Apple design chief Sir Jonathan Ive: iPhone was 'nearly axed'

Apple design chief Sir Jonathan Ive: iPhone was 'nearly axed', article.
"We nearly shelved the phone because we thought there were fundamental problems that we can't solve. With the early prototypes, I held the phone to my ear and my ear [would] dial the number,” he said. “You have to detect all sorts of ear-shapes and chin shapes, skin colour and hairdo...that was one of just many examples where we really thought, perhaps this isn’t going to work.”

The more I look at industry and technology, the more I marvel at how it works at all! I have donated to and followed a bunch of cool little "simple" gadgets via Kickstarter, and all of them have along the way reported the most remarkable continuing series of unforeseen problems in all kinds of unforeseen areas. And these are things with no electronics and three or zero moving parts. So how the heck anybody builds a working tablet is mind-boggling.