The “Project Purple” internally classified as a secret project by Apple, iTunes and the Motorola ROKR E1 laid the foundation for the first iPhone in 2007. Even today, developer tools are still in use Cupertino added “Purple” to its name, but why? Issue 97 of C: B_retro provides the answers.
Table of contents
- 1 C: B_retro Ausgabe_97
- Secret project “Project Purple”
- iTunes as the first step
- The first iPhone was a Motorola
- The iTunes phone fell to Steve Jobs by
- SpringBoard and SwitchBoard for iOS alias iPhone OS
- Steve Jobs presents the first iPhone
- C: B_retro Feedback
- Feedback is always welcome
- C: B_retro Review
- The last fifteen issues in the overview
Since the editors set a minimum age of 15 years as a limit for retro reports the first iPhone, which was released in the USA on June 29, 2007, would not be up until next year. But the secret project “Project Purple”, which, according to tradition, aimed at a mobile phone with a multi-touch screen designed by Steve Jobs himself, was launched in 2004.
The secret project “Project Purple” was launched in 2004
C: B_retro Ausgabe_97
Secret project” Project Purple “
iTunes as the first step
Even before a corresponding multi-touch control was ready for series production, iTunes was an integral part of such a “smart” mobile phone at the top of the specifications of the development team around Steve Jobs. At the time, Apple was not sure whether the “iTunes Phone” should be developed internally or with a cell phone manufacturer as a partner.
The first iPhone was one Motorola
Apple decided that the first mobile phone with iTunes integration should be realized as a joint venture with a very well-known partner and brought Motorola, which was successful in the mobile phone market in the 2000s, on board for this project.
After the US company presented one of the most successful mobile phones of the generation with the Motorola RAZR in 2003, the new edition of the same name in 2019 and the Motorola Razr 5G, which was released at the end of 2020, are two modern successors in In the form of foldable smartphones, Motorola began cooperating with Apple at the end of 2004.
In September 2005, Apple and Motorola presented the Motorola ROKR E1, the first mobile phone with iTunes, at an Apple keynote. In addition to the one originally developed by Casady & amp; Greene developed the media management software SoundJam MP, which emerged from iTunes and premiered in 2001 with the first iPod. The Motorola ROKR E1 had Bluetooth, surround sound and a comparatively small 40 × 30 mm display without touch.
Steve Jobs' iTunes phone failed
In the three-part series “Apple's Phone: From 1980s” Sketches to iPhone. ”The website Mobile-Review.com tells corresponding anecdotes about Apple's path to the first iPhone, which are partly confirmed by an interview with Steve Jobs, according to which the Apple boss with the Motorola ROKR E1 aka iTunes Phone was not satisfied because a third-party product did not fit into Apple's portfolio.
The Motorola ROKR E1 was a Motorola E398 with iTunes
The Motorola ROKR E1 was basically a a one-to-one copy of the Motorola E398, which has only been expanded to include a dedicated player button for iTunes and support for iTunes itself.
The mobile phone was available in the USA from the end of 2005 for US $ 249.99 including a 24-month contract and had the following technical specifications.
- Display: 40 × 30 mm TFT color display
- with 176 × 220 pixels
- as well as 262,144 colors
- and 8 lines for SMS
- Dimensions: 108 × 46 × 20.5 mm
- Weight: 107 Grams
- Battery: 830 mAh Lithium-Ion (Li-Ion)
- for up to 230 hours of standby time
- as well as 9 hours of talk time over 2G
- and 2 hours of maximum charging time
- Memory: 11 MB internal memory
- Expandable by 512 MB using an SD card
- Connection types: 2G (GPRS) in the GSM network
- with up to 57.6 Kb/s in the downlink
- and up to 28.8 Kb/s in the uplink
- as well as WLAN and Bluetooth
The 214 pages of the archived operating instructions for the Motorola ROKR E1 provide even more detailed information. Today the mobile phone is a real collector's item and fetching high prices.
… with support for iTunes (picture: Motorola) The YouTube channel “Techformative” only dedicated itself to the Motorola ROKR E1 a few weeks ago as part of an unboxing and review and provides corresponding impressions of the first iTunes phone.
In the end, Steve Jobs and his team were not impressed by the overall package, which is why Apple followed an internal approach from that point on.
