The genesis of the iPhone began with Apple CEO Steve Jobs' direction that Apple engineers investigate touchscreens.[83] Apple created the device during a secretive and unprecedented collaboration with AT&T Mobility—Cingular Wireless at the time of the phone's inception—at a development cost of US$150 million by one estimate. During development, the iPhone was codenamed "Purple 2".[93] The company rejected an early "design by committee" built with Motorola in favor of engineering a custom operating system and interface and building custom hardware.
The iPhone went on sale in the United States on June 29, 2007. Apple closed its stores at 2:00 pm local time to prepare for the 6:00 pm iPhone launch, while hundreds of customers lined up at stores nationwide.[22] Apple sold 270,000 iPhones in the first 30 hours on launch weekend.[94] In 2007, 8 million iPhones were sold in the U.S. according to the Entertainment Software Association.[95] The original iPhone was subsequently made available in five other countries: Ireland, the UK, France, Germany, and Austria.
On July 11, 2008, Apple released the iPhone 3G in twenty-two countries, including the original six. Forty-eight more are expected to follow in the months afterwards.[1] The first iPhone 3G in the world was sold in Auckland, New Zealand to Jonny Gladwell, a 22-year-old student, at one minute past midnight NZST.[96] On the iPhone 3G release date in the United States, many units initially failed to activate because Apple's iTunes servers were overloaded.[97] Apple sold 1 million iPhone 3Gs in its first 3 days on sale.
