CHM Live | Original iPhone Software Team Leader Scott Forstall (Part Two)

Computer History Museum · 101.5K views · 2017-06-28 · 1:03:02

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Overview

Second half of a 2017 Computer History Museum live event in which former Apple software chief Scott Forstall is interviewed by John Markoff about creating the original iPhone. He tells stories about Steve Jobs and the team and the origins of the iPhone software.

On Hacker News

HN commenters cite it for Forstall's firsthand anecdotes and his account of how the iPhone came about.

Recommended by 2 HN people across 2 months · HN mentions 2020–2025

Topics

Tech pioneers & interviews Tech company stories & documentaries Consumer devices & gadgets

What people said

rweichler · 2025-06 · Recommendation
Mind throwing some links my way? I love me some Scott Forstall anecdotes. Here, I'll start: - [LINK] - [VIDEO] - [LINK]
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bangonkeyboard · 2020-05 · Recommendation
He also related this story in his interview with the Computer History Museum: [VIDEO] I'm still upset that, at 48:36, Forstall offered to give his thoughts on what we could be doing with AI that we're not, but Markoff decided to move on.
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paulgerhardt · 2023-09 · Reference
There are two origin stories. The Verge article tells Tony's. The CHM interview tells Scott's: [VIDEO] Given the iPhone hardware came from skunkworks iPad team (and not iPod) and the software came from the Mac team (and not iPod) I personally take Tony's claims of inventing the iPhone with a grain of salt and opportunistic when Scott was later forced out over the unrelated Apple Maps launch issues. But you should judge for yourself. It's probably not clear cut.
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Sources

Video by Computer History Museum, played through YouTube.

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