The iPhone Was Nearly Canned Altogether According to Sir Jonathan Ive

[Maura]

During an appearance in London this week, Apple’s Sir Jonathan Ive has been talking about how the iPhone was almost scrapped by Apple “multiple times.” The Daily Telegraph reports that Sir Jonathan, who was talking at a British Business conference tied in with the Olympic Games, said that there were certain problems with the initial iPhone’s design that Apple could not, at the time, see a way around.

“We nearly shelved the phone because we thought there were fundamental problems that we can’t solve,” he told the conference. “With the early prototypes, I held the phone to my ear and my ear [would] dial the number. You have to detect all sorts of ear-shapes and chin shapes, skin colour and hairdo…that was one of just many examples where we really thought, perhaps this isn’t going to work.”

In the end it did work, quite well, it would seem (cough), and Apple has now gone on to sell nearly 250 million iPhones since the 2007 launch.

Source:
Apple design chief Sir Jonathan Ive: iPhone was 'nearly axed' - Telegraph