iPhone 3G mobile phone, designed by Apple, assembled in China, 2008-2010.

The iPhone 3G captured the public imagination. Sales of the smartphone drove a spike in the use of mobile internet services when it was introduced in Britain in 2007. In many ways the iPhone 3G arrived just at the right time. The third generation of mobile networks (3G) were becoming established, making mobile internet access a real possibility; touch screen technology had improved dramatically, which was an essential part of the way that users interacted with iPhones; and the amount of computing power that could be squeezed into small devices without draining the battery too quickly was growing rapidly. That, in combination with Apple’s carefully developed software and interaction design, made the iPhone 3G very desirable.