What cellphone did Steve Jobs use before he had an iPhone?

So this picture of Steve Jobs supposedly using an iPhone in public got us thinking: what cellphone did he use before he had an iPhone? We know that Gates has carried a Windows Mobile device for years -- at one point he had an HTC Typhoon and then later switched to a Treo 700w -- but does anyone know what cellphone Jobs used to use? Did he even HAVE a cellphone before Jonathan Ive built him the handset of his dreams? We've actually heard from a couple of reliable sources that he didn't -- and you have to admit that it would be so like Steve Jobs to not even own a cellphone until he could build his own.

Anyone out there know for sure?

[Joe Smith @ Mar 8th 2007 10:26AM]

*I* am not gonna have a cellphone before I get an iPhone.

[bencr @ Mar 8th 2007 10:27AM]

Steve jobs wears those same black turtlenecks to his kids' soccer games?

[Ben @ Mar 8th 2007 10:29AM]

When he was showing off the terrible ROKR, I think he called the RAZR the coolest cell phone previously available.

[MAC @ Mar 8th 2007 10:33AM]

I don't have a cell phone nor an iPod. I was waiting on the iPhone. Finally the day is getting closer!!!!!

[KianTech @ Mar 8th 2007 11:48AM]

that would make you a tool, wouldn't it?

[nigel @ Mar 8th 2007 10:37AM]

probably had that crappy ROKR :S

[bradgdesign @ Mar 8th 2007 10:39AM]

On multiple keynote presentations, he has been spotted with a
Palm Treo 650. No need for that anymore.

[Kory @ Mar 8th 2007 10:52AM]

Why is this story even here? There's no real "gadget" mentioned. You've got this post on Engadget Mobile, why post it here, too? You're just diluting the number of people who read your other site.

[Ed @ Mar 8th 2007 10:53AM]

MOTO SUXR (errr ROKR)

[stimuli @ Mar 8th 2007 10:53AM]

Steve Jobs is like a superhero. He wears the same costume all the time. I envy him in a way. I wish it was socially acceptable for those of us who don't have super powers to wear the same thing everyday. I'm sure he didn't have cellphone before. Did Batman? Can't you see the Apple logo lighting up the night sky whenever Jobs needed to be reached? I know you've heard of the iSignal. Though I do wonder how he was reached during the day. lol

[Porkchop Flavored Cupcake @ Mar 8th 2007 2:48PM]

@stimuli
I have to say, that is what made me laugh at this pic.
Seeing him out and about looking as he usually does for the "events" and what not, but at a casual gathering, just lurking around.
Any season, dead winter or sweltering summer heat, and he'd still look like that.
It's just so damn funny, I don't even know why, but I keep laughing everytime I see that picture and imagine what must go through some of the people's minds as they pass by.

[Colin @ Mar 8th 2007 11:06AM]

Good luck using that touchscreen to do wordprocessing and date book input vs a Treo (or any proper pda phone).

[derek @ Mar 8th 2007 1:59PM]

Good luck trying to do it on any smartphone and not have your thumbs aching for days.

[Bambino @ Mar 8th 2007 11:41AM]

Do we need to go over this fight again? You sound like a PS3 fanboy saying the "XBOX 360 sUx0rzzzzzzz!!!!"

[Dilbert @ Mar 8th 2007 11:46AM]

For making such an accurate statement about the iPhone, you must own one. Why don't you tell us about it?....

[lifesun1 @ Mar 8th 2007 11:30AM]

Is it just me or does this picture have a "creepy guy hanging out at an elementary school" feel to it?

[MrWhite @ Mar 8th 2007 11:31AM]

Colin @ Mar 8th 2007 11:06AM
Good luck using that touchscreen to do wordprocessing and date book input vs a Treo (or any proper pda phone).

Is it proper because it has physical buttons? :| Becuase the touchscreen looks to be easier to use because the buttons are slightly larger. My wife has a Treo, hates it because of it's clumbsy interface and how bulky it is. She's waiting for the iPhone as well I am.

[craig @ Mar 8th 2007 12:58PM]

MrWhite,

The buttons on the iPhone are not "slightly larger" even though it has been claimed that they are. The iPhone is not a wide device compared to most smartphones (about the same width as the BlackJack and narrower than most) and its keycount is the same across the device. It's impossible for the softkeys to be larger. Add to that the total lack of tactile feedback and stylus support and you have a loser regardless of what Jobs says. At least on a real thumb keyboard your fat fingers can focus in on the key.

