The original iPhone, introduced by Steve Jobs in January 2007, features a 3.5-inch plastic screen. Not many people remember that due to the fact that the device launched in June of the same year has a glass screen.
You may be surprised to learn that the iPhone in Steve Jobs' hands is now using a plastic screen. Photo: MacWorld
The change was gently mentioned by Apple in a press release released just 11 days before the iPhone hit shelves. What happened in just a few short months to bring about this change has made many people extremely wondering until Jeff Williams, Apple's chief operating officer, revealed the truth.
Steve Jobs, the late CEO of Apple. Photo: BI
According to Jeff Williams, shortly after Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone to the public on the stage, Jobs complained to him about the scratches that appeared on the screen of the device after he put it in his pocket.
Jeff Williams is currently responsible for both Apple's hardware and software design issues after Jony Ive left. Photo: FT
'We need glasses,' Jobs said. For his part, Mr. Williams opposes this idea because he thinks that really durable glass may take 3 to 4 years to develop. 'No, I don't understand, when the iPhone went on sale in June, it needed glasses,' Jobs repeated. 'I don't know what we're going to do but when we go on sale in June, we definitely have to use glasses.'
iPhone has changed dramatically since day one. Photo: BI
Two days later, Williams received a call from Wendell Weeks, CEO Corning. 'Your boss called me and said our glasses were so bad,' Weeks said, according to Williams. Weeks then suggested that Apple could use the technology 'still in the process of research and development'. In the weeks that followed, the Apple and Corning teams really worked hard to make this technology work. As a result, the iPhone was one of the first phones with a scratch-resistant screen that later became the famous Gorilla Glass.