Steve Jobs Threw The iPod Prototype Into An Aquarium – Here’s Why

When Steve Jobs saw the prototype for the iPod, he threw it in an aquarium. It wasn’t an emotional outburst — at least not entirely. Instead, Steve was teaching his designers about what was really possible for the new device.

Former Apple employee Amit Chaudhary recently detailed the story on Quora.

“When engineers working on the very first iPod completed the prototype, they presented their work to Steve Jobs for his approval. Jobs played with the device, scrutinized it, weighed it in his hands, and promptly rejected it. It was too big.”

According to Business Insider, the first iPod was originally 19.8 mm thin.

“The engineers explained that they had to reinvent inventing to create the iPod, and that it was simply impossible to make it any smaller. Jobs was quiet for a moment. Finally he stood, walked over to an aquarium, and dropped the iPod in the tank. After it touched bottom, bubbles floated to the top.”

“Those are air bubbles,” he snapped. “That means there’s space in there. Make it smaller.”

The demonstration apparently worked — the most recent version of the iPod was only 6.1 mm thin.

It’s those small anecdotes of Steve Jobs eccentric behavior that makes him a favorite subject for writers and directors. Aaron Sorkin is currently working on the third movie based on Jobs’ life, the first being TNT’s Pirates of Silicon Valley followed by the 2013 Jobs, starring Ashton Kutcher.

Sorkin insisted that his Steve Jobs movie will not be a biopic. Instead, the movie will basically be three scenes, running in real time, covering the events before the launch of three iconic products: the Macintosh, the NeXT computer, and the iPod. Hopefully Chaudhary’s story will be included in the iPod scene.

Sorkin also explained to Entertainment Weekly that Steve Jobs daughter, Lisa, played a pivotal role when he was writing the script.

“She didn’t participate in Walter Isaacson’s book, because her father was alive at the time, and she didn’t want to alienate either of her parents, so I was very grateful that she was willing to spend time with me. She is the heroine of the movie.”

Audiences will have to wait to see what stories Lisa had to save until after her father’s death. If they’re anything like Chaudhary’s experiences, it should make for great material in Sorkin’s movie.

Steve Jobs changed the world with the devices he helped design, but his real claim to fame is his panache — throwing an iPod into an aquarium is just one more demonstration.

[Image Credit: Matthew Yohe/Wikimedia Commons]