Jobs' Revenge: How a Personal Grudge Helped Create the iPhone

The origin story of the iPhone is one that has surprised many, but according to Scott Forstall, Apple's former head of iOS software division, it all began with a personal grudge Steve Jobs had against a Microsoft executive.

Forstall recounted at an event that the design of the original iPhone was influenced by Jobs' dislike for this unnamed executive, who was married to a friend of Jobs' wife. The executive, known only for bragging and boasting about his company's products, pushed Jobs over the edge with his claims.

Jobs was particularly disenchanted with Microsoft's use of resistive touch technology, which was common at the time but would soon be made obsolete by Apple's capacitive touch multitouch displays. He also famously hated styluses, famously declaring 'you don't use a stylus... we're born with ten styluses.'

Jobs' team then created a prototype of a working multitouch display, which Forstall described as revolutionary. When Jobs later decided Apple should make a smartphone, he took the tablet prototype and tasked his engineers with shrinking it down to fit in a pocket.