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50 free IPhone trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The iPhone arrived in January 2007 as a stage demo that barely held together and has sold more than a billion units since. Every generation has added a first — a sharper screen, a faster chip, a new way to unlock — and every few years something has gone wrong enough to earn a nickname ending in '-gate'. These 50 questions stick to the settled record rather than this year's spec sheet: the keynote and the launch-day prices, what each model introduced, the iOS releases that changed how the phone worked, the App Store's early days, Siri's origins, the carriers and factories behind it, the famous ads, and the lawsuits and scandals that followed. Each answer comes with a one-line explanation that adds the detail the headline left out. Play it to see how well you know the phone in your pocket, or print it for a pub round where everyone has an opinion.
30 of 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which coffee chain did Steve Jobs prank-call on stage at the 2007 unveiling, ordering 4,000 lattes to go?
Starbucks
Starbucks took the prank call during the Google Maps demo, and fans were still ringing that San Francisco store to order 4,000 lattes six years later.
Q 02Which Apple marketing chief was mocked for saying it took 'courage' to drop the headphone jack in 2016?
Phil Schiller
Phil Schiller's line became a meme, but the same jack-less phones also brought the first official water-resistance rating and a solid-state home button.
Q 03Apple's first iPhone ad, shown during the 2007 Oscars, had film and TV characters answering phones with which word?
Hello
Hello was all the ad said, followed by 'Coming in June', in a montage of 31 clips running from Lucille Ball to Pixar's Mr. Incredible.
Q 04What did Apple give every iPhone 4 owner free in 2010 after the 'Antennagate' complaints about lost signal?
A bumper case
A bumper case covered the steel antenna band that lost signal when gripped, and Apple refunded anyone who had already bought one.
Q 05The lower-case 'c' in the polycarbonate iPhone 5c of 2013 is widely taken to stand for what?
Color
Color is the accepted reading, though Apple never said so: the iPhone 5c's polycarbonate shell was strengthened by a steel band and came in five bright finishes.
Q 06Siri's iPhone 4S debut was overshadowed by Steve Jobs's death, which came how soon after the October 2011 unveiling?
The next day
The next day, October 5, 2011, Jobs died, making the iPhone 4S the last Apple product announced in his lifetime.
Q 07What did the notorious 2008 App Store app 'I Am Rich', priced at $999.99, actually display when opened?
A glowing red gem
A glowing red gem and a mantra were all $999.99 bought, and Apple pulled the app less than a day after its release.
Q 08Which tech blog paid $5,000 in 2010 for a prototype iPhone 4 that an Apple engineer had lost in Redwood City?
Gizmodo
Gizmodo tore the prototype down and published it, and a police task force later raided the home of the editor who reviewed it, seizing his computers.
Q 09Which glassmaker's Gorilla Glass replaced the plastic screen Jobs had held up on stage in January 2007?
Corning
Corning revived a 1960s 'muscled glass' called Chemcor after Jobs complained that the prototype had scratched in his pocket.
Q 10Which 2017 anniversary model skipped a number, dropped the home button and introduced Face ID at a then-record $999?
iPhone X
The iPhone X is pronounced 'ten', marking the tenth anniversary, and it was the first iPhone with an OLED screen.
Q 11What did Apple call the 326-pixel-per-inch screen that debuted on the iPhone 4 in 2010?
Retina display
The Retina display quadrupled the pixel count to 960×640 without changing the 3.5-inch screen size or aspect ratio.
Q 12Which reversible connector, announced with the iPhone 5 in 2012, replaced the 30-pin dock plug that iPods had used?
Lightning
Lightning outlived the iPhone 15's switch to USB-C, surviving on the iPhone SE until that model was discontinued in 2025.
Q 13Whose common-charger mandate pushed Apple to give the iPhone 15 a USB-C port in 2023, its first port change since 2012?
The European Union
Q 21Which video-calling service launched alongside the iPhone 4's first front-facing camera in June 2010?
FaceTime
FaceTime arrived on a phone that also packed the first iPhone gyroscope, a sensor that detects three-axis angular motion.
