President Obama Had a Sneak Peek at the First iPhone Before it Was Released

[Maura]

9to5 Mac reports today on a new anecdote about a meeting between President Obama and Steve Jobs that surfaced in the forthcoming book Believer by President Barack Obama’s chief campaign advisor David Axelrod. Here’s what Axelrod had to say about the meeting:

“In 2007, Obama got a sneak peek at the iPhone during a private meeting with Apple’s Steve Jobs. ‘If it were legal, I would buy a boatload of Apple stock. This thing is going to be really big,’ Obama said after the meeting.”

So it seems that President Obama knew a good thing when he saw it, unlike Microsoft’s then-CEO Steve Ballmer, who was slightly more scathing in one of his famed rants, as 9to5 Mac gleefully reminds us!

In contrast, just like Obama, Google’s Andy Rubin apparently knew exactly what a phenomenon the iPhone would be when he decided to change Android strategy completely immediately after watching a webcast of the first iPhone presentation.

Source: Obama after sneak peek at original iPhone 8216 If it were legal I would buy a boatload of Apple stock. This thing is going to be really big 8217 9to5Mac