
Earlier today I commented about the courtroom drama surrounding the Apple v. Samsung trial currently going on. I. Spoke. Way. Too. Soon.
Senior VP of iOS Software Scott Fortsall literally walked everyone in the courtroom through the inception and creations of iOS and the iPhone. The story begins with Steve Jobs bestowing Forstall with the task of creating a development dream-team, but the members could only be hand-picked from current Apple employees. The team then worked on “Project Purple.” However, Forstall couldn’t even tell the team member candidates what they would be working on while pitching the project to them.
"We're starting another project. It's so secret I cannot tell you what the project is... You are going to have to give up nights and weekends probably for a couple years." — Forstall
The team took one of Apple's Cupertino buildings and locked it down. It started with a single floor with badge readers and cameras. In some cases, even workers on the team would have to show their badges five or six times. — Wired
Interesting enough though, the origin of the iPhone came after Apple had already started work on the iPad.
“I remember sitting with Steve and some others, and we all had cellphones and hated our cellphones,” Forstall said, noting that many of them had flip phones at the time. Apple had already embarked on the iPad project at this point. Forstall and his cohorts wondered, “Could we use the technology we’d been using with touch and use that same technology to build a phone, something that could fit in your pocket, but give it all the same power we were looking at giving the tablet?" — Forstall
Source: Wired
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