When Apple introduced the iPhone in 2007, that initiated a profound and transformative new economic innovation. While central bankers and national leaders struggled with a deep financial crisis and stagnation, the fervent demand for iPhones and the wave of smartphones that followed was a rare force for growth.
Today, there are more than 4 billion mobile broadband subscriptions—an unprecedented rate of adoption for a new technology. Use of mobile data is rising at 55 percent per year, a stunning number that shows its revolutionary impact.
More than just hardware, the smartphone also inaugurated a new era for software developers around the world. Apple’s opening of the App Store in 2008, followed by Android Market (now Google Play) and other app stores, created a way for iOS and Android developers to write mobile applications that could run on smartphones anywhere.
