Apple's iPhone is without a doubt the most popular smartphone in the entire world, and after learning that Steve Jobs originally planned for the device to launch with two different buttons, we're back with another different story about the early days of this product.
Scott Forstall, former SVP of iOS Software at Apple who left the company about 5 years ago, explained in an interview that Steve Jobs decided to start working on a tablet (which eventually turned into a smartphone) after being annoyed by someone who worked at Microsoft and boasted about new tablets and pens that were in development at the software giant.
The whole thing started when Jobs met with the husband of his wife's friend, with Forstall remembering that every time the two of them met, she would hear how awesome everything was at Microsoft when it came to new devices like tablets.
"It started because Steve hated this guy at Microsoft. Every time Steve had any interaction with the guy, he got on his nerves. He came in on Monday with a series of expletives and then he was like 'let's show you how it's really done,'" Forstall explained.
Steve Jobs wasn't very impressed with the technologies being developed by Microsoft, especially since they used a resistive touchscreen, so he decided to create several prototype tablets with multitouch screens and no pen. Why no pen? Because Steve Jobs hated pens.
Ultimately, Steve Jobs decided to suspend plans for a tablet, but to use all the technology created up to that point for a smartphone.
“Steve saw it and said, ‘Put the tablet on hold, let’s make a phone.’ And that’s exactly what we did,” Forstall explains.
And so Microsoft is more or less responsible for the iPhone, even though the name of the Microsoft guy who was so annoying that Steve Jobs decided to build his own device will never be revealed.
