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Steve Jobs Confirms iPad-Like Tablet Concept Preceded iPhone

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One of the tidbits picked up from Apple CEO Steve Jobs' appearance at the All Things Digital conference tonight was his confirmation that the iPad actually preceded the iPhone, beginning life as a multi-touch tablet project before Jobs realized that it would make an ideal interface for a mobile phone. As related by the Associated Press:
Jobs says he had the idea to ditch the keyboard for what he calls a multi-touch display in the early 2000s, although the company was working on a telephone at the time. That's when a prototype came to him that used the device's now-famous scrolling mechanism.

"I thought, 'My God we can build a phone out of this.'"
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The revelation seems to be coming as a surprise to many observers, but those who have followed Apple's work for some time may remember that this piece of information has been shared before.

The first hint of it came in a January 2008 Wired article profiling the history of the iPhone, although little detail about the actual evolution of the iPhone from the iPad-like tablet was given.
Jobs had reason to be confident. Apple's hardware engineers had spent about a year working on touchscreen technology for a tablet PC and had convinced him that they could build a similar interface for a phone.
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Two months later, The New York Times added some additional color to the tablet-iPhone relationship, revealing that the tablet had been internally codenamed "Safari Pad" and confirming that it had been repurposed for use in the iPhone.
Apple's multitouch technology began life not as a cellphone, but as a notepad-sized skunkworks project internally dubbed Safari Pad, run by Tim Bucher, then Apple's head of Macintosh hardware. To his credit, Mr. Jobs seized on the technology and morphed it into the iPhone.
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In today's interview, Jobs noted that he directed his engineers to pursue the mobile phone angle for a multi-touch device over the tablet form factor because the mobile phone market was the more important one to tackle at the time. Once Apple built some momentum with iPhone OS through the iPhone and iPod touch, it was able to take the tablet concept back off the shelf and turn it into the iPad.

Article Link: Steve Jobs Confirms iPad-Like Tablet Concept Preceded iPhone
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2010/06/02/steve-jobs-confirms-ipad-like-tablet-concept-preceded-iphone/
Strange that it took years after the iPhone was out for the iPad to finally come out and IMHO the current iPad is more like the first iPhone rather than a final product like the iPhone 4G will be.
 
It would have been interesting if they considered applying the scroll wheel to a phone. But I guess when you're Apple you have to look way into the future and guess what the market will be like in terms of product, then try to beat everyone to it.
 
DipDog3 said:
Strange that it took years after the iPhone was out for the iPad to finally come out and IMHO the current iPad is more like the first iPhone rather than a final product like the iPhone 4G will be.
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The tablet market is much smaller than the phone market at this time.
 
Curious to his thought processes exactly?

The flick to scroll ability made him think of a phone?

I guess with the blackberries and trios at the time and their actual scrollwheels and trackball thingies - I could seem him hating the idea of that physical interface part of a phone...since we know he hated the idea of a multi-button mouse long ago.
 
Burnsey said:
It would have been interesting if they considered applying the scroll wheel to a phone. But I guess when you're Apple you have to look way into the future and guess what the market will be like in terms of product, then try to beat everyone to it.
Click to expand...
If I recall correctly, some of their patent applications from several years ago had scroll wheels in the drawings.

Based on the iPod's success, they probably prototyped phone designs with a scroll wheel, only to eventually reject them.
 
What I want to know is where to get those kick ass Ipads they've been using on CSI:NY the last couple of years!
 
cvaldes said:
If I recall correctly, some of their patent applications from several years ago had scroll wheels in the drawings.

Based on the iPod's success, they probably prototyped phone designs with a scroll wheel, only to eventually reject them.
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Now that would be a cool prototype to steal, I mean to find in a bar.
Although, I bet they never left the campus for field testing, since they would suck so badly.
 
Sorry, I don't believe the iPad came before the iPhone. Lol. Apple made the phone first, saw it was a HUGE HIT and after that, decided to make a bigger version of it and call it a tablet.

Say or link to whatever you want. This is how it worked in my mind. You don't start with a tablet and end up with an iPhone.
 
Well it makes sense. If the iPad was before the iPhone then it would have been harder to sell. Many people consider it a restricted operating system and would rather have had full OS X. Since the iPhone was first it introduces the iPhone OS since running full OS X on it is stupid. Now that people are used to the iPhone OS they will like the iPad more.
 
Finally from the horses mouth!

At least now we can deal with the dreamers who thought that tablets are just a recent thing at Apple. The other thing with the timing here is that all the right tech came together to make the iPad the performance machine it is now.

The hardware tech here is important because without the ARM cores A4 SOC with that powerful GPU and the IPS screen, iPad would have been a different animal, if it had debuted three or four years ago. Even the tech in the battery is impressive.

