2026-06-27
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This is Planet Money from NPR.
Okay, how many times have you sat and thought about how much more you could accomplish if you had more,
more time, more money, more resources?
Like how good your project could be if you had just one more day or a bigger budget or more help?
Well, this is the story of a company that did have all of that.
And they were making something amazing, something most of us touch every day, a smartphone.
But, and this is the part that is bonkers.
This was happening nearly two decades before the iPhone came out.
Before the internet, before Wi-Fi, before mobile data, before cell phones even.
Tony Fidel was employee number 29 at that company.
Before even email really existed for people.
Before...
Anything like Amazon or e-tailing existed before downloadable games or downloadable music existed.
All of that stuff.
We were creating all the technology that would later become what the iPhone was.