Steve Jobs unannounced guest at Wireless Hall of Fame event

SAN FRANCISCO, USA: Steve Jobs appeared at the Wireless History Foundation reception in San Francisco to congratulate Stan Sigman, who was inducted into the Wireless Hall of Fame on Tuesday, Oct. 5, 2010. The two teamed up to develop the iPhone in 2005 when Sigman was CEO of ATT Mobility.

“Steve called me at home late one evening,” Sigman recalls. “We had just introduced a Motorola phone that had iTunes on it and Steve had a vision of doing more with the device than that.”

“Keep in mind when we first decided to come together and develop the iPhone, we didn’t have a prototype,” says Sigman. “Steve and I had not seen a phone – we just had confidence in our respective organizations that we could do this. It was a big gamble, but I had that much faith in Steve Jobs. He told me what he could do and I believed him, and history will show that was a good decision.”

The Wireless History Foundation is a non-profit organization that recognizes outstanding achievements in the wireless industry.

In addition to Sigman, three other pioneers in the wireless industry were inducted into the Hall of Fame this year: Ted Rogers, who created Canada’s largest wireless telecom and cable companies; Roy Carlson, who founded TDS, one of the top independent telephone companies in the US; and Ray Trott, who was at the forefront of developing mobile radio technology.