Good Morning Silicon Valley

Almost as if Oprah herself had blessed it, there’s universal consensus across the blogosphere today that if you’re at all interested in Apple, the iPhone and mobile communications, you need to read a new Wired piece by Fred Vogelstein. “The Untold Story: How the iPhone Blew Up the Wireless Industry” is loaded with behind-the-scenes color on the strategy, engineering and negotiations that launched an iconic product, and details how Steve Jobs, through force of will, upset the seemingly unshakable dynamics of the wireless market.

Here’s the nut graf: “But as important as the iPhone has been to the fortunes of Apple and AT&T, its real impact is on the structure of the $11 billion-a-year U.S. mobile phone industry. For decades, wireless carriers have treated manufacturers like serfs, using access to their networks as leverage to dictate what phones will get made, how much they will cost, and what features will be available on them. Handsets were viewed largely as cheap, disposable lures, massively subsidized to snare subscribers and lock them into using the carriers’ proprietary services. But the iPhone upsets that balance of power. Carriers are learning that the right phone — even a pricey one — can win customers and bring in revenue. Now, in the pursuit of an Apple-like contract, every manufacturer is racing to create a phone that consumers will love, instead of one that the carriers approve of.”

And as you’d expect in such a story, there’s more evidence to support the rumor that Steve Jobs can be difficult to please: “For those working on the iPhone, the next three months would be the most stressful of their careers. Screaming matches broke out routinely in the hallways. Engineers, frazzled from all-night coding sessions, quit, only to rejoin days later after catching up on their sleep. A product manager slammed the door to her office so hard that the handle bent and locked her in; it took colleagues more than an hour and some well-placed whacks with an aluminum bat to free her.”

A good read all the way around.