If you'd ever used a soft keyboard on a smartphone you'd know they suck. There's a reason the Treo came out with a thumb keyboard and others followed suit. Thumb keyboards are simply better for the task and believing otherwise is sipping the Koolaid. The iPhone will suck as a text device.

[caspianhiro @ Mar 8th 2007 11:32AM]

What Phone did Jobs use before the iPhone? Honestly, I don't know why he would carry and iPhone. If you want to reach him, you pray, just like everyone else that wants to reach God.

[DM @ Mar 8th 2007 11:34AM]

No clue. But looking at that picture, I had no idea he worked for the secret service.

[iPhil @ Mar 8th 2007 11:48AM]

I've definitely seen pictures of him using a Motorola RAZR.

[iPhil @ Mar 8th 2007 11:50AM]

Here it is: http://images.derstandard.at/20050727/callya.jpg

[Ryan @ Mar 8th 2007 11:52AM]

Hey moron! Peter Rojas can write whatever the fuck he wants on his own site. Stop bitching.

[Ryan @ Mar 8th 2007 11:55AM]

That was to Kory btw.

[tehpyro @ Mar 8th 2007 11:59AM]

He's Steve F*cking Jobs! Why the hell would he stick to one previous cellphone? He has the money to switch phone's whenever he wants I bet you he does it periodically... Or moves his SIM card from phone to phone depending on what he feels like in the morning! Like seriously... If you were a guy in his position with that kind of money would you stick to one phone?

[bpc @ Mar 8th 2007 12:01PM]

Maybe this has been answered before, but what happens when I want to watch a movie or listen to music on my iPhone when I'm on an airplane? Can I turn the phoneness of it off until I hit ground, or is my fancy new media toy worthless at altitude?

[Cactus @ Mar 8th 2007 12:27PM]

bpc:
Most phones (even some lowly ones like my old Moto V635) who have MP3 support have an "Airplane Mode" somewhere in settings. I'd be baffled if that was overlooked in the iPhone.

[Alex @ Mar 8th 2007 1:00PM]

@ BPC

I read that the reason they have you turn off cellphones is not because of interference, but because the frequency in which the signal will switch cell towers. The article said that this would slow down the network and make your connection really unstable, makes sense to me at least.

All other electronics are prohibited during takeoff/landing strictly because the Flight Attendants want you to have their full attention in case of emergency, and not be distracted or have headphones in.

[ArtVandalay @ Mar 11th 2007 9:05PM]

Actually, use of cell phones on board an aircraft is prohibited by the FCC, not the FAA. FAA wants cell phones in the air. FCC wants to charge $ for it.

[Hamster @ Mar 8th 2007 1:07PM]

If he were god he wouldn't need a phone.

[mrhammerstein @ Mar 8th 2007 1:07PM]

who cares? has engadget become a pointless website? bring me products, not speculation about which cellphone a billionaire uses.

[PreGHz @ Mar 8th 2007 2:20PM]

They do bring you the products. And more.

It's like magic.

[Alex @ Mar 8th 2007 1:11PM]

@ Craig

... You clearly have no idea how the text prediction works on the iPhone. In his Keynote, Steve missed a bunch of keys when he was typing. However, he did not have to go back and delete them. When he finished the word, the predictive text system picked the word he meant to type. Go watch it again.

[Angel @ Mar 13th 2007 9:07AM]

Yes but what if I want to use another language? Does the predictive text include other languages like Visayan? What about Tagalog? Korean? Japanese? Chinese? Are they even marketing to Asia at all? Just curious. For that matter...would anyone here pay for a phone that costs as much nay..even more than a core 2 duo laptop? O_O

[Chris @ Mar 8th 2007 1:12PM]

who the hell cares?

[Naris @ Mar 8th 2007 1:13PM]

Since all the witty comments about Jobs have been used up (turtleneck, secret service, god, pervert, trendy phones)... what did Gates used to use before WM was invented? One of those old, bulky brick phones that always dropped a call when you needed them most? Maybe now he clads his WM phones in solid gold? Or maybe titanium?




(I've nothing against Microsoft by the way... just having fun.)

[chaser24 @ Mar 8th 2007 1:18PM]

I am positive he had a POS.

[DM @ Mar 8th 2007 1:28PM]

No idea what phone he used, but I'm pretty sure he has a pc at home with Vista on it. That is right fanboys, Jobs is a closeted Windows PC user.

[alex @ Mar 8th 2007 1:39PM]

I can't remember what cellphone it was, but a couple years back I was at Pixar (to give a perspective of time, Finding Nemo was just about to come out and artists were drawing concepts for Cars), Steve Jobs sat down next to me in commons hall talking on his cellphone. So he obviously did have a cellphone before the iPhone. I can't remember the phone though because I was more involved in the fact that when I turned to my left Steve Jobs was there... that's not common for me.

