However, Jobs didn't believe that the iPhone was a wise investment from Apple in the first place. In The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone, Motherboard Senior Editor Brian McCarter (Brian) Merchant) elaborated on the birth of the iPhone and revealed to the outside world that Jobs, one of the most savvy corporate executives, needs someone to help make the right decisions.
In an interview with CNBC last year, McCarter said: 'Steve Jobs is the source of inspiration, the caregiver of good ideas, the rejection of bad ideas, the savvy and persuasive negotiator, but the original iPhone is just a test The project, Jobs was not informed, and under his impetus, he became an official project of Apple, developed by a team of software and hardware engineers.
Jobs asked Scott Forstall, who later developed the iPhone operating system, to select team members for the newly formed mobile project from the company's employees.
McCarter said that Jobs blatantly resisted Apple's idea of developing a mobile phone, because like many other Apple engineers and executives, he thought the phone was ' rotten.'
He wrote in the book, 'Steve Jobs said in 2005, 'The problem with mobile phones is that we don’t have channels to sell products to end users. 'He refers to 'channels', referring to mobile operators such as Verizon and AT&T. The final decision on which mobile phone can access their network.'
McCarter said that his interview showed that Jobs did not believe that the new smartphone could become a big market. He doubted whether the smartphone would be like a 'pen clip'. McCarty said, 'This is a fair Evaluation, early smartphones are either for geeks or for professionals who love email. '
In the end, Jobs chose to trust the team of the pilot project, but after seeing the interface that was intuitive and exciting for the average user, he recognized the idea that Apple should be involved in the mobile phone market.
McCarty said that the iPhone's revolutionary multi-touch display was born in the trial of Apple's internal team, and even Jobs didn't know it at first. Until the feeling was good enough, the iPhone team showed it to Jobs.
In a book, McCarter quoted senior iPhone engineer Andy Grignon as saying, 'The management team tried to convince Jobs that it was a great idea for Apple to produce a mobile phone, but he didn’t See the possibility of success. '
Some media reports said that Michael Bell, Apple's vice president, sent an email to Jobs late on November 7, 2004, explaining in detail why Apple should produce a mobile phone. Jobs immediately called Bell and passed. After hours of debate, Jobs’s attitude softened.
When the trend of smartphones becoming an iPod music player competitor is becoming more and more obvious, Jobs has really changed his mind, 'Okay, I think we should be smart phones'.
Griegon later became the first person to receive an iPhone call.
McCarter said that for Jobs, 'the problem is never trust, but the risk of entering the market is worthwhile.'