The iPad originates from this Steve Jobs request: A piece of glass to read emails in the toilet

” I want a piece of glass I can use to read emails in the toilet.”

That’s exactly what the former Apple CEO told iPad development engineers at the beginning – Imran Chaudhri, a veteran who worked at Apple for 21 years, is now chairman and director. by Humane. Chaudhri revealed this in response to a recent article about the origin of the iPad in the New York Times.

The article Chaudhri commented on contained content about technology over the past decade. Part of the article featured reporter Brian X. Chen interviewing Apple Phil Schiller and former Wall Street correspondent Walt Mossberg.

In the article, Schiller talked about how Steve Jobs’ desire to have a $ 499 computer led to the introduction of an iPad with a minimalist design. Everything happened before the iPhone came out. Apple decided to eliminate expensive components, such as keyboards and clamshell designs, switch to typing directly on the screen, and then the creation of multitouch.

Chaudhri continued the story by telling how a group of Apple engineers had created a prototype for multi-touch technology. “You must give you something that can be sold,” Jobs said. So engineers have to think about many options, including integrating multi-touch on a Mac-based tablet, but the finished product will be very expensive.

After exploring a few other options, they finally created the iPad concept we have today. Chaudhri wrote, ” Steve really brought his glasses to read emails in the toilet. We all did that.”

Steve Jobs and iPad

One of the most intriguing parts of the story is that it describes in detail the changes in Steve Jobs’ attitude at Apple. In the early 1980s, Jobs argued with the Macintosh project founder, Jef Raskin, about the direction of the project. Raskin wants to start with a cheap product, and develop the best computer possible for that price. Jobs wanted to develop something with as high a profile as possible, the price didn’t matter.

Jobs continued to follow that path at NeXT: NeXT Computer computers he created for the education market, but too expensive for the market itself.

By the time he returned to Apple in the late 1990s, Jobs’s direction changed. He wants Apple to create compelling technologies at affordable prices. If not in this direction, perhaps today we will not have iPhone and iPad to use.

Reference: CultofMac