Steve Jobs in 1984: We Admire the Ubiquity, Price & Ease of Use of the Office Desk Phone

 

“We look at the [desk] telephone and we are really impressed by the telephone...it was really the first and only desk appliance. To be a desk appliance you need to do something really useful and you have to be really easy to use, so people don't have to spend a lot of time learning how to use it (see), it has to be really cheap...and we don't think there has been a desk appliance since the telephone, and what we want to do is make the MacIntosh the second desk appliance…” –Steve Jobs, 1984 Mac Introduction

This is relevant advice even for IP desk phone vendors thirty years later:

• Be Useful
• Be Easy to Use
• Be Cheap

There you go, items to take serious if you want to stay on the desk.

Many may not be aware, but Job’s has a history with phones goes further back than the Mac or iPhone. Read more about the “Blue Box” here.

Watch the whole video here: (or see quoted part around minute 12:00)
http://techland.time.com/2014/01/25/steve-jobs-mac/