On June 29th, 2007 the first iPhone was released, more than five months after its Macworld introduction. The device that was about to reshape the mobile industry was years in the making at Apple, a project so secret that different teams working on wouldn’t even know what the others were tasked with. Apple fans already know some of the inside stories about the iPhone’s inception and creation process. But a new video starring three former iPhone stars offers us an even better take on the whole production process.
Talking to the The Wall Street Journal, Scott Forstall, Tony Fadell and Greg Christie recall some of the events that lead to the iPhone’s invention. They reveal various anecdotes from the early days of Project Purple, including plenty of Steve Jobs stories.
Even though they’re not working at Apple anymore, it’s clear from the video that all three of them are still very passionate about a product they helped invent.
Some of the stories you might be familiar with already. We learn about the iPhone-like-iPod story, the touchscreen interface, the overall user interface problems, and the virtual keyboard issues. We also learn that the software team never had access to the final industrial design of the iPhone until very late in the game, while the hardware team did not see the software.
The iPhones teams worked more than two years on the device before Jobs unveiled it in early January 2007 at the now-defunct Macworld conference.
The Journal’s video is about 10 minutes long, but you should definitely check it out:
