It’s well known Steve Jobs had no tolerance for employees who leaked company info. However it was Jobs who almost blew the biggest secret Apple has had to date. The original iPhone!
Shortly before Jobs and Apple unveiled the original iPhone at MacWorld in 2007, a group of engineers from the iPhone team went to Jobs’ home to debug a problem with the phone’s WiFi.
At one point while the team was working, a FedEx employee buzzed outside the house to deliver a package to Jobs.
Jobs had to sign for the package, but he still had the iPhone in his hands. So apparently he walks outside, casually hides the phone behind his back, signs for the package, and the FedEx guy trooped off to his next delivery.
The employee relating this event to Business insider was shocked to say the least that Jobs would walk outside carrying an iPhone in plain sight. Apple puts the ultimate premium on secrecy at all costs, and here’s Jobs strolling out to meet the FedEx delivery guy with the iPhone in plain sight!
“You have to understand, when we carried the phones to his house, we carried them in these Pelican lock boxes,” the employee told Business Insider. “These phones were never to leave Apple’s campus, and Steve just casually throws it behind his back. That was the first time I saw someone casually come close to seeing the iPhone before it was announced, and he didn’t even know it. If the FexEx guy had just tilted his head, he would have seen it.”
Business Insider has the full story, told to them by the employee in his own words, at the link above.
