The Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California has announced that former iOS chief Scott Forstall will sit down with journalist John Markoff on June 20 for a fireside chat about how the iPhone came to be.
Forstall will be talking publicly about Apple for the first time since he was reportedly ousted from the company in October 2012, following the botched launch of Apple Maps. Forstall has maintained a quiet presence since then, although he did announce he was co-producing the Broadway musical Fun Home in 2015.
How did the iPhone come to be? The leader of the iPhone software team Scott Forstall sits down with Computer History Museum historian John Markoff to share his experience working with Steve Jobs on the secretive Apple iPhone project, codenamed "Project Purple."
Forstall's fireside chat will be preceded by a panel discussion with a trio of engineers from the original iPhone development team, Nitin Ganatra, Scott Herz, and Hugo Fiennes, who will talk about their work on the transformative device.
The two-part event is part of the Computer History Museum's ongoing "iPhone 360" project this year that explores the story of the iPhone, from its prehistory, inception, and launch, to its evolution and impact.
Coinciding with the 10th anniversary year of the iPhone launch in 2007, iPhone 360 includes integrated initiatives across the Computer History Museum to create new collections of artifacts and oral histories, scholarly research and insights, dynamic events, and educational content and curriculum.
"Putting Your Finger On It: Creating the iPhone" is scheduled for Tuesday between 7 p.m. and 9 p.m. Pacific Time at the museum's Exponential Center. Check-in begins at 6 p.m. Registration is available online.
June 20 also marks the release of the book The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone by Brian Merchant, in which Forstall is quoted. Apple marketing chief Phil Schiller and former iPod chief Tony Fadell have both turned to Twitter in recent days to refute some of the book's contents.
