What's better than an infographic? A video infographic, that's what. In anticipation of the announcement of the iPhone 4S, we have made a gorgeous animated video charting the history of the iPhone.
We thought it would be the perfect time to put the iPhone into context, going right back to the very first mobile phone call and the beginning of the Internet.
We've divided the iPhone into its component parts and charted how the technological and design developments of the past few decades have influenced the look, feel and features of the different models so far. If you want to know what connects the Walkman to Tim Berners-Lee to the NeXTcube, you've come to the right place.
We've also compared all the iPhones to each other, so you can see how the devices themselves have evolved. See how the abomination that was the Motorola Rokr fits into the story, and find out who's to blame for the disaster zone that is iTunes.
Watch out for the number of transistors inside an iPhone 4, which we compare to an early Intel chip. It'll blow your mind -- and help explain why the whole world thinks it's normal to be able to find out where the nearest good pizza restaurant is while watching the latest Hollywood blockbuster and tweeting about it.
We hope you enjoy the video -- please click the Like, Twitter and Google+ buttons below if so and let us know what you thought in the comments section, or on our Facebook wall.
While you're here, don't forget to check out our guide to all the iPhone 5 rumours that are swirling round, and our iPhone 4S review.
You can also read The Gadget Show's Jon Bentley on the 10 things Apple needs to do before he'll buy an iPhone.
Finally, if you've enjoyed the video, why not buy a poster with even more amazing iPhone facts, from our friends over at ZDNet UK? Click here to see ZDNet UK's iPhone history poster.
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anonymous 23 September, 2011 10:07
This video won't play on my iPhone. It's flash.
Rich Trenholm 23 September, 2011 10:09
Oh the cruel irony
Drew Stearne 23 September, 2011 10:11
It will play if you use the Crave App.
Jason Jenkins 23 September, 2011 10:18
If you want to watch this on an iPhone or iPod touch, just click the link at the end of the story
Mark Anderson 23 September, 2011 10:29
Or you could just play it on a device that doesn't need you to download a stupid app to feebly recreate exisitng web based technology.
Got bored with my iPhone. It feels so 2010.
anonymous 23 September, 2011 10:32
Beautiful graphics, bravo!!
anonymous 23 September, 2011 10:36
Awesome video - great work, Cnet.
anonymous 23 September, 2011 10:39
rocking! love it.
anonymous 23 September, 2011 10:56
Cool video guys
1000105421 23 September, 2011 11:22
Well done guys, doing Flash animation myself, I can imagine how many hours/days went into this!!! The music is engaging too! Let's hope you do something similar for other products (maybe a Microsoft one?)
Pedro Manaças 23 September, 2011 11:31
Very good video ;-)
anonymous 23 September, 2011 13:06
Well too quick, can't read everything
Rich Trenholm 23 September, 2011 13:16
Watch it again! It's the video that keeps on giving
anonymous 23 September, 2011 15:06
Wicked video, CNET ROCKS
anonymous 23 September, 2011 22:27
Thats it I am deleting this c*** site from my fav...... The editor should rename this site it I an in love with apple.
anonymous 25 September, 2011 10:27
You missed dinosaurs and cro-magnon man. This isn't a true history of the iPhone at all.
anonymous 25 September, 2011 18:22
Love the animation but it is a rip of a Royksopp music video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Xhdy9zBEws
joel821 26 September, 2011 14:10
LMAO....it wont play on my Iphone, ITS FLASH.....wait "THERE's AN APP FOR THAT..bwahhaaaaaahahhaha...watch this video on my Droid Incredible 2 with no need to download apps....smdh
anonymous 26 September, 2011 15:50
I hate when I see this " It won't play its flash" comment. Apple is an innovator and Flash is dead. To use flash on the internet is just as good as being blind. It can't be searched and is useless. Apple pushes new technology while others fall behind. Another reference is to CD's Apple's Air doesn't have a drive and the rest of the tech should see the future without the use of CD's and move to digital already. HTML 5 will come out and we'll see how much flash really stands a place in the web in next couple years. If the Iphone is so 2010 your device next year will be so 2001.
anonymous 28 September, 2011 08:32
Apple fanboise, just download the cnet app - it's very good and you can watch this video.
anonymous 28 September, 2011 12:32
nicely done but lame apple add, leaving cnet too
anonymous 29 September, 2011 20:19
epic vid, thanks cnet, but what is the music on it i want it as my ring tone :P
anonymous 5 October, 2011 15:36
congrats on ripping röyksopp's "remind me" video and acting like it was your idea!
anonymous 5 October, 2011 17:14
what, you mean the first two seconds? I think the four minutes after that is original. A*shole.
anonymous 5 October, 2011 17:34
The video includes nothing about a key element that made the iPhone possible: the active matrix flat-panel display.
