The iPhone Wasn’t the First Touchscreen Phone: How Steve Jobs Mastered the Art of Stealing Great Ideas
In the collective memory of technology, the iPhone’s launch in 2007 stands as a seismic event. With Steve Jobs on stage, unveiling a device that seemed to transform not just the phone industry but our very relationship with technology, it’s no wonder so many people view the iPhone as the birth of the modern smartphone. Yet, the reality is far more nuanced—and, in many ways, far more fascinating.
A Revolution That Wasn’t Entirely New
When Apple announced the iPhone, it was instantly hailed as revolutionary. Its glass touchscreen, absence of a physical keyboard, and the promise of an all-in-one device—phone, iPod, internet communicator—appeared unprecedented. However, as Vauhini Vara points out in her book, Searches: Selfhood in the Digital Age, the iPhone was not born in a vacuum. Instead, it was the latest iteration in a long line of innovations, combining and refining concepts that had existed for decades.
Steve Jobs himself was never shy about the origins of Apple’s ideas. Famously, he quoted Picasso: “Good artists copy, great artists steal. And we have always been shameless about stealing great ideas.” For Jobs, and for Apple, innovation was less about invention and more about perfection.
The Forgotten Pioneers of Touch Technology
Long before the iPhone, inventors and engineers across the world were experimenting with touchscreens and smart devices. One of the earliest was IBM’s Simon Personal Communicator, launched in 1994. The Simon featured a black-and-white touchscreen operated with a stylus. It could send emails and faxes, store contacts, and run a handful of basic applications. While clunky and short-lived, it was, by any modern definition, the first true smartphone.
The innovation didn’t stop there. Throughout the late 1990s and early 2000s, companies continued to push the boundaries:
- Neonode’s N1m introduced the “slide to unlock” feature, now synonymous with Apple, but it appeared years before the first iPhone.
- Synaptics’ Onyx prototype demonstrated capacitive touch controls that could handle gestures and volume adjustments with a swipe.
- Palm and Handspring popularized stylus-driven devices for calendars, notes, and email.
Even in the 1980s, Casio was experimenting with touchscreen watches, and General Magic—a company now legendary in Silicon Valley lore—dreamed up handheld communicators with many of the same ambitions as Apple.
Apple’s Real Genius: Refinement, Not Invention
So if Apple didn’t invent the first touchscreen phone, what did it actually do? The genius of Apple—and Steve Jobs in particular—was not in inventing technology from scratch, but in recognizing what worked, what didn’t, and combining the best ideas into something seamless and desirable.
1. Multi-Touch Interface
Previous touch devices relied heavily on styluses and often felt awkward or unresponsive. Apple’s development of a triple-layer capacitive multitouch interface allowed users to interact directly with their fingers, making the experience feel natural and intuitive. Actions like pinch-to-zoom, swipe, and tap were suddenly smooth and immediate.
2. Polished User Experience
Before the iPhone, most touchscreen devices were clunky, unintuitive, and unattractive. Apple brought a level of design, both in hardware and software, that set a new standard. The iPhone was slim, minimalistic, and inviting. The operating system was fluid, responsive, and visually pleasing. It was the first time a smartphone felt truly “smart.”
3. Integration of Functions
The iPhone didn’t just make calls—it played music, browsed the web, sent emails, and, soon after, opened the doors to the App Store. It merged all these functions into a single, beautifully designed object that fit in your pocket. The concept of an “ecosystem” became central: the iPhone was not just a device, but the entry point into a larger, interconnected world of Apple products and services.
4. Brand Power and Market Strategy
Apple’s brand was, and remains, one of its greatest assets. Where earlier companies failed to convince the mass market, Apple’s charisma—driven by Jobs’ legendary presentations and the company’s marketing genius—created desire and excitement. People didn’t just want a smartphone; they wanted the iPhone.
The Myth of the Lone Genius
The story of the iPhone is, in many ways, a story about the myth of the lone genius. The narrative that Steve Jobs—or Apple—single-handedly invented the modern smartphone ignores the incremental, collaborative, and sometimes accidental nature of technological progress. Jobs himself often credited Xerox PARC, Sony, and other trailblazers for providing inspiration. He understood that progress in technology is cumulative, not sudden.
In fact, Jobs’ brilliance lay in his ability to “steal”—to identify promising ideas, recognize their potential, and ruthlessly cut what didn’t work. Apple’s design team was known for discarding hundreds of prototypes and ideas to achieve perfection. What mattered was not who had the idea first, but who could deliver it best.
Criticism and Backlash
At the time of its launch, many established phone makers dismissed the iPhone as “garbage.” Engineers who had spent decades building phones found Apple’s entry naive and impractical. But Apple’s success proved that vision, execution, and the force of a brand could upend even the most entrenched industries.
As one veteran in the mobile phone business later admitted, the iPhone succeeded not just because of technical prowess, but because it changed how people perceived and interacted with technology. Apple’s willingness to borrow, adapt, and perfect became its greatest strength.
The Legacy: Why Apple’s Approach Still Matters
The iPhone’s legacy is a testament to the power of synthesis over invention. The device that changed the world was not the product of an isolated breakthrough, but the culmination of decades of experimentation, failure, and gradual progress. By combining the best elements of previous devices, refining them, and adding its own unique vision, Apple delivered a product that felt inevitable once it arrived.
This lesson continues to resonate in today’s tech world. In a landscape where genuine novelty is rare and most advancements are incremental, the ability to recognize potential, integrate ideas, and deliver an exceptional experience remains the key to lasting innovation.
As Steve Jobs once said, being “shameless about stealing great ideas” is not a sign of creative bankruptcy, but of creative genius. The iPhone wasn’t the first touchscreen phone—but it was, without doubt, the best execution of the idea the world had ever seen.
About The Author
