IT’S hard for many people to recall a time only a decade ago when they didn’t have a touchscreen smartphone in their pocket.

Apple recently announced its strongest quarter ever and looked ahead to the release of the 10th anniversary iPhone.

There are businesses in Dorset that owe their existence to the arrival of the device in 2007 and the Android competitors that followed.

Anthony Story, director with the Bournemouth-based creative ‘hub’ Silicon South, recalls how the iPhone followed devices such as the PDA (personal digital assistant), the PalmPilot and the seemingly ubiquitous BlackBerry.

“It was really the interface that suddenly made it all really easy,” he said of the iPhone.

“It had been so well and thoroughly thought through. Things like the swiping mechanism were intellectual property that had been patented years before but nobody knew what to do with it.

“Apple was thinking about how to transport an interface that had been created for a PC and put it on a small device.”

It seems odd today to read 2007 stories in which the Echo had to explain what the iPhone was all about.

“It’s a phone, Jim, but not as we know it! Even self-confessed technophobes are getting excited about Apple’s new iPhone,” he paper said.

During the countdown to the device’s arrival in the UK, O2 took on 1,400 staff to cope with demand in its branches, including one in Commercial Road, Bournemouth.

“Not only can you make a call simply by touching the screen, you can also check your emails, watch your favourite movies or listen to some music,” the Echo report explained.

“It’s sleeker than rivals such as the Blackberry and Treo, and the eight gigabyte version of the iPhone holds up to 1,825 songs.”

Kevin Burnett, store manager at Bournemouth’s Vodafone store, said then: “This is by far the biggest launch we’ve experienced and demand has been more than any other phone.

“The iPhone is a massive product and we will be run off our feet for the rest of the week. People want the iPhone as it’s so simple and versatile to use.”

At that time, the device cost £269, and an 18-month contract with O2 would have set you back £35 a month – bringing the total cost of the phone plus contract to £899.

By comparison, today’s iPhone 7 handset will cost you between £699 and £799, or £819-£919 for the bigger Plus model – although that original 8GB memory is tiny compared with today’s range from 32GB to 256GB.

Anthony Story notes that the phone became “less of a device and more an extension of self”.

As the iPhone took off, so did the phenomenon of apps (or programs, as we used to call them). The App Store, launched in 2008, provided a marketplace for apps, with Apple taking a healthy slice of the purchase price.

And while many apps are about gaming or personal usefulness, some can make a difference to society.

He cites 3 Sided Cube, which specialises in socially useful apps such as Blood Hero, which saved lives by making it easier for people to donate blood to the American Red Cross; or Nourish Care, whose apps supporting care arrangements have enabled people to stay in their own homes for longer. Both are based in Westbourne.

Richard Strachan, managing director at 3 Sided Cube – which makes apps for both Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android systems – said: “The invention of the iPhone has pioneered the change in consumer behaviour over the last 10 years, ushering in an always-on mentality. It’s revolutionised the way people communicate, shop, engage with brands, do business and consume media with the rise of second-screening.

“At 3 Sided Cube, we’ve focused on the importance of using the technology available to us for good. We’ve built global apps for socially conscious brands such as the Red Cross and the RNLI, helping to save thousands of lives a day. This couldn’t have happened without the iPhone and its creation of the App Store in 2008.

“Since then, more than two million apps have been created and given rise to a whole new industry allowing businesses to ensure always that ‘there’s an app for that’.”

That “always on” mentality which Mr Strachan identifies may be a mixed blessing for people answering work emails or tweets in their personal time, it has led to the creation of businesses locally who specialise in taking care of brands’ interactions on social media.

Mr Story gives the example of Inferno Media, set up by Mitchell Stuart, who by the age of 18 had acquired clients such as FJB Hotels, Aruba, Westbeach and Rock Recruitment, and had been named top entrepreneur in the latter’s Rock Star Awards.

Smartphones have also given a platform for podcasts – audio shows that can be played on demand. They are often made on a very low budget and cater for almost every conceivable interest.

Mark Masters, of the Poole-based ID Group, co-hosts the popular Marketing Homebrew podcast, available via Apple’s iTunes and Stitcher for Android.

While podcasts existed pre-iPhone, the need to play them on a computer meant most people could not listen to the array of them that is possible today.

“If it wasn’t for the iPhone, the Marketing Homebrew podcast would have a much more limited audience. When looking at audience stats, nearly 50 per cent of our audience listens via iOS,” he says.

“With the recent introduction of Apple’s CarPlay this means that motorists with an iPhone on new models of Audi, BMW, Citroen, Mini and others, now have a dashboard interface that limits distraction and also podcasts are part of the feature.

“The podcast medium provides a way to present a voice to a much wider audience. If it wasn’t for the iPhone, the reach to some far off places from Ghana to Ecuador probably wouldn’t happen.”

Bournemouth and Poole were famously found to have the fastest growing digital economy in the country, according to a 2015 report by Tech Nation. And it is clear the smartphone revolution has been a big part of that expansion.

In the near future, the ‘internet of things’ could give us the ability to control everything from fridges to medication through smartphones, making them even more important to everyday life. It seems likely that smartphone revolution begun by Apple will continue to drive a big and growing part of Dorset’s economy.