Writing for the Backchannel, Steven levy published an interview with Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, Phil Schiller, in celebration of the ten years of the iPhone.
Levy began by narrating an interview with Steve Jobs in 2007, shortly after the big introduction to the world. When he asked "Why a cell phone?" Jobs said ironically that he had "studied" and "analyzed the market" and "saw that they could make a lot of money out of it." Then, of course, he denied that "this is not the face of the company." Even though it was just his joke at the time, the product really grew so much that last quarter iPhones revenue was $ 51 billion (75 million units sold), which represented two thirds of the total amount collected by the company. entire.
So Levy's first question to Schiller who has been with the company since 1997 and participated in the development and launch of the iPhone was whether they were aware of how big their new product would become.
Yes, but not on the scale it has become. We knew we were working on something important that was big for Apple and that the world was paving the way for these things in the future. But we don't know how big it would be and we don't know how many things would come from there.
As we now know, what reigns today iDevices only applications made by third party developers; but initially this was not a reality. Schiller said that during the development process, groups split between allowing or allowing third-party applications on the new device. Jobs's opinion prevailed.
Steve Jobs closed the discussion. He said, “We don't have to keep discussing this because we can't have (an open system) now. Maybe we'll change our mind later, or maybe not, but for now not, then let's imagine a world in which we solved the problem with great native apps and a way for developers to make apps on the web. ”
A year after that, the flag of the There's an app for that! by enabling third-party apps on iPhone while maintaining a great pace of innovation. However, it may be that Ma's leap has been so great that in recent years it has been said that there are only minor improvements rather than revolutions. The Apple executive, however, doesn't believe it.
I really think the advances in later versions are as big as the previous ones and sometimes even bigger. I think our expectations are changing more, not the product advances. If you look at each version of iPhone, from original to iPhone 3G, from 4 to 4s, you see great changes in all. You see the screen size change from 3.5 ″ to 4 ″, to 4.7 ″ and 5.5 ″. You see cameras going through amazing changes; from the first camera that could not record videos to having a front and rear camera and now with three cameras support Live Photos and videos in 4K.
Saying the quality of iPhones “unmatched” and with a speech that prefers quality over low prices and “quantity,” Schiller looks to the future with an air of hope. Asked if Apple could do something as big as the iPhone, the executive says that in 50 years people will look back and realize that there really would be "a lot to come."
Thinking about the relevance of a “pocket machine” going forward, the journalist questioned Schiller about Siri and the emergence of an “conversational interface age” that many companies are already advancing. Of course, without losing the almost robotic speech, the Ma executive still says that "Apple does more in conversational interface than any other" and prefers "artificial intelligence that fits in your pocket."
The journalist then reminded Schiller that Amazon's intent with its virtual assistant, Alexa, "is not an interface stuck on one device, but something ambitious and persistent cloud-based that can hear you anywhere." Schiller's response is intriguing, especially given the recent rumors that Apple was doing something similar to Amazon Echo.
People are forgetting the value and importance of screens. Some of the biggest innovations on the iPhone in the last ten years have been on screen. The screens will not disappear. We still like to take pictures and we need to look at them, and an inaccurate voice won't show me what the picture is.
The iPhone has undoubtedly revolutionized the industry as a whole, and it's no wonder that Ma executives defend it tooth and nail.
You can access the full interview in this link.
(via MacRumors)