anonymous 5 October, 2011 19:17
go on - what would you put in this video about the active matrix flat panel display?
anonymous 5 October, 2011 21:19
here's where they got there ideas from nothing new in the video. from 2002 http://royksopp.com/videos/remind-me
anonymous 5 October, 2011 22:17
it's not just royksopp - this is an interesting way of presenting stories, information, any kind of sequence and there are a few examples on Vimeo - but not many, and they are mainly from students - peope you would associate with being on the cutting edge of online video.. At least Cnet are trying something different - not necessarily what you would expect from a tech website and a million miles from what the American CNet would do. Bravo, I say, nice try to tell an interesting story in a call way. F*ck the naysayers, it doesn't matter if every single part isn' t original. Glad to see the effort made.And before you comment people, try and read the previous comments to prevent the same old shite being repeated. It's called joining in the conversation, as opposed to monologue.
anonymous 7 October, 2011 00:36
Nice animation but very poorly delivered. FAR too much information being thrown at the viewer at break-neck speed with no ability to take it in. Shame as whoever created did a good job on the animations, just terrible execution if the purpose was to inform the viewer.
anonymous 7 October, 2011 10:00
As a Flash developer, this sort of video style I've seen elsewhere. In fairness to Cnet, and in response to the commenter above, the idea is to show too much information. You are supposed to pause on the bits you are most interested in, use the video a bit like a reference. It's supposed to be entertaining, and that requires some pace, otherwise they would be too long.
A good example of this is the Little Red Riding Hood video: vimeo.com/3514904
See also this data storage example: vimeo.com/9602282
anonymous 11 October, 2011 21:36
Guy at 2:00 went to the school im currently in
anonymous 16 October, 2011 05:32
i just wanna know what song that is!! huuuuuuuuge!
anonymous 16 October, 2011 14:19
Apple A4 transistor count can't be 32 billions. It is impossible. 32 millions is the true number I guess (:
anonymous 18 October, 2011 15:29
mmm... min 01:45 poit 8 : Is "thOrough" down the last detail. are you sure?
anonymous 26 October, 2011 17:54
If you want to keep in my good books, at least credit Röyksopp's video (directed by H5)
anonymous 18 November, 2011 21:49
I'd like to know what the music it too please.
anonymous 24 November, 2011 12:39
How many transistors in an A4? Certainly not 36,000,000,000 !!!
anonymous 25 November, 2011 02:40
Sorry, but so boring, not assembled well enough to give us any meaningful info about the tech, So it just defaults to being an apple ad. Thanks for one more ad and some good old fashioned hero worship.
anonymous 28 November, 2011 23:58
This is Apple/US-centric marketing propaganda. Unfortunately this type of skewed story-telling propagates mis-information.
Where is Nokia history? If not Nokia, and years and years of their R&D mobile phones would most probably come much later.
Wikipedia: "In 1966, Nokia and Salora started developing the ARP standard (which stands for Autoradiopuhelin, or car radio phone in English), a car-based mobile radio telephony system and the first commercially operated public mobile phone network in Finland. It went online in 1971 and offered 100% coverage in 1978" and "...The world's first commercial GSM call was made on July 1, 1991 in Helsinki, Finland over a Nokia-supplied network.."
Katie Collins 29 November, 2011 08:59
Anonymous (23:58) "Where is Nokia history?"
You may be interested to take a look at our History of Nokia video which you can find here http://crave.cnet.co.uk/mobiles/the-history-of-nokia-explained-in-video-50005416/
anonymous 30 November, 2011 04:49
This video is cool but way too fast. I'd have to pause each tid-bit to read all the info.
anonymous 1 December, 2011 18:55
Video should have had more info on the Chinese labour camps that make Apple's little miracles possible.
alawi 2 December, 2011 05:00
Guys, a citation to Royksopp's music video for "Remind Me" is absolutely essential. Otherwise this is plain plagiarism. This isn't merely borrowing a concept, either: it looks like full frames were taken from their music video. Obviously many of your readers noticed, but many folks have not seen that video, and the first paragraph of your article implies that it's an original idea by CNet, which undermines your credibility. How about editing the article and citing the music video as inspiration?
anonymous 2 December, 2011 17:28
I don't get it? How could we have come so far in such a short time? If NASA followed the PC, we would have already been to mars.
anonymous 3 December, 2011 01:29
Nice way to rip off Royksopp, cnet...
anonymous 3 December, 2011 02:20
i loved this video when it was called "remind me" by royskopp, in 2002.
anonymous 3 December, 2011 10:41
Numb nuts. Slow it down. You can't show all of this info that fast.
Thomas Zychowski 3 December, 2011 18:51
How quick the technology moves!
anonymous 6 December, 2011 03:45
Too short, too much on one presentation...need to be more focused.
anonymous 6 December, 2011 04:33
what is the music anyway? its not remind me by royskopp...