Wednesday, June 02, 2010

How 'It Began With the Tablet'

Bits of a new Steve Jobs interview.

So the iPhone [...]  was actually an afterthought that came into being while Apple was drawing up plans for the iPad. 
"My God, I said, this would make a great phone," Jobs recalled. "So we shelved the tablet and built the iPhone."

This  makes a lot of sense. I never could see how anybody could make the mental jump from a normal cell phone to whatever-the-heck the iPhone is. But it makes sense when you know they started with the tablet, because all that technology is clearly meant to be on a much bigger screen than an iPhone.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I don't know, I could see how you could go from a cellphone to the iphone. Touch screen technology has been around a while. Cellphones have had screens for a long time now and have had more and more features added. We all remember when cellphones only made calls and were the size of bricks. The iphone seemed just the inevitable extension of all that.

Bronislaus Janulis / Framewright said...

I tend to agree with Dave. The iPhone is an evolution of several gadgets. If it is revolutionary, it's in the seamless integration of a phone, iPod, PDA, portable web device, and it's ability to mimic and sync with the functions of a desktop computer.

"Wonder Gadget". I can think of no gadget that also elicits the social interaction of the iPhone, just trading tips and app selections.

Philocalist said...

' I can think of no gadget that also elicits the social interaction of the iPhone, just trading tips and app selections.'

It does seem to generate the same type of 'us and them' attitude though, does it not, in the same way people bitch on pointlessly about Apples and PCs?