2009 - The year in review: iPhone

The dawn of 2009 wasn’t especially pleasant for Apple: rumours that founder Steve Jobs had shuffled off his mortal coil hit the news, but there was no truth in them. Jobs experienced health issues during the course of the year, but thankfully he's still with us thanks to the liver of a less fortunate man.

With that minor drama out of the way, much positive news was forthcoming. In January it was confirmed that the iPhone had become the most popular gaming handset and the success of the App Store was confirmed by the fact that over a billion downloads had taken place.

Of course, it wouldn’t be a proper year without an Apple-flavoured hardware launch and in ’09 Mac-addicts were treated to the third iteration of the iPhone. The iPhone 3GS offered enhanced gaming muscle, voice control and video recording, as well as the much-anticipated 3.0 firmware update.

The additional power contained within this new device was demonstrated in spectacular fashion by developer Firemint and a specially-coded 3GS version of its popular title Real Racing.

As is often the case, the 3GS release wasn’t without incident as many disgruntled owners reported that their shiny new phones were getting a little toasty-warm.

Still, it didn’t stop the tills from working overtime and as the year progressed the sales kept rolling in. App Store purchases were also in good health, and during ’09 the online marketplace punched through the 100,000 apps barrier.

Such was the level of Apple’s success that it caused Microsoft’s Bill Gates to throw his toys out of the pram when he insisted that his family bring no iPhone or iPod touch devices into his beloved homestead.

Surely he isn’t cruel enough to wish the Zune on his children?

The year wasn’t without notable controversy however. 2009 saw the arrival of the first iPhone virus, complete with added Rick Astley, and one notorious developer was fined for harvesting mobile phone numbers through its iPhone releases.

Some of the scandal surrounding Apple was self-inflicted, however: the company’s inconsistent app submissions policy caused headaches for developers and the still-ongoing Edge saga created yet more ill-feeling amongst the gaming community.

If that wasn’t enough, industry analyst Michael Pachter waded in on the topic of App Store-pricing, stating rather ominously that Apple’s devices are likely to spell doom for many publishers in the future because the next generation of gamers will be used to spending 59p on games rather than the £29.99 currently being asked for DS and PSP software.

Pachter has a point, with many iPhone developers struggling to get their products noticed because of bargain-basement pricing, but let’s not forget that earlier in the year he also said that iPhone gaming was a fad, so he clearly doesn’t get it right all of the time.

All things considered, 2009 was a stellar year for Apple’s handheld wonder. 2010 is likely to be tougher, what with Google’s Android platform gathering steam thanks to hardware support from Sony Ericsson, LG, and of course Google itself, but after the good work done over the past 12 months we can’t see the iPhone being toppled any time soon.