The forgotten story of the original iPhone, released in 1998

Brian McCullough, writing for InternetHistoryPodcast.com:

Aside from the naming similarities, though, InfoGear’s iPhone would have plenty of other eerie similarities to Apple’s later device, both philosophically and technically.

For one thing, just as in Steve Job’s famous mantra, the InfoGear iPhone was designed to do three core things (phone calls, email and light web browsing) but to do them well. And from the very beginning, there was an almost Apple-like obsession with simplicity and ease of use. Interested in presenting an approachable, consumer-friendly image, InfoGear hired Frog Design, famous for the previous industrial design of various Apple and Mac computers.

I remember this product. Interesting that it was called the iPhone and did the big three: email, web, and phone. Fun read.



3 thoughts on “The forgotten story of the original iPhone, released in 1998”

  1. The Frog Design work makes me think someone had seen Apple’s Knowledge Navigator concept video.

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