Pelosi has explained at this week’s Democratic National Convention Platform Hearing that Steve Jobs only took the idea from the federal government and then designed the iPhone, but most of the research and development was performed by the United States.
“In this smartphone, almost everythin
g came from federal investments and research,” she said while holding an iPhone in her hand. “Steve Jobs did a good idea [sic] of designing it [the iPhone] and putting it together. Federal research invented it.”
Certainly, that’s a very controversial statement that’s likely to stir up criticism from Apple supporters who believe that Steve Jobs was the man behind the iPhone, and the US government might only steal his credit.
But what Pelosi seems to be trying to say is that Steve Jobs used some of the projects whose research was funded by the US government and put them together to make the iPhone - it’s a well-known fact that some technologies are born following federal research for use in the military or other rather limited purposes before they make it to production and public use.
“Pelosi counted Steve Jobs as friend”
And yet, as CNET points out, Nancy Pelosi’s spokesperson then tried to set things clear by adding some background to the original statement.
“The late Steve Jobs and the team at Apple that made the iPhone would be the first to tell you that they didn't invent many of its core technologies we now take for granted,” a spokesman was quoted as saying.
 “Leader Pelosi counted Steve Jobs as friend and meant no disrespect to his legacy, but the point she was making is a valid one. Leader Pelosi believes that Steve Jobs and his colleagues at Apple, deserve enormous credit for taking federally-backed innovations off the shelf, refining them, commercializing them and turning them into a beautiful device that changed the world.”
It would be interesting to hear what Apple CEO Tim Cook has to say about Pelosi’s latest statements, although we’re pretty sure that Cupertino doesn’t want to be thrown in another scandal against the US government following the San Bernardino case.