{"id":35174,"date":"2022-03-04T16:11:28","date_gmt":"2022-03-04T21:11:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/?p=35174"},"modified":"2022-03-04T16:13:20","modified_gmt":"2022-03-04T21:13:20","slug":"on-the-origin-of-the-iphone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mjtsai.com\/blog\/2022\/03\/04\/on-the-origin-of-the-iphone\/","title":{"rendered":"On the Origin of the iPhone"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Gruber<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Fadell’s story adds up; Businessweek’s description of the embedded Linux project being led by Fadell does not. (Businessweek’s description of Forstall and Fadell as political rivals definitely<\/em> adds up, though. The cutthroat internal politics of Apple under Steve Jobs — strong personalities with large egos — amidst tumultuous technical drama (see timeline below) sounds like the makings for a damn good show like Succession<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

[…]<\/p>\n

Steve Jobs was famously good at picking the winning horse early. A few sources I contacted mentioned missing Jobs’s decisiveness. His good taste is famous, but his faith in his intuition<\/em> was extraordinary too. His decision to back Forstall’s project to use Mac OS X as the basis for the iPhone’s OS was obviously correct, but also was made quickly.<\/p>\n

It’s entirely possible that Facebook’s years-long equivocation over its AR\/VR OS strategy isn’t a sign of indecision on Mark Zuckerberg’s part, per se, but rather an indicator of an industry-wide trend. A fear of shutting ideas down. That every idea should be explored in depth — why not, with so much money available to spend? FOMO, at the level of giant corporations, with trillion-dollar stakes.<\/p>\n

But the “bake-off” period at Apple for the iPhone’s OS lasted only a few months and involved, at most, a few dozen engineers and designers. According to The Information, Facebook’s XROS project lasted over four years<\/em> and involved over 300 employees by the time it was shuttered in November. It is interesting to compare the two bake-offs, but only insofar as how differently<\/em> they were conducted.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

He has a good timeline, beginning with the Motorola Rokr.<\/p>\n\n

Ken Kocienda<\/a>:<\/p>\n

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This is the iPhone software development environment in February 2006. The software itself was in a similar state—a lot of duct tape and chicken wire. Yet, with much hard work, we were ready to announce less than a year later.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n

See also: The Talk Show<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

Previously:<\/p>\n