Origin of the iPhone

rambilly brings us a story from Wired about the origin and development of the iPhone. From the article: "Steve Jobs had tasked about 200 of Apple's top engineers with creating the iPhone. Yet here, in Apple's boardroom, it was clear that the prototype was still a disaster. It wasn't just buggy, it flat-out didn't work. The phone dropped calls constantly, the battery stopped charging before it was full, data and applications routinely became corrupted and unusable. The list of problems seemed endless. At the end of the demo, Jobs fixed the dozen or so people in the room with a level stare and said, 'We don't have a product yet.' The effect was even more terrifying than one of Jobs' trademark tantrums. When the Apple chief screamed at his staff, it was scary but familiar. This time, his relative calm was unnerving. 'It was one of the few times at Apple when I got a chill,' says someone who was in the meeting."

Comments

Mobile Development

[wombatmobile]

TFA describes how Jobs and co. designed a great device, and makes the point that traditional mobile phone handset businesses has been stifled and denied the opportunity to innovate by network operators.

It is nice that Apple is innovating, and computing on telephone platforms is advancing.

But progress may still be limited by network operators for the time being because to deploy software or services, providers have to go through the network operators.

And to consume services, consumers must first access the networks through the network operators.

Round 1 to Apple with the iphone. Round 2 is software and services.

Can innovation in software and services flourish despite network operators trying to gatekeep and tax all revenue opportunities whether they understand them or not?

Re:dupe

[jonpublic]

its hilarious slashdot has a script to tag when a reply is a duplicate, but no script to stop duplicate stories on the front page.

I hate bosses like that

[syousef]

The effect was even more terrifying than one of Jobs' trademark tantrums. When the Apple chief screamed at his staff, it was scary but familiar. This time, his relative calm was unnerving. 'It was one of the few times at Apple when I got a chill,' says someone who was in the meeting."

The only reason to fear your boss is that your boss can effectively end your livelihood or career. Lauding power over people like that, throwing tantrums, and scaring your employees by staring them down or through false calm just makes me very happy I've never worked for such people. I've had some excellent bosses who've produced some excellent results and none of them have ruled by fear. There's one I remember who got accolades on retiring this year and all anyone could ever say about him was that he was calm and an absolute gentleman under pressure. In contrast when I read about Jobs and Gates I just think "goes to show money won't buy manners".

As for the iPhone can't say I understand what the fuss about this product is. Last time I participated in a discussion about it someone was rabbiting on about hacks to do video, as if video were an advanced feature for a modern phone. Please!

Re:I hate bosses like that

[FireFury03]

Lauding power over people like that, throwing tantrums, and scaring your employees by staring them down or through false calm just makes me very happy I've never worked for such people.

This was about the first thing that struck me when I read the article - it really doesn't sound like a good working environment to me.

Also, I suspect working under that kind of pressure is going to significantly increase the number of silly mistakes being made - not great for the stability of the product.

As for the iPhone can't say I understand what the fuss about this product is. Last time I participated in a discussion about it someone was rabbiting on about hacks to do video, as if video were an advanced feature for a modern phone. Please!

I have still to work out what the iPhone's target market is. It isn't a smartphone - it's lacking in too many features that smartphone users expect from their phones (such as being able to run third party software, using the phone to connect their notebook to the internet, etc), yet it is priced up there with the smartphones (more expensive than many too, and most of the smartphones can do 3G).

Sure, the iPhone's UI is supposed to be excellent, but what's the good in a nice UI if the phone is lacking the the features the target market needs?

Re:It really is the CEO

[arcite]

But its true. Consider...if the iphone had tanked, there is a good chance that not only Jobs would be out of a Job but that Apple could be out of luck as well. The CEO can take all the glory but they also take all the blame.

Re:06-12-17 status of mobile os market share

[CaptainZapp]

* Symbian is huge everywhere besides North America, but obviously has the most to lose with the iPhone being released around the world next year. Don't expect Symbian to post these numbers on their website as they have in the past.

The reception of the IPhone in the European key markets (UK, Germany, France) has been lukewarm at best. I'm not saying that Apple may not be a threat to Symbian in Europe in the future, but for the time being they're far from it.

* Apple is poised to be the number one US Smartphone vendor next year if trends keep up.

I'd wager that this is due to a fact of the abyssimal state of the US handset market. It isn't helped by the carriers who bolt down and cripple the handsets to borderline useless.

Apple will have a much more difficult time in Europe (let alone Japan) with the iPhone for a variety of reasons.

iPhone is just another word for vendor lock-in

[davide marney]

Jobs and his crew have given us a beautiful device but an ugly product. It is completely locked into its two vendors, and is not a good value.

I hate vendor lock-in. I hate being told how I can use something I bought. It's mine. I paid for it. I've earned the right to control it.

If a vendor wants my business, he needs to EARN it.