On September 21, 2012, the iPhone 5 went on sale, reaching customers nine days after Apple showed it off at an event in San Francisco. Lines formed outside stores, and Apple said it had taken more than two million pre-orders in the first 24 hours.
The iPhone 5 was the first iPhone to break from the 3.5-inch screen, moving to a taller 4-inch Retina display with a 16:9 shape. It was also thinner and lighter than the 4S, ran on the new A6 chip, and was the first iPhone with LTE. Perhaps the most lasting change was the small all-digital Lightning connector, which replaced the old 30-pin dock connector and stuck around for over a decade.
Demand was huge: Apple reported more than five million units sold in the first three days. The phone’s run was short, though. Apple retired it in September 2013 when the 5s and 5c arrived, but its taller screen and connector set the template for iPhones for years.
Also on this day: Microsoft released Windows NT 3.5 (codenamed “Daytona”) on September 21, 1994.
Source: Wikipedia: iPhone 5; Wikipedia: Windows NT 3.5
Daily Tech History is a running series looking back at notable moments in technology on this date.