Even if the Motorola ROKR E1 at the in-house Macworld Conference & amp; Expo and other major international events, Apple now concentrated on its own products and expanded the “Project Purple” further.
SpringBoard and SwitchBoard for iOS alias iPhone OS
On a first prototype of the iPhone, which in this early phase still had a clickwheel familiar from the iPod, its own mobile operating system for cell phones was also used for the first time.
The software of the early prototype “P2” – later iOS – was originally developed on a Power Mac G5 and later transferred to a weaker Power Mac G3 in order to simulate the performance of a smartphone.
Unlike the final first iPhone, which had a Samsung S5L, the prototypes still rely on a Freescale MX31 SoC. The operating system running on it consisted of the two main components SpringBoard, the user interface and the SwitchBoard diagnostic interface, which is necessary for the development.
Many of the developers who were involved in the first iPhone got this later iPhoneOS to face only at the presentation. In particular, Apple kept the operating concept top secret and showed many of its employees the “SkankPhone” user interface, which was only used as a distraction.
The YouTuber “Sam Sheffer” presents the user interface “SkankPhone” in detail in a video.
The finished operating system was later presented together with the first iPhone at the MacWorld Conference and Expo. At the time, Steve Jobs said “the iPhone runs OS X,” which was initially a closed system. Only iPhone OS 2.0 brought the app store and the first toolkit for developers and their external apps.
The first iPhone and iPhone OS did not have an app store “> Steve Jobs introduces the first iPhone
On November 9th, 2007 the time had come and Steve Jobs presented the first iPhone to the world public. The rest is well known and recently culminated in the presentation of the current generation around the iPhone 13 and iPhone 13 Pro.
YouTube has the now legendary keynote for the presentation of the first iPhone -Channel “p1.com” kindly archived for posterity.
With the introduction of the first iPhone, the “Project Purple”, which has left its mark on Apple to this day, also ended. The internal program for flashing iPhones and iPhone prototypes is still called “Purple Restore” and the program for setting up the iPhone since iOS 5 is called internally “Purple Buddy”.
The “Project Purple” has left its mark to this day < p class = "p text-width"> The Wall Street Journal has dedicated a ten-minute short documentary to “Project Purple”, in which contemporary witnesses such as developers and former Apple managers have their say.
Scott Forstall, Tony Fadell and Greg Christie report on this exciting concept phase of the first iPhone, with which it all began in 2004.
C: B_retro Feedback
Feedback is always welcome
The editors are happy to receive constructive criticism, praise, and suggestions in order to be able to align the series even more closely with the wishes of the readership in the future. The editors wish you a relaxing Sunday with this reading material in your luggage.
C: B_retro Review
The last fifteen issues in the overview
The last 15 topics of the previous issues of C can be found here: B_retro :
- C: B_retro Issue_96 : The Intel Pentium Pro
- C: B_retro Issue_95 : Games that have defined their own genre
- C: B_retro Issue_94 : Doom 3 in the benchmark
- C: B_retro Issue_93 : AMD K6, K6-2 and K6-III
- C: B_retro Issue_92 : GeForce vs. Radeon in a duel of the generations
- C: B_retro Issue_91 : One of the most successful game consoles in history
- C: B_retro Issue_90 : The ideal gaming PC has been advising gamers for over 15 years
- C: B_retro Issue_89 : Your best games of all time have been selected
- C: B_retro Issue_88 : What are the best video games of all time?
- C: B_retro Edition_87 : The first IBM PC in the world defined standards
- C: B_retro Edition_86 : Microsoft Windows 96
- C: B_retro Edition_85 : AMD Phenom and Opteron ( “K10”)
- C: B_retro Issue_84 : FIFA Soccer and other football pioneers
- C: B_retro Issue_83 : Hercules 3D Prophet 4500 with PowerVR Kyro II
- C: B_retro Ausgabe_82 : ComputerBase builds the perfect Voodoo-2-Retro-PC
- C: B_retro Ausgabe_81 : The first graphics cards of the ComputerBase-Community
- C: B_retro Issue_80 : The early history of the graphics card
- C: B_retro Issue_79 : Nokia Communicator
- C: B_retro Issue_78 : The first Microsoft Xbox
Even more content of this kind and many more reports and anecdotes can be found in the retro corner of the ComputerBase forum as a Also in the subject areas C: B_retro and Retro.