The much anticipated Apple iPhone was unveiled by Steve Jobs recently at the MacWorld Expo 2007. Apple markets the iPhone as a combination of three products – a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod and an internet communications device complete with email, browser, maps, search. The Apple iPhone has an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. iPhone is the complete refinement in what one can do on a mobile phone.
Apple vice president of worldwide iPod marketing Greg Joswiak told MacWorld that the iPhone uses an optimized version of OS X tugged in just about 500 MB. The OS sits in the flash memory of the iPhone and Apple will provide updated to the OS automatically when connected to the internet. He further emphasizes that “Apple has a proven and very smooth update mechanism for everything from our computers to our iPods. We will follow that kind of model here, which is an advantage a lot of phones don’t have.”
It is said that the small footprint of the OS is a result of expertise of the team at Apple, rather than cutting out functionality or removing core technologies. It is also reminded that the OS X on a Mac features a lot of Applications that won’t be needed on the iPhone. Apple chose flash because it is small and very durable; “more versatile” than a hard drive.