Apple’s Secret iPhone Launch Team: The Event That Began It All

As Tim Cook and Apple launch the iPhone 8 and the iPhone X, the story of Steve Jobs’ original vision is told through exclusive interviews with former Apple executives Scott Forstall, Tony Fadell and Greg Christie. Together they made up the secret Project Purple team and created one of the best-selling products ever.



More from the Wall Street Journal:

[aslye]

That keyboard developer is the hero we don’t deserve. Great video! Super interesting.

[patrik]

It's kinda sad how the designer/engineer who made the touch keyboard everybody uses everyday on every mobile OS is referenced as "one guy"

[mohitbhatiah]

FYI, Ken Kocienda is that "one guy" who came up with the keyboard AI 5:52

[ThompterSHunson]

All hail the keyboard guy! Changed the world, single-handed.

[ginito]

Love them or hate them, Apple DID change the world.

[StBatu]

And I used to think I was just very good at hitting those keys.
Killer idea.

[consumeboxing]

@ 5:50 "One guy came in..." didn't even mention his name for building a significant piece of tech to what we use today in our mobile devices. Dude nailed the concept of it too.

[CraigRoccanova]

I worked at an Apple Retail store and was there for the opening day launch on June 29th 2007. We got a thick packet of stapled print outs explaining how the iPhone worked about 2 days before it went on sale. The day it launched, we got to see the phone for the first time and hold it for the very first time, just one hour before it went on sale to the customers who lined up for a day. It was a crazy cool time to be a 19 year old kid. Great video!

[andrewwiq]

I've always been very interested in how they did the keyboard with the transparent hit region. That technique blew me away.

[AliAljoubory]

I want to know the name of the person who developed that AI keyboard for the first iPhone OS. Utterly incredible work it's pure genius.

[JohnnyRei]

I bet Tim Cook isn't going around saying: "Not good enough" or "You have 2 weeks or I'll have to give this to another department".

[Teejaye]

Apple has had some of the best hardware & software people we have seen in the last 20-30 years. They are geniuses at solving problems and making products work well.

[naifalharthi]

Wish Jony Ive was in video to share his part of the story

[thehandleiwantedwasntavailable]

This gadget, when it launched, was the only time in my life a gadget blew me away. And I proudly queued for 6 hours to get one.

[zarndt]

“What would cannibalize the iPod sales”. The iPhone.

[ekklesiaillusion]

As much as I perfer android and Samsung phones (have since day 1)..
There is no denying this was one of the groundbreaking products of the decade. By far. It single handedly created an entire market and product line that is worth billions now.

Everyone has their preference - but you have to give credit when its due.

[KerrieRedgate]

Sure, Steve Jobs would have been difficult and demanding. But that’s what visionaries are for. It can be enormously frustrating to have brilliant visions and then have to rely on other technicians to make those visions a reality. If Jobs hadn’t been so tough, Apple products would never have been able to democratise creativity and productivity for the rest of us. The pressure to build that first iPhone would have been tremendous. Kudos to the teams who made that happen! Thank you, guys!

[piyushsohal]

So that is the effing reason iOS keyboard is so good to type on. Kudos to the developer who worked on it.

[jordan]

@6:15 The keyboard solution is such a beautiful idea wow!

[AliAljoubory]

Man it's stories like this that get me buzzing as an iOS Developer about software and UI. This is the kind of stuff I wanna tell my kids 10, 20 years down the line. So inspiring.