Skip to footer

Steve Jobs had a hand in next two generations of iPhone: report

Apple co-founder and former CEO Steve Jobs, who passed away in 2011, may have had a more active role in the development of the iPhone line than previously thought. 

|
Reuters
An Apple logo is seen at an Apple store in Pudong, the financial district of Shanghai, in this 2012 file photograph. A new Apple iPhone, probably dubbed the iPhone 5S, could arrive as soon as late summer.
  • By Matthew Shaer

Later this year, Apple will unveil a new iPhone, likely dubbed the iPhone 5S. 

That much is not a surprise. But this is: According to Michael Foulkes, a government liaison for Apple, the next two generations of Apple smart phones were developed before current Apple CEO Tim Cook took the reins of the Cupertino company. In other words, if Mr. Foulkes is correct, former CEO Steve Jobs, who died in 2011, had a hand not only in the design of the iPhone 5, but also the iPhone 5S and whatever device will come after the iPhone 5S. 

Foulkes made his comments during a conversation with San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón about how to reduce the number of thefts in the Bay Area, the San Francisco Examiner reports. Mr. Gascón wants phone manufacturers, such as Apple, to include a switch that deactivates a smart phone if it is stolen; he later called the talk with Foulkes unproductive and "very underwhelming." 

Meanwhile, the rest of us got some pretty interesting insight into how things work at Apple HQ. 

Planning well in advance, of course, is de rigueur for tech companies – Google probably has the next few Nexus phones mapped out. But as Adario Strange of PC Mag notes, Foulkes's comments "will likely cause some to reconsider the notion that the company has lost its magical luster under the direction of Tim Cook." It may also sooth shareholder worries, at least for the short-term, that Jobs's magical touch is altogether gone from Apple. 

In related news, the Wall Street Journal reports today that Apple will soon begin production on the next flagship smart phone, thus setting the stage for a summer or fall launch. The WSJ says the device will be the same "size and shape [as the] current one" – further evidence that this will be an iPhone 5S, and not a radically overhauled iPhone 6. 

For more tech news, follow us on Twitter @venturenaut.

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.
editor@csmonitor.com
Subscribe
Mark Sappenfield
Editor

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

Subscribe to insightful journalism

QR Code to Steve Jobs had a hand in next two generations of iPhone: report
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Technology/2013/0402/Steve-Jobs-had-a-hand-in-next-two-generations-of-iPhone-report
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe