Back in 2007, when President Barack Obama was still a senator from Illinois on his first term, Steve Jobs gave him a sneak peek into the original iPhone of Apple.
Right then, Obama predicted the success of the smartphone, a prediction that would turn out to be spot on as the iPhone has become a household name not just in the United States but the world.
This is the story told by David Axelrod, a former political adviser to Obama, in his soon-to-be-released autobiography Believer: My 40 Years in Politics. While the book has not been launched for sale to the public, excerpts acquired by the New York Daily News revealed details regarding a private meeting held eight years ago between Obama and the late founder and CEO of Apple, Steve Jobs.
At the meeting, Steve Jobs gave a sneak peek of the iPhone to Obama.
"If it were legal, I would buy a boatload of Apple stock. This thing is going to be really big," Obama reportedly said after his meeting with Jobs.
If Obama would have been allowed to invest in stocks of Apple in 2007, the company's success would have certainly turned in a handsome profit. According to calculations by The Washington Post, an investment into Apple stock in 2007 worth $400,000 would have accumulated value worth $3.6 million now.
Reports also said that Jobs again showed generosity toward Obama before the official launch of the first iPad back in 2010, as Jobs provided Obama with his very own pre-release unit ahead of the tablet computer's release into the market.
There would be several meetings between Obama and Jobs after Obama's election to the presidency, though, at least one of the meetings did not turn out to be as cordial as the other ones. During a dinner gathering in 2011, Jobs reportedly scoffed at the suggestion of Obama for Apple and other companies to use workers in America instead of China for mass manufacturing of consumer electronics and computers.
Not everyone was impressed with Apple's smartphone when it was first released. Steve Ballmer, CEO of Microsoft at the time, dismissed the iPhone in an infamous rant.
One person who, however, understood the potential of the iPhone right away was Andy Rubin, former leader of Google's Android operating system. According to a book written by Fred Vogelstein, Rubin was riding a cab in Las Vegas while he was watching the webcast of the iPhone launch. Rubin reportedly requested the cab driver stop the vehicle so that he would be able to watch the presentation more clearly.
After watching the presentation, Rubin apparently had to change the entire strategy of Android completely.
