When the notion of an iPhone was first conceived, the late Apple chief Steve Jobs told senior management that if the project was to go ahead they could not hire anyone from outside the company, despite Apple having never built a phone before.iOS head Scott Forstall testified on Friday in the Apple Vs. Samsung patent case in the USA that he had a really tough challenge to muster the personnel for what became known as “Project Purple”.
“This was a real challenge,” Forstall said. “We’re starting another project,” he would tell those he brought into his office. “It’s so secret I cannot tell you what the project is.”
It also emerged that Apple considered building a 7″ tablet after Apple executive Eddy Cue sent an email in January 2011 to CEO Tim Cook and others recommending that the company build its own 7-inch tablet.
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“I believe there will be a 7-inch market and we should do one,” Cue wrote in the email, which forwarded an article written by a reporter that switched from the iPad to a 7-inch Samsung tablet. “I tend to agree with many of the comments below,” Cue wrote.
The email was introduced Friday during Samsung’s cross-examination of iOS chief Scott Forstall, who was among the recipients of Cue’s email. Forstall testified that Cue also used a 7-inch Galaxy Tab at some point.
The idea of a miniature Apple iPad to rival the form factor currently dominated by the Kindle Fire and Nexus 7 isn’t far-fetched at all. Now, external shell casings have emerged from the Chinese social media site Sina Weibo with Apple now tipped to launch a new small iPad before Xmas.
