{"id":248682,"date":"2025-10-24T13:56:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-24T13:56:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/248682\/"},"modified":"2025-10-24T13:56:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-24T13:56:12","slug":"how-jobs-abrasive-nature-got-corning-to-build-the-display-for-the-og-iphone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/248682\/","title":{"rendered":"How Jobs’ abrasive nature got Corning to build the display for the OG iPhone"},"content":{"rendered":"

Usually, when you launch a new product, you have no idea what the consumer response to it will be. Sure, you can gauge whether or not there is demand for a product, but to call something brand new “the biggest product in history” requires a level of confidence that not too many CEOs will show publicly. One such CEO who usually seemed confident in public was the late Steve Jobs<\/a>, co-founder and CEO of a little tech company you might have heard about, Apple.The OG iPhone was prototyped with a plastic screen<\/p>\n

Many have wondered whether Jobs knew exactly what he had in the iPhone. To say that the first touchscreen smartphone changed the world is an understatement. Just travel to a big city, like New York, and watch how most of the people walking the streets have their heads down, looking at their phones. The closest thing to the iPhone’s impact on this planet was how businesses embraced the BlackBerry two-way pager, and that isn’t even a close comparison.<\/p>\n

The iPhone was originally going to use a plastic screen; the prototypes used one. But Jobs was incensed at the scratches that were created by objects-like keys-that were in a user’s pocket rubbing up against the phone. Jobs was now in a bind as he needed to find a company that could supply Apple with scratch-resistant glass for the first-generation iPhone.<\/p>\n

Steve Jobs was looking for a firm to supply Apple with scratch-resistant glass\u00a0Wendell Weeks, president and CEO of Corning, recently spoke with Fortune’s “Leadership Next” podcast about how Corning ended up getting involved in the production of the iPhone<\/a>. It turns out that Jobs had gone to see Weeks as the latter tried to sell Apple<\/a> on a product that used a green laser to turn a smartphone into a projector. Remember, this was when smartphones meant devices like the Motorola Q and the Samsung BlackJack.<\/p>\n

The response from Apple’s CEO was typical Jobs: “That\u2019s the dumbest idea I\u2019ve ever effing heard in my life,” he said. That is when Jobs realized that Corning might be able to solve the iPhone display problem Jobs had. But what Steve wanted was a huge ask. He needed the mass production of\u00a0a scratch-resistant glass within six months which is when Apple promised the release of the iPhone in January 2007.<\/p>\n

Weeks informed Jobs about a new material Corning had invented called Gorilla Glass, but Corning hadn’t yet invested in the facilities needed to produce Gorilla Glass at scale. Corning’s\u00a0board of directors suggested that Weeks tell Jobs to find a second supplier since Corning couldn’t possibly fill Apple’s needs for Gorilla Glass by itself. Jobs told Weeks that Corning would do all of it and Weeks replied by telling Steve that there was no way that Corning could do it.<\/p>\n

A moment that adds to the legend of Steve Jobs<\/p>\n

That resulted in one of those moments that adds to Jobs’ legend. He asked Weeks if he knew what his problem was and the Corning CEO and president said he didn’t know. Jobs proceeded to tell him. “You\u2019re afraid. You know, you\u2019re afraid. I\u2019m going to launch the biggest product in history, and I\u2019m not going to be able to do it because you failed, and I\u2019m going to eviscerate you.”\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Steve <\/p>\n

Steve Jobs puts down the “usual suspects” on January 9th, 2007, the day he unveiled the iPhone. | Image credit-Unknown<\/p>\n

Jobs continued, “You are putting your reputation [first]. You\u2019re worried about you looking bad, and you\u2019re keeping your people from greatness. Imagine how they\u2019re going to feel\u2014the folks that are working in that plant in Harrodsburg, Kentucky, all your investors \u2026 you\u2019re putting yourself above them and your company.” Weeks admitted that Jobs was right and Corning rebuilt its Cold War-era\u00a0Harrodsburg, Kentucky facility and used it to produce the glass screens found on the original iPhone. The rest is history.<\/p>\n

Apple has committed to the use of Corning’s U.S. produced cover glass for iPhone and Apple WatchLast August, Apple announced a commitment valued at $2.5 billion with Corning that will result in Corning manufacturing all\u00a0iPhone and Apple Watch cover glass at that facility in the U.S. Apple’s current CEO Tim Cook<\/a> called it “The largest and most advanced production line ever created for smartphone glass. Cook went on to say that “any customer anywhere in the world who buys a new iPhone or Apple Watch will be holding precision glass made right here in Kentucky.”<\/p>\n

It’s funny how little things like Jobs comment to Weeks ended up creating a business for Corning that has generated billions of dollars of revenue for the company. Recalling the event, Weeks, said, “Most of us view risk as all the ways that that you personally can look like an idiot.” Steve Jobs, Weeks noted, “looks at things very straightforwardly and is damn fearless.”<\/p>\n

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Read the latest from Alan Friedman<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Usually, when you launch a new product, you have no idea what the consumer response to it will…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":248683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[41],"tags":[165,74],"class_list":{"0":"post-248682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-mobile","9":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=248682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/248682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/248683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=248682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=248682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=248682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}