2024-03-04 01:54:01
The first iPhone was a revolution for the telephone sector when it was launched in 2007. Although the technology they had is already outdated, its launch on the market was so relevant that it can currently be sold from 30,000 euros (there was a case that reached sold for 170,000 euros). What no one expects is that, for its development, they thought of taking inspiration from their great rival: Samsung.
A leaked 2005 email from Steve Jobs, founder and then CEO of Apple, revealed that they initially wanted to be based on the Samsung SGH-E910. That message was part of an internal conversation with former design chief Jony Ive and, although in the end they opted for a different idea, he shows that they wanted to copy the Asian brand.
The detail that Apple wanted to copy from Samsung
Specifically, Jobs mentioned his intentions to implement a numeric keypad, as Samsung had done with its 2005 model. We don’t know why they didn’t end up adding this physical element to the final version of the iPhone, but 461 days before it seemed like an idea that the executive director was determined to maintain.
“We might put the numeric keypad around our click wheel,” Jobs detailed. Of course, we should orient it like a clock, with 3, 6, 9 and * in the purely horizontal and vertical positions […] “We might also orient the keys to make them easier to read from a normal position.”
In case you don’t know what the SGH-E910 looked like, we told you that it stood out precisely because of that orientation defined by Jobs on the numeric keypad. This was a flip phone with a screen, whose main attraction was the layout of the keys.
In case there was any doubt that Jobs was relying on the Samsung model, the subject of the email was: ‘Samsung’s SGH-E910 Bang & Olufsen “fashionphone.”
1709519528
#reveal #Steve #Jobs #wanted #inspired #Samsung #iPhone
