In January 2007, the world witnessed the introduction of a product that would forever change the way we interact with technology: the iPhone. However, what few people know is that This device that Steve Jobs showed to the world It wasn’t entirely functional. Apple had to deploy a number of clever tricks to make the presentation run smoothly, resulting in what many consider to be the best presentation of all time.
The iPhone presented was a prototype
The iPhone was introduced on January 9, 2007. The iPhone surprised us all, however, what we saw at that time It was actually an unfinished prototype.Developing a new product as big as the iPhone with the technology available in 2007 and Apple’s resources at the time was a true miracle.
Developing the hardware and software was equally difficult. Steve Jobs created several teams and finally the winner was led by Scott Forstall. As of the presentation date, of course some parts of the software were workingbut nonetheless the original iPhone was plagued with problems.
Applications were consuming too many resources, causing frequent crashes and unexpected restarts.
In previous tests, there was always something wrong. Moreover, Steve Jobs and his relentless perfectionism did nothing to ease the tension. With his characteristic genius, he took out his frustration on the person responsible for each failure with strong phrases like: “If we fail, it will be your fault.”
How was it possible for everything to work perfectly on stage?
The answer is in what Apple called the “golden path” or “Golden Path.” This term referred to a set of tasks that, if performed in a specific order, would make the iPhone appear to be working perfectly. If you don’t follow this order, an unexpected error could ruin the presentation.
A song or video could play, but only partially; or if you sent an email and then browsed the Internet, everything was fine, but if you did the opposite, the iPhone would crash.
After hundreds of hours of testing and tuning, Apple has identified a specific sequence of tasks which made the phone look fully functional. Steve Jobs, ever the master of the stage, used several iPhones during the presentation, subtly swapping them around to avoid the audience noticing the memory saturation problems that were affecting the devices and leaving them hanging.
Additionally, to ensure seamless connectivity, Apple has entered into an agreement with AT&T so that They will install an antenna in the premises. This antenna was configured in such a way that it could only be used by the iPhones currently on stage, ensuring that the demonstration would not be interrupted by signal issues.
What we all saw was a magical, flawless, revolutionary presentation. The result of a Careful preparation and execution without margin for error. Jobs relentlessly repeated every step, every gesture, every movement, until everything worked perfectly. Creating the illusion that the iPhone was ready to change the world, when in reality it was still a project under construction.
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