Ex Apple Product Manager Gives Insight into Steve Jobs’ Vision for the First iPhone

[Maura]

AppleInsider has a really interesting feature giving an insight into how Steve Jobs inspired the creative team behind the first iPhone. The insight was provided by ex-iPhone product marketing engineer Bob Borchers, who, AppleInsider reminds us, appeared in some of the iLife and iPhone guided tour videos. Speaking at a lecture in California, Borchers told the students that all that Steve Jobs was thinking of when he was working with the first iPhone’s creative team was making “the first phone that people would fall in love with.” Borchers went on to say that Jobs’ intention was to create a mobile phone that was such a part of people’s everyday lives that they would rather leave their wallet at home than leave their iPhone at home. Borchers provides many other fascinating insights into the development process of the first iPhone, such as the fact that it very nearly had a plastic touchscreen, but at the very last minute, right before it was due to launch, Steve Jobs went to the team and told them of his concerns that although the plastic cover would provide good protection for the LCD underneath it, it could easily be scratched by people’s keys and other objects when placed in pockets or elsewhere. The team then had to quickly come up with another solution on the fly, persuading Corning to start making Gorilla Glass again, despite the fact that the company had just stopped making it. This, of course, proved to be a stroke of pure genius! Do check out the full article, it makes fascinating reading.


Source: Former Apple product manager recounts how Jobs motivated first iPhone team

[Sponsors]