Steve Jobs’s FedEx Delivery Man Almost Saw The First iPhone Before It Was Announced

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jobs
Steve Jobs introduces the smartphone than changed smartphones.
Photo: Apple

Leading up to an iPhone announcement, there’s a very select group of people who have seen—much less held—the new phone in private. Apple is known for its thick veil of secrecy, and only the top employees know the comprehensive details surrounding future products. Only the highest of the highest employees get to take one home, as was the case with Steve Jobs and the original iPhone.

How many people got to see the original iPhone leading up to Apple’s announcement at Macworld in 2007? Only the privileged few. A random FedEx delivery man did come close, however, when he delivered a package to Steve Jobs’s doorstep one afternoon.

The story comes by way of an anonymous former Apple employee speaking with Business Insider. You see, Steve Jobs was using a prototype of the first iPhone at his house, and the WiFi wasn’t working. It was in the days leading up to Macworld 2007, so a few iPhone engineers from Apple visited Jobs’s house in Palo Alto to try and debug the problem. While they were working on the iPhone in Job’s house, “this crazy ass medieval buzzer” started ringing. It was the FedEx guy with a package:

Up walks the happiest FedEx guy you have ever seen, coming up to the door. It’s not Steve’s normal guy, which is why he was surprised. So Steve goes out to meet him because he has to sign for this package, but he’s got the iPhone in one of his hands. Steve just walks out casually, drops the phone behind his back, signs the package, and the FedEx dude marches off.

When that FedEx dude saw the news that Steve Jobs had announced the iPhone weeks later, I bet he wondered if he had come close to seeing it that day.

Read the full story over at Business Insider.

Source: Business Insider

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