Name: The One Device
ISBN: 9780316546164

The One Device

The secret history of the invention that changed everything - and became the most profitable product in the world. Odds are that as you read this, an iPhone is within reach. But before Steve Jobs introduced us to "the one device," as he called it, a cell phone was merely what you used to make calls on the go. How did the iPhone transform our world and turn Apple into the most valuable company ever? Veteran technology journalist Brian Merchant reveals the inside story you won't hear from Cupertino-based on his exclusive interviews with the engineers, inventors, and developers who guided every stage of the iPhone's creation. This deep dive takes you from inside One Infinite Loop to 19th century France to WWII America, from the driest place on earth to a Kenyan pit of toxic e-waste, and even deep inside Shenzhen's notorious "suicide factories." It's a firsthand look at how the cutting-edge tech that makes the world work - touch screens, motion trackers, and even AI - made their way into our pockets. The One Device is a roadmap for design and engineering genius, an anthropology of the modern age, and an unprecedented view into one of the most secretive companies in history. This is the untold account, ten years in the making, of the device that changed everything

What Hacker News says

chaostheorySep 2018

The One Device details the people and history well.

https://www.amazon.com/One-Device-Secret-History-iPhone/dp/0...

It just came out a year ago.

You can also try my user-editable site (https://theymadethat.com/things/k4z/iphone) where I aim for the same goal but with a different approach. The iPhone entry still needs a lot of work.

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mwcampbellJul 2023

One perspective that's missing here is that of the users that are presumably benefitting from the company's product(s). The users would probably prefer that the company keep slogging than that it get acquihired and the "failed" product get killed. I recently read _The One Device_ by Brian Merchant, and I'm reminded of the story, told in that book, about how FingerWorks sold out to Apple. The FingerWorks users got screwed when Apple discontinued FingerWorks product development and put the team to work on developing multitouch for the iPhone instead. Now, the iPhone has several assistive technologies of its own (FingerWorks developed products for people with RSI), but the death of the FingerWorks products was still definitely a loss.

So in my own company, as long as I have the power to do so (I have a cofounder, so it's not entirely my decision), I'll keep slogging rather than shut down a product that is benefitting users.

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diego_moitaAug 2021

A small and non-relevant repair: Wayne Westerman didn't built FingerWorks for his mom. He did it for himself, he has difficulty using keyboards for a long time. A designer at Apple had a temporary injury and used it. The rest of the team loved and used it to build a touch interface for the Mac, long before they even considered a phone.

Source: The One Device, the secret history of the iPhone by Brian Merchant

There is also the OXO vegetable peeler. It was designed for the creator's wife, she had arthritis. Then the whole company grew from that.

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jp_scAug 2017

Doesn't Foxconn also manufacture products for many other companies? It doesn't matter because, at the end of the article:

"This is an edited extract from The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone by Brian Merchant, published by Bantam Press (£16.99). To order a copy for £14.44 go to bookshop.theguardian.com"

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