In 2005, everyone had a mobile phone, but no mobile phone could play music easily. Simple mobile phones can only make calls. No matter how many functions there are, you can only make your mobile phone very complicated. At that time, it was a physical keyboard, so it was not easy to change the interface. Generally speaking, a mobile phone is not a qualified entertainment device at all, or it is really difficult to play music and videos with a mobile phone. Even if it is done, it must be operated across multiple screens and menus.

1.In 2005, there was no ideal mobile phone for playing music and watching videos.

It all stems from a problem. There is no ideal input method. Hard keyboard typing is good, but sliding is not so good. Theoretically, it is much more convenient to have a sliding screen, but how to realize it at that time is a problem. At that time, the touch screen could not distinguish the pressing gestures of fingers, and they needed an extra stylus. The only way to use a stylus is to use two hands: one hand holds the mobile phone and the other hand plays with the stylus. Nobody wants a music player with two hands. So Apple decided to reinvent the mobile phone.

2. The influence of 2.iPod click wheel on iPhone

At that time, the iPod was very popular. If Apple invents this entertainment mobile phone, it will be the last company on earth. But Apple chose to be an iPod killer instead of letting others end the life of the iPod. Apple has made up its mind to make its own mobile phone and have its own operating system.

The remaining question is how to make it. When Jobs released the iPhone in 2007, he showed an iPod model with a rotary phone dialer instead of a click wheel. Of course, this is just a joke, but it is not far from Apple's original idea of mobile phones. Clickwheel on iPod is a simple and widely accepted way to browse music menus, so why not make a mobile phone in a similar way?

In 2005, Samsung mobile phone X8 10 came out, and it was also input with a similar wheel. Jobs' subordinates didn't like it, but Jobs appreciated the idea after reading it. He later sent an email to his subordinates, saying: This may work. We can put the numbers on our click wheel.

3. The touch screen originally used for iPad Jobs decided to use for iPhone.

Also in 2005, the chief designer Jonathan Ive was working on a multi-finger touch screen technology (note that Apple didn't invent this technology, it was just one of the technology companies that paid attention to it at that time). Initially, the touch screen was to be used on the iPad (the tablet project started in 2003), but at a meeting in 2004, Jobs and his team saw the prototype of the tablet and touch screen and found that "you can click to open the link and display the following content while sliding. And it will automatically bounce back when it reaches the border, which is a very good inertia scroll. " At that time, Jobs thought, "My God, we can make such a mobile phone."

4. Give up the idea of clicking the wheel and make a touch-screen phone.

At this time, the company began to decide to give up the idea of clicking the wheel and turn to a touch-screen mobile phone. Jobs knew it was a big adventure, but the rewards would be huge. If the only interface of a mobile phone is a touch screen, it will be extremely smooth, just like a computer in a pocket.

I named it "purple" because I want to encrypt it extra.

Jobs wanted to make the iPhone extraordinarily confidential, so he named the project "Purple". Forstall, who was in charge of the project at that time, had to introduce: We are going to start a new project. This project is too confidential. I can't tell you what this project is and what you are doing. If you accept this project, you may work overtime, without weekends, or even for years. "

6. Purple R&D team is divided into two teams: hardware and software.

The main task of the software team is to make a brand-new interface that is intuitive and natural. For example, creating a gesture can give you a quick response on your mobile phone. For example, the squeeze and zoom functions already exist, but Apple has added many new ideas of its own. At that time, Forstall found it boring to keep zooming on the screen, so there was a subsequent double-click zoom. This was a technical problem at that time, because it meant that the mobile phone had to know the structure of the file before it could be scaled up, but after it was finally made, Forstall found it much easier to use the mobile phone in this way. For example, when you browse the web, you won't make mistakes, so you can enlarge it at any time.

7. In 2006, I temporarily decided to give up the design of the iPod Mini and use the design of the iPhone today.

In the prototype design exposed this year, there are fat, round glass, flat edges, domes, buttons on them, and even octagons; At that time, Apple also referred to the designs of other companies. For example, Ive, the chief designer at that time, asked, "What would Sony do if it also made an iPhone? Then Apple referred to Sony's smooth aesthetic design at that time. "

In 2006, the year before the iPhone was released, Ive finally chose a design similar to Apple's 2004 iPod Mini-a metal device with a round edge-made of extruded aluminum. The picture below shows another prototype, which is very similar to the iPhone in 2007, but how did you decide to choose the one on the right? Richard Howarth, another designer, wrote to Ive to reflect: I think there are many round edges, and this thing looks too wide. If you move the volume button to one side, it does not meet the aesthetic requirements of purity extrusion.

One morning, Jobs rushed in and announced that he didn't like it, because Jobs also realized that this design squeezed the display screen into the middle, so in the Spring Festival of 2006, just a few months before the release of the iPhone, the team overturned all the previous designs and started over. From their old design drawings, they found an early original drawing. The prototype of this mobile phone is an ordinary rectangular rounded corner. There is only one button in the whole interface, and the whole display accounts for most of the mobile phone. Finally, the prototype design of iPhone was born!