How the iPhone was invented (and shelved) in 1994

#startups #slidebean #GeneralMagic

Would you like to make history? Most of you will say yes.
But, there's a catch: when you do, no one will remember you. Those who do will look back at you as a failure.
So, I ask again: would you like to make history? Well, that's what General Magic did.
Its story is one of the most important in Silicon Valley. But, chances are, you've never heard of it.
So, let's look at how visionaries wanted to change the world and did. Just not the way they intended. Let's talk about General Magic in this episode of Company Forensics.

0:00 General Magic - Intro
0:53 General Magic - Origins
2:05 General Magic - The mysticism behind General Magic
2:59 General Magic - The product?
3:53 General Magic - Things get serious
4:23 General Magic - The first dagger
5:35 General Magic - The pressure is on
6:51 General Magic - The going gets rough
8:16 General Magic -The release
9:19 General Magic - The end of the magic

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Follow Caya:

[djshockafrica]

My favourite part is the ending, all the amazing brands that started up from people who used to be at General Magic.

[hewhohasnoidentity]

Not gonna lie. You can't fault the engineers on this one. The technology just wasn't ready for the form factor.

The executive Rolodex was an all around better device.

[firstnamesecondname]

General Magic reminds me of the tv series Halt and Catch Fire, such a shame it ended at season 4

[und]

"General Magic" sounds like some kind of magician sheriff TV show

[KangJangkrik]

"Magic is just an unknown science"
-- My Physics Teacher

So... yea it's generally magic (a.k.a never be known)

[qubex]

I had a Sony MagicLink back in ‘96. I was amazed by its functionality, I was a high schooler and it was an absolute marvel for the late nineties.

[Nedwin]

I love the story, especially the vibe that came up without 'John Sculley vs Steve Jobs' thing where many people always talk about. Thanks for sharing Caya. ❤️

[Burbie]

They had a great idea that was too great for its time, so great they just focused on the idea and couldn't implement it

[moulikshrivastava]

General Magic Mafia > PayPal Mafia?

[jackkraken]

General Magic a company you probably didn't know of.
Me:(watched LGR video, and multiple demo videos of their products and even a podcast):"Nope never heard of them."

[lboston]

@11:10 quicktime player oh god the nostalgia, thank you Mr. Perlman

[ruekurei]

Doesn’t seem like the precursor to the smartphone, it seems like the precursor to the PDA, except the first PDA came out in the 80’s. Even then, the 90’s PDAs made it a point to incorporate the internet heavily into their design when it was getting bigger and Newton belly flopped. But it seems this company was software based and it was licensing it software to hardware companies, so they’re analogous to Google via Android?
But I guess the PDA was a precursor to smartphones and I think it was coined by Apple when they did Newton too.

[imagine]

So this was just Quibi of the 1990s. Bunch of “tech geniuses” that thought they knew everything that people wanted but really just failed to deliver on the most basic things. No Internet in a device in 1994 is utterly ridiculous. 1994 was when huge companies like Pizza Hut, etc would advertise their website on the commercials!

[md.abdullaalwailykhanchowd]

Apple used General Magic as their IBM research facility.
Not a bad idea, but not a good business model.

[lectn]

The Apple Newton Message Pad was *NOT* the iPhone or even the original iPod…by ANY STRETCH OF THE MEANS…the first ever embodiment of what we’d consider to be a _SmartPhone_ combining the features of a PDA with a Cell Phone was actually the _IBM Simon_ it was released in August of 1994, with a Gameboy type monochromatic peagreen display, was capable of phone calls, fax reception, they did *NOT* have an onboard digital camera. they were sold by _Bell South_ and cost $1100 w/ no contract. I’m from New England & was involved with the inspection of Inmarsat-M Satellite Telephone Systems (the _M_ in this instance standing for _Maritime_ or _Marine, _ not Mobile) so I genuinely didn’t see these new… then years later came like the _Handspring Visor_ which had an expansion bus & expansion hardware that could give it cell phone usability, like if you watch the Mary Kate & Ashley film _New York Minute_ it shows Ashley Olsen’s character with a PDA equipped with Cellular Phone Expansion Hardware, after that came _Blackberry_ after _Blackberry_ was Touch Screens which is where we are today

[mamleshbohari]

Really admire such people who can envision a game changing product years before it turns a reality

[olufemidavies]

The ending part showing the legacy of the people who worked there was quite inspiring

[microMobilidade]

I heard a legend about Bell Labs. It was like a makerspace on steroids, build and design anything even if its not of current use as patents can be attained and later on these could be solutions to new problems.
If general magic was kept as an idea office it would essentially be Google’s 2% project where you can work on anything you want and the company looks into it

[william_]

Why does this company remind me of a secretive company that Google was invested, it was a virtual 3D company of some sort, I think it was called Magic Leap

[CC-kgvs]

Love these company forensics videos. Just bought a vintage apple Newton hat off eBay 🍾