What I'm saying is that the same OS, delivered on hardware available four years ago might not have been the run away success that the iPad is today. It isn't just the OS and app store that makes iPad so compelling.

As a side note I just saw information on an ARM A9 based design running on an advanced 28nm process that is offering up a 40% boost in performance at a given power level over othe A9 based designs. It really looks like a bright future for ARM based devices. More importantly Apple will have many resources to draw from to power future generations of iPads. There should be little doubt that much faster iPads are coming.

Dave
 
They made the right move to go with the phone first that's for sure. Got people used to how it works and now iPad are selling crazy!
 
Kuges said:
Well, duh, it was called the Newton!
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Which probably was on the order of a billion dollar loss for Apple.

That might give them cold feet for the better part of a decade (when technology would finally catch up with the requirements for a reasonable mass-marketable product).
 
AbSoluTc said:
Sorry, I don't believe the iPad came before the iPhone. Lol. Apple made the phone first, saw it was a HUGE HIT and after that, decided to make a bigger version of it and call it a tablet.

Say or link to whatever you want. This is how it worked in my mind. You don't start with a tablet and end up with an iPhone.
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Which is why you're mind isn't in charge of a billion dollar company.
 
Absolutely unbelievable, the CEO himself is laying out the facts here.

AbSoluTc said:
Sorry, I don't believe the iPad came before the iPhone. Lol. Apple made the phone first, saw it was a HUGE HIT and after that, decided to make a bigger version of it and call it a tablet.
Click to expand...
Laugh out loud all you want but this is only confirmation of rumors that have circulated well before this event. What you have to realize though is that in the early 2000's this tablet was not iPad but rather engineering prototypes and proof of concepts.

If you don't believe this consider the SDK and explain all the functionality in there that isn't needed on an iPhone.
Say or link to whatever you want. This is how it worked in my mind.
Click to expand...
If you are so dense as to put into writting the above statement then I really feel sorry for you. There has been plenty of hearsay that the iPhone GUI originally came from a tablet project, the CEO is just confirming this directly.
You don't start with a tablet and end up with an iPhone.
Click to expand...

You have no idea what it is to create something new do you?

Dave
 
DipDog3 said:
Strange that it took years after the iPhone was out for the iPad to finally come out and IMHO the current iPad is more like the first iPhone rather than a final product like the iPhone 4G will be.
Click to expand...

There's nothing strange about it at all. The phone market was [and still is] much bigger and being terribly badly served at the time Apple released the iPhone. It was a complete no brainer. The result was that every phone maker had to up several gears instead of churning out garbage.

The iPad does have the capacity to cannibalise a portion of the iPhone market, as well as stealing some of the limelight. But with the iPhone well established, a series of updates to the models having generated massive interest, a respectable market share and very very healthy revenues, it's now time for a new baby.

It's true that the 4th generation iPhone is going to be the phone we would have liked upon release, and many will argue we should have had, but what Apple know is that we'll buy a lesser equipped Apple product rather than one from Nokia etc. But all that extra spec would have cost more. So, why kill three years of profits and impose an artificial development ceiling?

It will be the same for the iPad. In three to five years time, the iPad will have a terabyte of storage, and run five times as fast... for less or the same money.

There will be a market for every model for all that time.
 
That confirms it, I am a genius. Well, that would look a little better if I had posted it here when I said that the iPad isn't a big iPhone/iPod Touch, the iPhone/Touch is a small iPad. Now I see that I am right. The iPhone OS interface was meant for the iPad. Thanks for having my back, Steve.


What do you know, I did say it:

MacPhilosopher said:
In this case, size is everything. My impression of the iPad after using it for a few hours was that the multitouch os was really designed for the iPad. I started saying the ipod touch is a small iPad.
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https://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?p=9972646&#post9972646

Ego...growing out of control...must realize others have also said this....ego shrinking...
 
wizard said:
Laugh out loud all you want but this is only confirmation of rumors that have circulated well before this event. What you have to realize though is that in the early 2000's this tablet was not iPad but rather engineering prototypes and proof of concepts.

If you don't believe this consider the SDK and explain all the functionality in there that isn't needed on an iPhone.

If you are so dense as to put into writting the above statement then I really feel sorry for you. There has been plenty of hearsay that the iPhone GUI originally came from a tablet project, the CEO is just confirming this directly.


You have no idea what it is to create something new do you?

Dave
Click to expand...


You really don't need to get all hurt now. Unless you work for Apple and need to. I was just posting. If it's true, great. If it's not, so what. I can "theorize" and post my opinion just like everyone else. Even if it might be wrong or headed down a deep dark hole. It's still my opinion :)

I think the iPhone matured the arena for the iPad. Not really sure which came "first", but without the iPhone, the iPad probably would not be where it is now.
 
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