“One of the most astonishing things about the new Apple iPhone, introduced yesterday by Steve Jobs at the annual Macworld trade show, is how Apple managed to keep it a secret for nearly two-and-a-half years of development while working with partners like Cingular, Yahoo and Google,” Peter H. Lewis reports for Fortune.
“Apple, legendary for the ferocity with which it safeguards new product announcements, had extraordinary challenges in keeping the iPhone under wraps for 30 months. Besides involving Cingular, Google and Yahoo, not to mention the unnamed Asian manufacturer, the project touched nearly every department within Apple itself, Jobs said, more so than in any previous Apple creation,” Lewis reports.
Lewis reports, “Although their applications will be crucial parts of the iPhone experience, neither Yahoo nor Google saw the actual phone until shortly before the keynote, Jobs said. The software development was done without needing to provide a hardware prototype. In some cases, Apple deliberately disguised software builds, known as ‘stacks,’ to keep programmers from seeing the actual interface.”
Lewis reports, “In the end, Apple decided to reveal the iPhone several months ahead of its official June launch because it could not keep the secret any more. Apple has to file with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) for the permits needed to operate the iPhone, and once those public filings are made, Apple has no control over the release of that information. So, Jobs said, he made the decision to have Apple tell the world about its new phone, rather than the FCC.”
Lewis reports, “Phil Schiller, Apple’s head of marketing and one of the few Apple executives involved with the project from the start, said he had to keep the iPhone development secret even from his wife and children. When he left home for the official unveiling yesterday, Schiller said, his son asked, ‘Dad, can you finally tell us now what you’ve been working on?’ Jobs paused during the keynote to acknowledge the strain and sacrifices that the past months have brought not just for the employees who kept the secrets so well, but also for their families. ‘We couldn’t have done it without you,” he said, with obvious sincerity.'”
More in the full article here.
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The only thing really wrong with Apple’s iPhone is its name – January 09, 2007
Is Apple building ‘The Device?’ [revisited] – January 09, 2007
Analyst Bajarin: Apple’s iPhone and Apple TV are industry game changers – January 09, 2007
Time: ‘iPhone could crush cell phone market pitilessly beneath the weight of its own superiority’ – January 09, 2007
Analyst: Apple iPhone should be given its own category – ‘brilliantphone’ – January 09, 2007
Cingular to use Synchronoss Technologies’ platform for Apple iPhone – January 09, 2007
iPhone photos from Apple’s Macworld Expo booth – January 09, 2007
Enderle: Apple’s iPhone is going to do very well – January 09, 2007
Apple debuts iPhone: touchscreen mobile phone + widescreen iPod + Internet communicator – January 09, 2007
In other news, black is white, and white is black. Welcome to the crazy world of brains-on-Microsoft, or the seething pit of Apple haters.
“This is not a PDA”
That’s the dumbest thing I’ve read here in a very long time. I hope the author is sterile for the sake of humanity’s future.
To those who insist on thinking Apple is done with Mac-
Why would they, as a company owned by shareholders, make 60% of their revenue and profit disappear??
You cannot be serious.
-Cell Phones are for losers
“This is not a PDA. You can’t compare the costs to a PDA. Enjoy your phone, suckers.”
What PDA are you using?
One of those portable tablets? Ohhh, you can carry it in your backpack!
You just can’t stand that Apple once again designs great products that Microsoft dreams of designing but never does.
Whaaaa, whaaaa, sniff
How many out there think that the 6th-gen iPod will essentially be this phone, minus the phone function and with a hard drive added? I can’t imagine that’s not on the radar. I love my 5th-gen iPod, but this device makes it look like a stone tool.
” . . . but this device makes it look like a stone tool.”
Yeah, but Michael Dell has always looked that way.
To be honest, I don’t think anybody thought it would be as cool as it has actually turned out. I certainly didn’t think it would be this good anyway.
“One of the most astonishing things about the new Apple iPhone, introduced yesterday by Steve Jobs at the annual Macworld trade show, is how Apple managed to keep it a secret for nearly two-and-a-half years of development while working with partners like Cingular, Yahoo and Google,”
Under wraps? Secret? These people are idiots… haven’t they been paying attention to the rumor mill for the last few years? Rumor after rumor after rumor about some new fantastic device that Apple is working on. It’s a Mac Tablet… no wait, they’re working on an iNewton! No, no, they’re working on a Widescreen Video iPod with a touchscreen! GAH! People have been talking about this exact device for so long and in so many formats it’s impossible for me to see how anyone can say that they kept it secret! Sure, the exact details of what it was were kept secret. The exact implementations of the technology were kept secret. But people saw it and thought it was something and reported on it. But it managed to blow every one of those rumored products away! And this is it! This is the culmination of all those technologies, all those rumors! This is the product that people have been talking about, whether they knew it or not. And those people that saw the product at some infant state? They’re probably kicking themselves wondering why they couldn’t see what it was supposed to have been in the first place.
MW: It’s -cold- here… brrr
Those who interpret the MWSF 2007 keynote as Apple getting out of the computer business are simply, well, simple — as in stupid — as in moronic. It is hard to imagine what thoughts must flow through such dim witted brains.