The Untold Story of the Birth of the iPhone

Apple turns 50 on April 1. In his new book, Apple: The First 50 Years, David Pogue chronicles the secrecy-laden environment in which Steve Jobs willed the first iPhone into existence.

The invention that turned Apple into a world-beating, billion-selling, society-changing colossus was not a laptop or a music player; it was the iPhone. It seemed to appear in 2007, fully formed, beautifully conceived, self-assured, and conceptually obvious.

But behind the scenes, the iPhone we know today was made possible by more than bold bets, fanatical attention to detail, brilliant design, and a vision for the future; there were also false starts, last-minute redesigns, and a few strokes of luck.

For starters, the product Apple set out to build first was not a phone. It was a tablet.

Interdisciplinary teams at Apple are always experimenting with fledgling technologies. “There’s hundreds of little startups that ...