How Apple Kept the iPhone Secret

An anonymous reader writes "Bogus prototypes, bullying the press, stifling pillow talk — all to keep iPhone under wraps. Fortune's Peter Lewis goes inside one of the year's biggest tech launches. One of the most astonishing things about the new Apple iPhone, introduced yesterday by Steve Jobs at the annual Macworld trade show, is how Apple managed to keep it a secret for nearly two-and-a-half years of development while working with partners like Cingular, Yahoo and Google."

Secret? What secret?

[thegameiam]

Given the absurd numbers of rumours which abounded over the past few months, what is this "secret" of which you speak?

Re:Am I the only one?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, you are.

Re:How to keep something seceret.

[ColdWetDog]

Ha! Apple is nothing!

You don't even know IF my company exists, not to speak of WHAT we're going to produce.

I'm just gonna scrummage around in my closet for my old turtleneck and then watch out!

Actually, It's quite simple...

[Voltar]

Jobs keeps the Apple engineers locked up in the dungeon under Building 7 with little food or water (If someone ask for more, he's sold to Oracle...MS treats their employees too well) until George Lucas shows up and puts his "Window Dressing-No Substance" stamp of approval on the product and recommends Hayden Christenson to be the spokesman for the product *shudder*. Only then does the Marketing Department get wind of the product and start fine-tuning the Reality Distortion Field...er...Job's presentation.

I'm not getting one

[bazorg]

not enough DRM in it.

Re:Not all that's secret

[soft_guy]

Duds currently has a phone with no service - he dials 911 every time he wants to order a pizza.

Operator: "911 - what is the nature of your emergency"
Duds: "I'm starving to death; send over a pizza!"
Operator: "You again!!"

Re:And one of the year's biggest tech launches?

[Anonymous Coward]

We don't know, because there's still THREE HUNDRED FIFTY days left in the year! That's the frigging point.

Re:Not Kept For Very Long

[soft_guy]

Congress should change the laws so that these papers don't become public. FCC regulations should not be allowed interfere with Apple product release secrecy. I hope Steve has called our new house speaker and put this issue into her "first 100 hours" agenda.

Re:And one of the year's biggest tech launches?

[PsyQo]

Apparently somebody hides their secrets an order of magnitude better than Apple. Really - what big tech launches do you expect? Vista been launched, all the "new gen" consoles been launched. What do you expect? Teleportation devices?

Duke Nukem Forever (hey, don't blame me for being an optimist!)

Re:How to keep something seceret.

[necro81]

You don't even know IF my company exists, not to speak of WHAT we're going to produce.

I can top that with a pronoun change. I don't even know if my company exists, let alone what we're producing.

It would be even funnier to me if it weren't actually true.

Re:Agreed

[brendan0powers]

If its anything like the ipod, you can expect 1) An elegant but oversimplified interface 2) You will need a case for it or in a few months it will be so badly scratched its difficult to read 3) The first generation of these phones will have serious defects Also, the long term cost for the phone is enormous. To take full advantage of the phone you will need a Cingular plan, plus an unlimited data plan. All in a 2 year contract. So that 600+(24*100)=$3,000. Thats a price most people are not willing or able to pay. The most the average person can hope for from this phone is that other manufactures will take some of its features for there newer phones.

Re:How sad...

[jzuska]

Wow, this crowd sure is getting crotchety.

Re:And one of the year's biggest tech launches?

[hxnwix]

Talk to me in November and then we can talk year's biggest tech launches.

It's a date. As soon as I awake from that trick or treat sugar coma, I'll call your iPhone from my iPhone...

Re:Agreed

[Captain Splendid]

Cause it looks like an overpriced hunk of junk to me.

By definition, pretty much all current cellphones on the market are overpriced hunks of junk. I mean, what's the RAZR, except for a form factor that would fit into a Nun's vagina?

Re:Secret? What secret?

[JohnnyLocust]

This is how they kept it secret:

http://i6.photobucket.com/albums/y243/johnnylocust /secretiPhone.jpg [photobucket.com]

Re:Agreed

[Anonymous Coward]

Um, $500 and $600. Still a lot, but not $700.

Dude, $500 and $600 is $1100, which is way more than $700.