The iPhone was first released back in 2008 at the WWDC but the work on the device started a couple of years before. Now, and we are in year 2012, we will reveal to you a couple of secrets about the working conditions of the carefully selected team members of the iPhone project or what was known back then as the “Purple Project”.

iPhone

Steve Jobs and the iPhone:

Steve Jobs assigned Scott Forstall the task of coming up with a software for the iPhone. To do so, he needed the help of a team of carefully selected devoted Apple employees. That’s right! Forstall was not allowed to employ anyone from outside the fruit company. He wasn’t even permitted to tell the potential candidates about the project they would be working on! Moreover, the sales pitch used to tempt the employees to join the project was not a very high one!

“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.” Rather than say they needed to take his offer, Forstall would tell them they would probably have a great career even if they turned him down. Plus, he promised little but long hours if they accepted the offer. “You are going to have to give up nights and weekends probably for a couple years,” he said.

Many including myself would look at this offer as not a very tempting one and might turn it down. However, Forstall managed to pull a team of highly skilled and professional people from within Apple and take them into one of Apple’s Cupertino buildings which he literally locked down! Any information to do with the “Purple Project” was regarded as highly confidential that they used cameras, badge readers and tight security to protect it. Some workers even had to show their badges five to six times a day!

Well, after so much hard work and sleepless nights it finally turned out to be worth it. The iPhone now is one of the leading products in the smartphone industry and a great story of success to be told over and over again.