Not that Apple’s first iPhone needed any more publicity to that massive success it has evolved into, but did you know that Barack Obama was one of those lucky few people who got a sneak peek at Apple’s then-prototype? Read on after the jump what the American President’s opinion was on the unreleased smartphone that would go on to change the whole industry.
Not that many of us would know, Obama’s Chief Campaign advisor, David Axelrod’s upcoming book titled Believer, has shared a moment of Obama’s meeting with Apple’s late CEO, Steve Jobs. Axelrod unveils that before Obama’s first term as President, he met Apple’s brainchild in 2007 in a private meeting where Jobs showed Obama the unreleased iPhone. “If it were legal, I would buy a boatload of Apple stock. This thing is going to be really big,” Obama said after the meeting.
As put by 9to5Mac, Apple’s stock had been selling “at a split adjusted $12-14 a share in early 2007” and well, had it not been illegal, Obama would’ve found himself with a pretty lucrative retirement plan. That said, Steve Ballmer, the then CEO of Microsoft, was not entirely impressed by the product that has taken to the market like a storm. So much so, Ballmer had entirely dismissed the product in a rant that went viral across the globe at the time. Years later, Microsoft must be feeling pretty funny looking back at the days, especially considering the way things are going for their Windows Phone division.
Google’s Andy Rubin however understood the significance and the paradigm shift which the iPhone would be bringing to the smartphone industry on its release. The Big G then made some significant changes in its strategy with the Android platform, where today the result has culminated in a constant tussle between the two major and dominant mobile OS platforms. Apparently, Rubin was watching the webcast live while travelling in a cab in Las Vegas, and intrigued, he got off just so he could watch the whole thing. His exact words being, “Holy c**p, I guess we’re not going to launch that phone,” right after the event was wrapped up.
So there you have it, another thing which you can add to President Obama’s cool factor.
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