launched the day before the phone itself, opening with more than 500 apps (over 125 of them free), and giving outside developers a way to build and sell software for iPhone for the very first time, something the original model never allowed at all. 

The new iPhone 2.0 software also added support for Microsoft Exchange, making it a far more serious option for business email and calendars. It still couldn't record video or copy and paste text though, both arrived in later updates. 

It sold a million units in its opening weekend, more than triple the original iPhone's entire first 74 days on sale.