Apple aesthetics: a look at the iPhone's design history

The original arrived in 2007, but rumors started swirling way back in late 2004. When the first entry into the gadget line made its debut, then Editor-in-Chief Ryan Block noted that the iPhone brought with it "the most beautiful industrial design of any cellphone we've ever seen," setting a high standard for its successors in the years to come.

A stainless steel rim wrapped the edges of the 3.5-inch display, with an aluminum rear shell similar to what we'd already come to expect on MacBooks. That backside was a two-tone affair with a band of black plastic along the bottom matching the iconic Apple branding up top and the edge-mounted buttons. Folk who splurged for the AT&T-exclusive handset may also recall the 3.5mm audio jack that only seemed to accept the included earbuds and not much else. On the bottom, dual speakers were situated on either side of the charging connector -- a location they'd remain at until today's newfangled models (that have a single speaker grille to the right of the connector).

All of the navigation was sorted via the phone's touchscreen, with a single -- and now easily recognizable -- "home" button on the front.