Q 22Which messaging service, the root of the 'green bubble' divide, arrived with iOS 5 in October 2011?
iMessage
iMessage reached the Mac a year later with Mountain Lion, and it now spans iOS, iPadOS, macOS, watchOS and visionOS.
Q 23Which basic text-editing feature did iPhone owners wait two years for, until iPhone OS 3 added it in June 2009?
Copy and paste
Cut, copy and paste appeared as a bubble when you press and hold text, in the same update that brought MMS and Spotlight search.
The European Union's rule made the iPhone 15 the first to switch ports since the iPhone 5, after Apple had warned the mandate would 'harm consumers'.
Q 14What does 'SE' stand for in the name of the 4-inch iPhone that Apple launched at $399 in March 2016?
Special Edition
Special Edition was Apple's answer to the 30 million 4-inch iPhones it said it had sold in 2015, proof that many buyers still wanted compact phones.
Q 15What share of app revenue has Apple's App Store kept since 2008, a cut developers and regulators have called excessive?
30%
The 30% cut falls to 15% for developers earning under $1 million a year under a Small Business Program announced in November 2020.
Q 16Which game vanished from the App Store in August 2020 after its maker added a way to dodge Apple's payment system?
Fortnite
Fortnite was gone within hours of Epic Games' hotfix, and Epic sued the same day with a video parodying Apple's famous '1984' commercial.
Q 17Which US agency did Apple publicly defy in 2016 over an order to unlock a San Bernardino shooter's iPhone 5C?
The FBI
The FBI had the hearing postponed the day before it was due, then dropped the case a week later after a third party unlocked the phone, which reportedly held nothing about the plot.
Q 18Which Taiwanese iPhone assembler, legally Hon Hai Precision Industry, is the world's largest contract electronics maker?
Foxconn
Foxconn also builds the Kindle, PlayStation consoles, the Xbox and every Nintendo system since the GameCube, and earns most of its revenue in China.
Q 19Which carrier ended AT&T's exclusive US hold on the iPhone by selling a CDMA model from February 2011?
Verizon
Verizon's iPhone 4 added a Personal Hotspot for up to five devices, and pre-orders opened on February 3, 2011.
Q 20Which payment service launched in 2014 with the first iPhones to carry an NFC chip, initially the chip's only use?
Apple Pay
Apple Pay was the NFC chip's sole job for three years, until iOS 11 gave third-party apps limited access to it.
Q 24Which magazine named the original iPhone its Invention of the Year for 2007, months after the June launch?
Time
Time's award came as Walt Mossberg called the iPhone 'a beautiful and breakthrough handheld computer' despite 'some flaws and feature omissions'.
Q 25Which Microsoft chief dismissed the iPhone in 2007 as the world's most expensive phone, one with no keyboard?
Steve Ballmer
Steve Ballmer said there was 'no chance' the iPhone would win significant market share, and reportedly barred his own family from using one.
Q 26Which Apple design chief, until then known for hardware, led the flat redesign that arrived with iOS 7 in 2013?
Jony Ive
Jony Ive's iOS 7 swapped textured icons for flat ones and added Control Center, and it reached 200 million devices within five days.
Q 27Which head of iOS software left Apple in October 2012, weeks after the troubled launch of Apple Maps?
Scott Forstall
Scott Forstall's duties were split among four executives, with Craig Federighi taking over iOS engineering, and he has never publicly explained the exit.
Q 28Which desktop operating system did Steve Jobs claim the first iPhone simply 'runs' at the 2007 unveiling?
OS X
'Runs OS X' was all Jobs would say; one Apple team had shrunk Mac OS X to fit an ARM chip, beating a rival Linux-based version codenamed Acorn.
Q 29Which 2009 model, whose 'S' Apple said stood for speed, was the first Apple handset that could record video?
iPhone 3GS
The iPhone 3GS also added voice control and a digital compass, and it sold more than a million units in its first weekend.
Q 30Which 2016 model was Apple's first with two rear cameras, gaining an exclusive Portrait mode in iOS 10.1?
iPhone 7 Plus
The iPhone 7 Plus's second 12-megapixel telephoto lens gave 2× optical zoom, and Portrait mode followed about a month after launch.