In March 2013 Chief Technology Officer Kevin Lynch Adobe Systems left the company to take the post of vice president of technology at Apple. Then he did not know over what he had to work. Former top manager of Adobe, which in 2010 was among the first responded to the criticism of Flash from Jobs, was destined to oversee the creation of the first wearable computer Apple - "smart" watches Watch.
Lynch became Apple's vice president of technology and entered into submission senior vice president and veteran of Bob Mansfield. Due to the high level of secrecy top managers told what he will have to deal with. On his first day at the headquarters in Cupertino, he learned that he would not take a traditional for new employees "rite of passage". Instead Mansfield immediately took Lynch to the studio and showed over what he had to work.
Lynch was surprised to learn that the project team does not fit on terms - a new product developers have long lagged behind the planned schedule. Two days later, it was planned to hold the first coordination of the project.
The employees had no working prototype or software smart hours. There were only experiments - iPod development team to decide how you can modify the wheel Click Wheel.But the job Lynch sounded quite clear: it was commissioned to create a revolutionary device that everyone wanted to wear on his arm.
Design of the operating system in watches was born at a meeting of the development team for iOS 7. wearable device decided to adapt the software platform for the iPhone. The first prototypes had a vertical interface, such as Pebble. In the end, decided to abandon them.Software changed so that any action the user could make Apple Watch for the three touch. A person should not be given more than one gadget or two seconds. If some functions do not fit into this paradigm, to give them up.
In terms of hardware caused a lot of controversy technology Taptic Engine, says Lynch.Exactly how the linear drive should provide tactile feedback? How much he should touch the wrist? For revision and alignment took about a year, tested hundreds of possible variants.Personally oversaw the development of Apple's chief designer Jonathan Ive.
"Our goal - to free people from the phone. In this sense, funny that the first working prototypes of Apple Watch were very real iPhone, which is attached to the arm by means of holders Velcro" - says Lynch.
"Smartphones have become too intrusive - says a top manager. - But what if you had the opportunity to change things? What if you could create a device that can not and should not be used for hours on end? What if you could create a device that filters out all the garbage in the flow of information and provide you with only the most important? You would change the life of modern man".
Apple itself has created this problem in part, be sure to Lynch. But Apple itself proposed a solution: a small rectangular device with the Milanese bracelet you have on hand.