[mathew @ Mar 8th 2007 1:51PM]

I can't believe Steve Jobs used a sucktastic Windows Mobile device and didn't think "Gee, we could do better than this".

[marcintosh @ Mar 8th 2007 1:59PM]

Didn't he just use his Reality Distortion Field (RDF) to make you think like him? That would avoid him having to explain things. In fact, the iPhone is really just a RDF Repeater, isn't it? I pretty sure that's why everyone wants one.

[Jonathan @ Mar 8th 2007 2:54PM]

BTW the iPhone hasn't been approved by the FCC just yet, so even if Jobs was carrying an iPhone he wouldn't be *legally* able to use it as a phone...

[Hiptrigger @ Mar 8th 2007 3:27PM]

ODM (original device manufacturuer's) get test sims and a certain number of licenses to do what they need to build the phone and test it on a network before it's approved/made publically available. The comments here are just asinine - coming from people who are guessing, trolling, flamebaiting. I work for a device maker in Silicon Valley and I have used all sort of things the public will never see with test sims as well as my own T-Mob and Cingular cards. It may be illegal for *you* to build something and tap into a spectrum in some fashion, but not for companies with massive licenses and relationships with the FCC, standards bodies, etc. etc. In fact, no lie, I saw an Apple SVP in Palo Alto taking a call on an iPhone about a week ago. Big deal. Of course they are going to field test it while it's going throught the rubber-stamping process.

The attacks on "Apple fanbois" are just hilarious, little dweebs with their creaking gaming platforms -downloading driver and security updates every few minutes. Updating the 35 million lines of code which dates from the Jurassic Period. The more you punks attack people who love their user experience with Apple products, the more you validate their obvious superiority. It's a total trailer-trash, punk*ss attitude you all have ...like cheap, low-life envy of somebody else's stuff. Kids. "Look Jimmy has a new bike - I hate him."

Vista is a 5 year-old joke. Aero is a glossed-over afterthought - a reaction to Aqua in the middle of a completely hosed development effort. Good luck in your careers after wasting some much time on trivial MS nonsense. "The world needs ditch diggers too..."

[Juaquin @ Mar 8th 2007 4:09PM]

What OS do you use to program these "devices" you make?

While I agree that some of the Windows fanboys are going overboard, you have to realize it's a good solution for a lot of people.

As soon as Apple starts taking gaming seriously, I might think about it. Until then, it's a good OS for my teenage sister.

[Nick @ Mar 8th 2007 5:40PM]

@Hiptrigger
Seriously? You are going to sit there and attack Windows users and call them punks? You might be the biggest punk I have seen on this site. I especially love this line, "Good luck in your careers after wasting some much time on trivial MS nonsense" considering Windows is used in 90+% of the business world.

Anyone who wants to play games on a PC is going to use Windows since Apple doesn't get 90% of the games available. And I work for a Fortune 100 company, and we work with 95% of Fortune 500 Law Firms, all of which use Windows.

Don't get me wrong, Windows has it's negatives, but Apple has the biggest negative of all, its lack of corporate use that they cannot overcome.

[William McGough @ Mar 8th 2007 3:38PM]

Both Ives and Balmer had RAZR V3i's with iTunes in the press conference when Jobs called them on the iPhone. If you look at the webcast, you can see the phones they use. I would asume he would use one of those because it has iTunes, but it does not suck like the ROKR, and like someone said, he described it as the coolest phone when introducing the nano.

[TJ @ Mar 9th 2007 3:17PM]

What OS do you use to program these "devices" you make?

Probably Linux, that's what 99.99% of electronic devices (TVs, mp3 players including iPod, etc.) run and are programmed with.

[TheBugMan @ Mar 8th 2007 5:55PM]

I was playing tennis at this school a few years ago and Steve was staring at some kids playing in the park. He approached me and asked to use my towel so I gave it to him. He was really sweaty from staring at the kids and I thought that was why he wanted to borrow it. Anyway, he proceeded to expel smoke from his buttocks while trapping and releasing with the towel very similar to smoke signals done with a fire. I asked what he was doing, he said… “Calling my wife telling her I’ll be running late”.

[Ben @ Mar 8th 2007 8:05PM]

who cares what jobs had before, its still way overpriced for some phone that only has 8 gigs, who really cares, I myself would use a windows or Berry based because most companies accept them, now all servers will go to Mac....right like to see that happen

[Jirachi.Rob @ Mar 8th 2007 9:29PM]

I bet he had a ROKR or SLVR.