Apple’s Steve Jobs turned the cellphone industry rule book on its head while negotiating a deal with wireless carrier Cingular.
For one, only three executives at Cingular got to see the phone, and then only after a deal had been struck. Secondly, the phone will carry no Cingular branding on the inside or outside and will only be available direct from Apple and Cingular (no 3rd party phone stores etc).
The iPhone was also developed under unprecedented secrecy, with network technicians having to test a dummy phone, that by the sounds of it only had the phone’s electronics in it and no case.
While all this is perhaps unsurprising, it still makes for fascinating reading, and you can get the whole skinny from the Wall Street Journal here.
Way to go his Steveness!