Apple engineer says a 2005 Steve Jobs ultimatum made the iPhone what it is today

[Justin Kahn]

Ahead of Apple's patent-infringement trial with Samsung next week, a former senior software engineer from the company has given an Apple-approved account of how the first iPhone came to be. Speaking to The Wall Street Journal, Greg Christie has given a fairly detailed version of the revolutionary device's early days, while some of the information was already known, there is a few interesting bits to come out of the article.

Christie was working on what would become software for the initial iPhone back in 2005, when Steve Jobs gave him and his team an ultimatum. The team was to show serious progress on the touch enabled phone in two weeks or Jobs would put someone else on the project.

With a threat of that nature coming from someone like Jobs, Christie and the "shockingly" small team felt the pressure to come up with "bigger ideas and bigger concepts." They prototyped the ideas on a plastic touch screen running on an older desktop Mac in order to emulate the lesser performance of a mobile processor.

After pouring over minute details like what the perfect scrolling speed and response was, and how to get conversation based text messaging just right, Christie managed to present Jobs a prototype that would keep him and his team on the iPhone project moving forward. After the two weeks, the prototype featured the now famous swipe-to-unlock feature, an entirely software based keyboard design, and the full suite of iPod-based music listening capabilities.

While it may seem that Christie and his colleagues could finally settle down and finish development on the device, settling down just wasn't something Jobs would allow. Christie describes the following two and a half years as a "marathon," with Jobs obsessing over every tiny detail of the project. He said Steve required updates every two weeks for the entire duration of development, in a top-secret, windowless room.

You can check out the full article over on The Wall Street Journal.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/56141-apple-engineer-says-a-2005-steve-jobs-ultimatum-made-the-iphone-what-it-is-today.html

 

[Jad Chaar]

And now the iPhone is one heck of a device. Thanks Steve.

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

Christie describes the following two and a half years as a "marathon," with Jobs obsessing over every tiny detail of the project.

Not to defend Jobs and his requirement that his employees work themselves dead, but two week updates on progress are fairly standard in an Agile project. Agile projects are when the person deciding how the final product should look gets to see what was done over the last two weeks and then tells the team how to change or improve on what they did. It's a pretty normal way of doing things.

Although I can imagine how hectic it must have been... what with building the iPhone as well as with all the paperwork to fill out to patent every single finger gesture, feature, shape, color and font that the iPhone used.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

And now the iPhone is one heck of a price. Thanks Steve.

 

[VitalyT]

Not to defend Jobs and his requirement that his employees work themselves dead, but two week updates on progress are fairly standard in an Agile project.

Really? One of the Agile centre ideas for the sprint is in simple and clearly defined goals. What Apple team did had nothing to do with that. They were asked to create something out of nothing, and make sure it looks great and works well - all within 2 weeks.

 

[Guest]

Skidmark, you can blame the price on the consumer. That is how much they are willing to pay for it. Gaxaxy s5 is $660, not much cheaper.

 

[Guest]

Yes, it always amazes me how people in Free Market country whine about prices. It's like whining that Rolls Royce is not as cheap as Chevy Nova.

 

[Darth Shiv]

And now the iPhone is one heck of a price. Thanks Steve.

I'm no Apple fanboi but that just means I don't buy the device. One thing you have to say, whatever your preferences are, is that the iPhone defined the standard for touch screen phones from the first device up to now.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

I'm no Apple fanboi but that just means I don't buy the device. One thing you have to say, whatever your preferences are, is that the iPhone defined the standard for touch screen phones from the first device up to now.

I'll admit they do make some fairly decent products but no way are they worth their asking price.
With the release of the 1st iPhone they set the standard for touchscreens but no way are they still the leaders, in fact they are starting to behind their competitors. They're always screaming 'revolutionary' but when was the last time you saw anything revolutionary from them? No sir, they may still be raking it in but they've had their day in the sun.

 

[Blue Falcon]

"And now the iPhone is one heck of a price. Thanks Steve."

HTC One (M8) is $649.99. Apple iPhone 5S is $649.99.

hmm....let's see Xperia Z2, LG G3, all those phones will be $549-700. Now let's see the resale price of those Android phones in 12-24 months.

It's amazing that people still talk about the price of the hardware when the really hefty cost of owning the device is the monthly fee / contract. The same is true for gaming consoles. Over the useful life of a console, whether it's $400 or $600 makes no difference when the price of games is $50-70.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

"And now the iPhone is one heck of a price. Thanks Steve."

HTC One (M8) is $649.99. Apple iPhone 5S is $649.99.

hmm....let's see Xperia Z2, LG G3, all those phones will be $549-700. Now let's see the resale price of those Android phones in 12-24 months.

It's amazing that people still talk about the price of the hardware when the really hefty cost of owning the device is the monthly fee / contract. The same is true for gaming consoles. Over the useful life of a console, whether it's $400 or $600 makes no difference when the price of games is $50-70.

The resale value doesn't interest me. I don't buy high end mobile devices nor do I buy into the rip off wireless carrier contracts. I've got better things to waste my money on.

 

[SNGX1275]

Then why are you pointing out the price? Smartphones less than a couple years old are expensive regardless of the manufacturer.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Then why are you pointing out the price? Smartphones less than a couple years old are expensive regardless of the manufacturer.

I'm pointing out the price because unlike other commodities, buying overpriced high end tech is nothing but a mugs game, you can never recoup the outlay. A lot of people convince themselves that they need the best but in actual fact how many really do? It's their prerogative though and they are entitled to spend their money as they see fit.

 

[Guest]

Windowsless room. Good one

 

[Darth Shiv]

I'll admit they do make some fairly decent products but no way are they worth their asking price.
With the release of the 1st iPhone they set the standard for touchscreens but no way are they still the leaders, in fact they are starting to behind their competitors. They're always screaming 'revolutionary' but when was the last time you saw anything revolutionary from them? No sir, they may still be raking it in but they've had their day in the sun.

Compared to Android at least, the polish is still better in most respects. Android touch screen sensitivity and responsiveness is appalling and won't get better without a new API being written and used. It is technically impossible for them to fix the current one to give the UI higher processing preference so they are stuck there.