Did the San Francisco Examiner bury the lead or what? As the city's district attorney went on about Apple giving him the rope-a-dope on mobile theft precautions, he casually mentioned that Cupertino's Michael Foulkes said the iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 were designed by Steve Jobs before he died.
No, District Attorney George Gascón wasn't actually that explicit about the news, but he did say that the finalized designs for the next two iPhone devices "preceded" Apple's current CEO, Tim Cook. The next two sets are expected to be the iPhone 5S and iPhone 6, and that can only mean they were designed and approved under the watchful eye of Steve Jobs, who passed away due to pancreatic cancer in October 2011.
The scoop by the Examiner might be a surprising tidbit for us, but industry experts barely batted an eye at the revelation. In an industry as fast-moving as tech, it's not surprising for products to be designed well in advance of their release.
"Having worked in a phone company I think it's a given," said Horace Dediu, a former manager at Nokia and well-known Apple analyst, to the Telegraph. "Work under way now is for products shipping in 2016."
Many analysts would agree that Apple isn't quite the magnetic giant it had been under the direction of Steve Jobs, and much of the blame has fallen onto Tim Cook's shoulders. The iPhone has gradually given ground to Samsung and its popular Galaxy smartphone line-up, and Cupertino has been blamed for a lack of innovation. How much of that is actually Tim Cook's fault? If Steve Jobs were still alive, would the current situation be much different?
Here's another question: If Jobs is responsible for the next two iPhone iterations, could he also have had a hand in the iPad 5? Or even the one after it? It certainly seems possible. In fact, who knows what other products Jobs had his hands in before he passed away?
Needless to say, the iPhone 5S and iPhone 6 reveal just got a little more interesting.
