2017, the year that the iPhone turns ten! Yes, it has been that long and we have surely a come a long way from when Steve Job took center stage in 2007 to take the wraps off what changed Apple’s hardware history forever. But, do you know how the iPhone came into existence – the story behind the most popular mobile device?
Well, you’d be amazed to know that Apple may not have launched the iPhone in 2007 if Jobs didn’t bear immense hatred for an “executive” over at Microsoft. We are all aware of the past rivalry between the two technology giants
But, the executive boasting about Microsoft’s progress and innovation seems to have pushed Jobs over the edge to build a touchscreen hand-held device in the first place, as revealed by Scott Forstall, who’s Apple’s former software lead and the man widely known for being the creator of iOS for the original iPhones.
However, you’d be amazed to know that the Cupertino giant’s initial move wasn’t to build a smartphone, it just segwayed into the mobile category and started the revolution – which till date sees people lining outside Apple Stores.
During an event organized at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California, Forstall talks about the moment which sparked the idea for what will eventually become the iPhone. He mentions that Jobs one day stomped into the office and said that he couldn’t stand the guts of a Microsoft executive who kept boasting about the company’s tablet and styluses-focused plan. To this, Forstall added,
iPhone had a very circuitous route by itself. We had been working on a tablet project, which has a really odd beginning. It began because Steve hated this guy at Microsoft.
Forstall further added that every time Jobs crossed paths with this anonymous Microsoft, he’d step foot into the office super pissed. And one day, he couldn’t take the surmounting blabber anymore and decided it was time to show those over at Redmond – who’s the daddy, after all?
Talking about the same, Forstall in his interview said,
He just shoved it in Steve’s face– the way they were going to rule the world with their new tablets with their pens. He came in on Monday with a set of expletives and then was like ‘let’s show them how it’s really done.’
But if you know anything about Apple co-founder late Steve Jobs, then you’d be aware of the fact that he hates styluses. He is of the opinion that why does one need an external pointing device when God has provided us with then styluses.
Thus, the Cupertino giant started work on a tablet-style device that would move past resistive touch and pioneer the multi-touch capacitive screen that’s become a norm for all touchscreen devices in today’s age. And this, Forstall says, was the start of a revolution and he had an intuition about the same.
The iPad was first unveiled back in 2010 but the iPhone came in 2007 and you’re absolutely right about the said fact. The team was working on a tablet prototype but Jobs was quick to realize that the smartphone was about to disrupt and hurt iPod sales – even though it was the most popular music listening device till date.
So, when the Apple’s team, led by Forstall, brought to Jobs the software for their tablet device, he asked them to shrink the software down to the size of a phone. And the rest, we can say is history because iPhone is now one of the most wildly popular smartphones and has helped Cupertino rake in such monstrous sums of revenue. It can be seen as the most important product in Apple’s history.
