And that was, and remains, a powerful force for consumers, one that has given countless photographers a new means to express themselves creatively. (This is possible as well for Android phones, which have the Google Play App Store). An equally important component was Apple’s App Store, which allowed consumers to download mobile applications-small programs-that could customize the feature set on their iPhone.

Yet it wasn’t the iPhone hardware alone that achieved this success. This is the original photo I used to test all the mobile apps in this article. Nevertheless, the earliest iPhone gave the public its first look at a new bond between mobile devices and photography, a bond so strong that it would bring dramatic changes to the photo industry: Less than 10 years later, according to the image hosting site Flickr, more consumers were using iPhones than DSLR cameras. But the features on these other phones didn’t resonate with the general public the way the iPhone’s features did, particularly those connected to its camera, which had just a 2-megapixel image sensor and lacked many basic features found on most stand-alone point-and-shoots. Lots of phones had them before, including models from Blackberry, Sony Ericsson, and Nokia, among others. The first Apple iPhone, introduced in 2007, wasn’t the first with a camera built into it. If you purchase an independently reviewed product or service through a link on our website, we may receive an affiliate commission.

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