Before Apple owned it, someone else had the iPhone name — here’s what happened

Borrowed Name

The iPhone name that billions now associate with Apple was not originally Apple’s to own. Cisco had already trademarked the name, setting up an unexpected clash when Apple unveiled its first iPhone in 2007 and eventually faced legal action.

₹142 Crore

One iPhone went far beyond Apple’s standard pricing to become a jaw-dropping luxury creation. British designer Stuart Hughes reportedly transformed an iPhone with gold and hundreds of diamonds, putting its estimated price at around ₹142 crore.

Buttonless Revolution

When Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPhone on January 9, 2007, physical keypads dominated the mobile phone world. Apple’s decision to make the touchscreen the centre of the experience changed how people interacted with phones, popularising gestures such as tapping, swiping and pinching.

Secret Purple

Before the world knew what Apple was building, a tightly guarded project was taking shape behind closed doors. Codenamed “Purple”, the secret effort involved selected engineers working for years before the device finally appeared on stage in San Francisco.

Apple Identity

The iPhone did more than introduce another smartphone. It helped transform Apple’s identity in the mobile market, turning a disputed name into one of the world’s most recognisable technology brands and reshaping expectations around what a phone could do.