Apple Inc. is an innovative designer and manufacturer of consumer electronics. The company initially manufactured personal computers and software and was called Apple Computer, Inc. In January 2007, Steve Jobs, co-founder and CEO, announced that the company name was being changed to Apple Inc. This move reflected Apple's shift from personal computers to consumer electronics and mobile phones. The company revolutionized digital music industry through iPod portable music players and iTunes online store. Later Steve Jobs became interested in mobile electronic devices.

Steve Jobs had earlier shown interest in touch screen technology and introduction of tablet PCs and PDAs. However, he soon realized the increasing popularity and consumer demand for mobile phones for all purposes (communication, internet and music). 'In 2002, Steve Jobs, Apple's CEO, was beginning to realize that rather than carrying multiple devices (phones, MP3 players, Blackberry, etc.), people would prefer just one device to perform multiple functions' (Mohr, Sengupta & Slater, 2004). Thus, Steve Jobs started developing a new mobile phone product. He wanted to develop 'a revolutionary phone of the future' and spent $ 150 million to develop the initial iPhone in partnership with AT&T (Mohr, Sengupta & Slater, 2004). The production and development of iPhone was concealed from the competitors and public. All the supplier partners were sworn into secrecy and even the product development team was not aware about the product they were developing.

Steve Jobs introduced the new iPhone in January 2007 at the Macworld Conference and Expo. He described the iPhone in the following words: 'iPhone is a revolutionary and magical product that is literally five years ahead of any other mobile phone'. Regarding the innovativeness of the product, Jobs stated that 'We are all born with the ultimate pointing