Folks worried about the future of Apple’s smartphone line can rest easy. At least for the immediate future anyway. A new report is out that suggests Steve Jobs was involved in the design stages of at least the next two generations of the iPhone.
The report comes from The San Francisco Examiner, after speaking with its city’s District Attorney George Gascón. Apparently, Gascón recently met with Apple to discuss the rise in iPhone thefts, and he found out some pretty interesting stuff…
The DA met with Apple’s Government Liaison Michael Foulkes. And he was hoping to find out if Apple had any plans to incorporate some sort of ‘kill switch’ in future iPhones so that users could completely and remotely disable them when stolen.
He told the San Francisco Examiner that he was “underwhelmed” with the entire discussion, saying that Foulkes seemed to be “trained in the art of doing a lot of talking and saying nothing.” But he did manage to walk away with some intriguing intel.
“Gascón said Foulkes discussed the long and laborious process of researching and producing a kill-switch technology for devices, and also said the next two generations of iPhones have already been developed.
“They preceded Tim Cook,” the district attorney said he was told of the future iPhones.
Gascón said he doesn’t need to see the technology in the next iPhone, but simply wants a plan in place. He said industry insiders have told him the technology is possible.”
While it seems kind of odd that a government rep would be offering up details on future products, this sentiment has come up in the past. Shortly after Jobs’ death in 2011, it was reported that he had left Apple with a four-year long product pipeline.
It’s unclear which iPhone models Apple’s liaison was referring too, but it’s been speculated that he was speaking about the next-gen handset, rumored to be the iPhone 5S, and the much-talked about budget iPhone—both believed to drop this summer.
The 5S is expected to look very similar to its predecessor, with some minor internal upgrades and an improved camera system. It’s also said that it will feature a built-in fingerprint sensor, which would actually be perfect for Gascón’s ‘kill switch’ idea.
At any rate, it’s just cool to hear that Steve Jobs’ voice continues to echo in the halls of Cupertino.