How Jobs Played Hardball In iPhone Birth

Carl Bialik from WSJ writes "Apple bucked the rules of the cellphone industry when creating the iPhone by wresting control away from normally powerful wireless carriers, the Wall Street Journal reports. From the article: 'Only three executives at the carrier, which is now the wireless unit of AT&T Inc., got to see the iPhone before it was announced. Cingular agreed to leave its brand off the body of the phone. Upsetting some Cingular insiders, it also abandoned its usual insistence that phone makers carry its software for Web surfing, ringtones and other services... Mr. Jobs once referred to telecom operators as "orifices" that other companies, including phone makers, must go through to reach consumers. While meeting with Cingular and other wireless operators he often reminded them of his view, dismissing them as commodities and telling them that they would never understand the Web and entertainment industry the way Apple did, a person familiar with the talks says.'"

Re:Before we over analyze this....

[twostar]

but we've already got iPhone Killers [zdnet.com] out there!

iPhone

[BGatesFan]

The iPhone is a joke until it runs Windows Vista Mobile Premium, with Aero enabled holographic projector with 3D holo-conferencing. I'll hold out for the dellPhone.

I knew it!

[CrimsonScythe]

Steve Jobs really is a badass! I played hardball once in high school; broke my leg, three ribs, and four fingers. I hope the engineers weren't too severly hurt...

Re:Here we go again

[Alien Being]

There's nothing funny about it. Jobs was simply pointing out a hole in their business plan. Cingular was flexing its ring muscle and Jobs rectified the situation. Although I think he was being too anal about removing the logo, market penetration is key. He wants this product to succeed not only in the US, but in Europe and across the entire Pacific rim.

Jobs to Cingular: Stick to your knitting!

[Namarrgon]

"You phone companies don't know nuthin' about proper phones, not like Apple does."

Odd

[king-manic]

Ken Kutaragi: Our product is so good we want the whole industry to bend over backwards, kiss our ass, then take a good old anal reaming and for our customers to pay $600 for our product.
Slashdot: Arrogant asshole.

Steve Jobs: Our product is so good we want the whole industry to bend over backwards, kiss our ass, then take a good old anal reaming and for our customers to pay $600 for our product.
Slashdot: OMG!!1! you are such a massive visionary. please come here and ream me right now.

Re:Steve Jobs is WRONG!

[pinkstuff]

An even better word: Sex.

Rumours

[hack slash]

Is it true that the iPhone will only have 1 button?

Re:Reality Disortion Field spreading

[SuperKendall]

Well, a 'good' user interface is very subjective, and even OSX has many carry over design flaws that were good in the 80s but are quite outdated today, yet Apple still sells the concepts as 'easy' or the 'best'. Take the Menu bar, and how many users just don't get the 'multi-application' usage concept because the flipping bar confuses them, so they close and flip between applications.

Translation -" I know nothing about UI design, and are pleased to advertised the level of my ignorance."

You also seem to have left out Windows Mobile in your list of companies that you seem to think don't know how to make a user interface. People can hate Windows concepts and MS, sure, but MS spends a lot of money with real people to ensure their crap is easy to use.

Translaton - " I have no imaginaton that an interface could actually be better than Windows crammed into a tiny screen. "It was good enough for granpa, it's good enough for me!""

Oh, and Windows Mobile has been around for quite a while now, and with 6.0 pushes the envelope of mobile usage and connectivity far beyond anything Apple has promised for the iPhone.

Translation - "6.0 offers a lot of cool advanced features, which people have already been using for some time via third party add-ons because it takes so long for Microsoft to design a good UI. I will acknowledge Visual Voicemail as a cool feature when Microsoft supports it in Windows Mobile 9.0"

It is people like you that forget the rest of us have been using Windows Mobile and even Motorola 'user interfaces' on our phones for SEVERAL years, playing our music, using our bluetooth, playing our movies, and also accessing the internet at near DSL speeds, with the latter being something the iPhone can't even do.

Translation - "The "Rest of Us" is .03% of the whole phone market, but we are so uber cool because we know how to pair devices that no-one else matters and therefore do not exist"

If Apple is the God of user interfaces, then why do they continue to copy good ideas and try to promote them as their own, you know like the iPod?

Translation - "I did not realize the iPhone had a totally different interface than the iPhone, and to me multi-touch is what I do at home in bed with my Windows Mobile device".

If Apple is the God of user interfaces and that is what you see as them doing well, why don't they actually create a new user interface paradigm, yet the new concepts for UI come from the OSS world and even MS. Remember this the next time you drag and drop text in a document, MS did it first.

Translation - "I am annoyed that Apple not only copies UI elements but improves on them, so I will prtend they are UI pirates and bring nothing to the table."

Re:Steve Jobs is WRONG!

[Marcos Eliziario]

An even better better word: Money
You can get it by having a monopoly, and after you have, you can have as much Sex as you want.

Re:Steve Jobs is WRONG!

[nametaken]

A more realistic word: Porn.

Re:On a general level...

[MrNiceguy_KS]

If fairplay got licensed to the zune. No one would care.

Not true. Two Zune owners would be thrilled. The other one thinks he's got a brown cell phone with really crappy reception.