Today marks the launch of the much-anticipated new iPhone 6s and 6s Plus cellular phones, an event which has once again seen the now familiar sight of eager tech fans camping outside Apple stores around the world in a bid to be among the first to own the device.
Apple began as a company back in 1976 in the garage of Steve Jobs and his friends Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne (all USA). Now headed up by CEO Tim Cook, the company has produced many revolutionary products since those early days - notably the Apple II and iMac home computers, and the iPod digital music player, but none of these products have come anywhere close to matching the success of their incredibly popular smartphone.
Originally released in 2007, it quickly went on to become the world's Best-selling smartphone. According to analyst firm iSuppli, Apple's iPhone outsold all other models of smartphone in the USA in July 2007, its first full month on sale. In the last four months of 2007, Apple sold 2,315,000 iPhones, helping to push their net quarterly profits to $1.58 billion (£805,326,016) – Apple's most profitable quarter ever - making the device the fastest-selling feature phone ever.
Fastest-selling smartphone
In 2012, five years after the original model had hit the market, the iPhone 5 became the fastest-selling smartphone ever, with more than 5 million units sold in its initial weekend of release - a benchmark figure Apple will hoping the new iPhone 6s will be able to surpass.
Fastest-selling portable gaming system
The iPhone 4 became the fastest-selling device that is capable of playing videogames in 2010. The iPhone five then secured the record in 2012, though it is now held by the iPhone 5s and 5c which sold more than 9 million units on its opening weekend in September 2013.
Most popular iPhone game series
The most popular iPhone game series is Tap Tap Revenge (Tapulous, 2008), which has been downloaded over 15 million times as of September 2010.
Most downloaded free iPhone app
The number one free iPhone game ever, is the asynchronous Scrabble-inspired title Words With Friends Free (Newtoy, 2009) as of May 2013 when it was sixth in the list of most downloaded apps overall, behind Facebook, Pandora, Instagram, YouTube and Skype.
Best-selling paid-for iPhone app
In May 2013, Apple published a list of the top 25 most purchased iPhone apps of all time. Flying high in the number one spot was Angry Birds (Rovio, 2009).
Most valuable brand name
The success of the iPhone played a huge part in making Apple the most valuable brand name in the world. According to Interbrand's annual "Best Brands" ranking Apple is worth an extraordinary $119 bn. This places it far ahead of Google ($107 bn) and Coca-Cola ($82 bn) (as of 1 Jan 2014).
There’s more on Apple in Guinness World Records 2016: out now.
