iPodDaddy

Father of the IPod
Topic: iPod (Source: Wired)

Sunday's New York Times feature on Apple, Steve Jobs and the iPod touches on one of the weirdest open secrets in Silicon Valley: The unacknowledged father of the iPod is engineer Tony Fadell.

According to the Times, "(The iPod) was put together starting in 2001 by hardware designers led by Tony Fadell, a young engineer who had worked at the Apple spinoff General Magic, at Philips Electronics and briefly at RealNetworks, led by Rob Glaser, who has developed the Rhapsody music service.

"In the late 1990's, Mr. Fadell tried to start his own Silicon Valley company, Fuse, designing consumer electronics products, including some related to digital music. When Fuse failed to get financing, he went to Apple, first as a contractor in February 2001, and then in April that year as the senior director of the iPod and other special projects.

"He would eventually build a 35-member team of engineers from Apple and other companies. Using a version of a microprocessor that powers most cellphones, the group brought the iPod together rapidly by relying on software licensed from a small start-up, Pixo, a cellphone software company founded by Paul Mercer, another former Apple engineer.

"Since Mr. Jobs returned to Apple, he has increasingly insisted that the company speak with just the voices of top executives, so Mr. Fadell was not permitted to comment for this article.

So, Fadell designed the iPod as an independent contractor and shopped it to Apple, which hired him to bring it to market. How he did it was spelled out in Electronics Design Chain Magazine, though the article makes no reference to Fadell.

I tried to track the story down earlier this year, with limited success.

As the Times notes, Fadell is forbidden from telling his story to the press, but he's been telling it at campus recruiting fairs for the last couple of years, according to this Slashdot post.

Despite contacting several fair organizers, as well as former colleagues, I was unable to find anyone to tell his story. Fadell declined to talk.

There are some tantalizing tidbits across the Web. Take this bio at the Strategic News Service, which was likely written by Fadell himself.

"Tony Fadell is... responsible for creating the first two generations of Apple's new iPod digital music device. After researching and designing the iPod product solution as a contractor in eight weeks, he was hired to create the implementation team."

Fadell's personal website makes no mention of the iPod, but another version of his site, showcased in a graphic designer's portfolio, clearly highlights the iPod as one of Fadell's creations.

One source who talked but asked not to be named, cautioned that Fadell's story should be treated with skepticism. The source noted that the hard part of the iPod - the device's interface and integration with iTunes- was done by Apple's engineers. That Fadell is taking credit for the iPod "sounds just like him," the source said.

Photo courtesy of Doc Searls.

Posted by leander at 10:20 AM PDT | link to this post
Updated: Tuesday, 27 April 2004 1:04 PM PDT