Months before Apple’s iPhone went on sale in June 2007, a little after Steve Jobs unveiled the “Jesus Phone” in January 2007, Apple’s CEO paid a visit to The Wall Street Journal‘s headquarters, packed more than two dozen editors and reporters to offer a sneak peek, when someone asked about its durability.
Jobs’ response: tossing the prerelease model he held into the air toward the center of the room, eliciting a small gasp and then hushed silence as it hit the (carpeted) floor.
The memory underscores the lengths Jobs went to in order to make an impression.
As a telecom reporter based in New York, I rarely got the chance to attend Apple events, including the Macworld at which Jobs unveiled the iPhone. But my beat meant I was invited to attend this private session with other editors and reporters at the Journal.
While the phone in his hand was more polished than the original, buggy prototype he showed off at Macworld, knowing now just how prone to issues those early units were makes his nonchalant toss even more impressive. Imagine how disastrous it would’ve been if that iPhone had broken or shut down in front of so many journalists.
The phone, of course, survived unscathed — that carpeted floor likely the saving grace. His staff distributed a handful of other test units for us to play with. Picture two dozen dressed-up and professional journalists breaking out into small groups and circling the phones like schoolchildren around new toys, then moving in to swipe, pinch and otherwise test out that then-revolutionary capacitive touchscreen.
MacDailyNews Take: Steve Jobs, a true visionary (we’re still waiting for the next one) who also understood the merits of carpeted drop tests.
