Apple's Jonathan Ive: We nearly ditched the iPhone

The iPhone may well now be the most successful, trailblazing of all smartphones, but did you know it was very nearly canned?

That’s the revelation that Sir Jonathan Ive, senior vice president of Industrial Design at Apple, let loose during a British Business conference held in conjunction with the London 2012 Olympic Games. According to the British design whizz, initially he and Steve Jobs felt there were insurmountable technical challenges to overcome.

“We nearly shelved the phone because we thought there were fundamental problems that we can’t solve,” he said.

“With the early prototypes, I held the phone to my ear and my ear [would] dial the number. You have to detect all sorts of ear-shapes and chin shapes, skin colour and hairdo… that was one of just many examples where we really thought, perhaps this isn’t going to work.

And despite continually hitting ridiculous quarterly revenue results (the company posted quarterly revenue of $35.0 billion and quarterly net profit of $8.8 billion for Q3 2012), Ive insists it’s not all about making money.

“Our goal isn’t to make money,” he said.

“Our goal absolutely at Apple is not to make money. This may sound a little flippant, but it’s the truth. Our goal and what gets us excited is to try to make great products. We trust that if we are successful people will like them, and if we are operationally competent we will make revenue, but we are very clear about our goal.”

Via: Telegraph