World-famous DJ Moby may have an estimated net worth of around $32 million, but it could’ve been a whole lot more. You know why? Because according to a new interview with the musician, he helped Apple come up with the idea for both the iPod and the iPhone.
And to think we figured his biggest contribution to the world had been “Southside.”
Speaking with the Guardian newspaper as part of the promotion for his new album, Moby told interviewer Sophie Heawood that he was way ahead of the curve on coming up with the idea of an Apple-branded music device, and of converging multiple products into one to create the iPhone. (Remember Steve Jobs’ famous statement about the iPhone being a phone, an internet device and an iPod?)
Heawood writes:
“[Moby] goes on to explain how Apple launched iTunes and he told Jimmy Dickson, one of the heads, that they needed a proprietary Apple MP3 player. Their Newton device had failed and they weren’t keen, but he insisted. “A year or two later they brought me to a hotel room at the Crosby in New York, handed me the first iPod and said: ‘Steve wanted you to have this.’ I said: ‘You do know at some point this is going to have a camera and a phone attached to it?’ And they laughed at me and said that could never happen.” And that is how Moby invented the iPhone.”
According to the article, Moby describes himself as “hesitant to talk about this because it sounds either like nonsense, or self-aggrandizing.” We have no idea why he’d feel that way, though. What’s self-aggrandizing about inventing two of the biggest tech products in history?
Moby may not be quite such a tech guru as he lets on, however — as 2:48 in this classic iPod promo video suggests:
