Touching Tomorrow
The Matrix — Sony Computer Entertainment parts ways with ID Group — Next-generation PlayStation to adopt independent operating system to maximize gamer benefits — President Ken Kutaragi: An unavoidable choice to deliver the ultimate enjoyment to gamers — Perfect backward compatibility guaranteed!
Amid the flood of breaking news, all manner of rumors began to swirl. Companies tied to Sony were especially busy running their own calculations. As time passed, public opinion leaned more negative than positive. Game developers in particular were thrown into turmoil. Those who had been lured by the massive installed base of PlayStation 1 had secured licenses from Sony and released numerous titles. While no true blockbusters had yet emerged from American studios, Japanese developers had already produced several hits, and U.S. companies were still turning a tidy profit. Now, with both the operating system and the entire development environment about to change, smaller studios felt as though the ground had vanished beneath their feet.
— ID Group on the verge of entering the console market?
Whispers about ID Group’s potential entry into the game console business began circulating through the electronics industry. Neither ID Technology nor Yoo Jae-won had issued any official statement, but the moment Task Force Team started contacting CPU and VGA manufacturers, the rumors took flight. American game developers, who had been staring into the abyss, suddenly pricked up their ears. If ID Group released a console, everyone could already guess the outcome: the Android operating system, a development environment based on C or C++, and the ability to use the same universal game engine as ID Tech Engine. Yet no further concrete details emerged.
Yoo Jae-won’s determination to enter the gaming industry remained unchanged. He simply wanted to review the final proposal submitted by the Task Force Team before deciding whether to sign off or demand further preparation.
Time flowed on, and May 8 — the day countless people had been counting down to — finally arrived. In Korea it was Parents’ Day; in the United States it was an ordinary Saturday. But the Silicon Valley Convention Center was anything but ordinary. The atmosphere had reached a fever pitch of celebration. Today was the day the long-veiled T-Touch Phone would be officially unveiled. Reservations would open on the ID Technology website and at flagship centers worldwide the moment the presentation ended, with official sales beginning the following day, May 9. The same applied to the Matrix Phone that had so excited resellers; preparations for shipping to the five hundred lottery winners had long since been completed.
The original plan had been to announce the T-Touch Phone at IDDC 99. After all, IDDC was the event where every new product from ID Group was revealed. It was a company-hosted occasion of considerable scale, and media attention was always intense, so announcing the T-Touch Phone there had seemed the obvious choice. The plan changed because the T-Touch Phone had turned out even better than expected. It met every specification Yoo Jae-won had demanded, the final design perfectly matched the concept, and the finishing touches that define a luxury product were flawless. From the T-Touch Phone onward, production would shift entirely from outsourced manufacturing at TG Computer to in-house production by ID Electronics.
Employees had never assembled high-performance mobile phones like the T-Touch Phone before, so many had anticipated a high defect rate. Instead, they adapted with surprising speed. The lingering effects of the IMF crisis still gripped Korea, and the Daewoo Group had been its most symbolic casualty. The myth of “too big to fail” had been shattered by Daewoo’s bankruptcy. While the White Tiger Fund acquired the healthier subsidiaries during the group’s dissolution, Daewoo Electronics recovered fastest of all. It had become the production base for ID Group’s electronics, ensuring a steady stream of orders. Employee treatment had also been elevated to ID Group standards, far surpassing conditions under the old Daewoo umbrella. The only lingering anxiety had been that the White Tiger Fund, as a financial institution, might sell the company at any moment if the price was right. Many employees had feared that an overseas or domestic buyer would impose harsh restructuring under the guise of “operational improvement.”
That anxiety vanished completely with the launch of ID Electronics. Not only could they shed the Daewoo name, but the integration of Ilsung Electronics and Mirae Electronics transformed them into a world-class electronics company. As full members of ID Group, morale soared to unprecedented heights. Although the formal integration was recent, T-Touch Phone production had proceeded with remarkable smoothness. Confidence grew that they could handle the anticipated flood of orders. Thanks to that performance, the announcement was moved forward three months from the scheduled IDDC in August and held today as a standalone event.
The item that would replace the T-Touch Phone on the agenda was likely the announcement of ID Group’s entry into the video game console business.
“Ladies and gentlemen! Please welcome Chairman Yoo Jae-won of ID Group, who will present the T-Touch Phone. A round of applause, please!”
The elegant voice of the announcer echoed through the main stage of the Silicon Valley Convention Center. The audience consisted almost entirely of ID Group’s most devoted fans, and the moment the stage lights rose, thunderous cheers and applause shook the hall. Yoo Jae-won appeared, radiating his usual confidence. Dressed in comfortable casual attire, he looked subtly different from before. The youthful air had completely disappeared; he now resembled the successful young entrepreneurs commonly seen in Silicon Valley. The difference, of course, was that while most Silicon Valley founders were still promising newcomers, Yoo Jae-won was already the head of ID Group — a man who appeared to have nowhere left to climb.
“Thank you all for coming today. I’m Yoo Jae-won. Only one product will be announced at this event — the T-Touch Phone — but I promise you will not regret attending. You are about to witness the future being touched for the very first time.”
Yoo Jae-won never disappointed his supporters. The phrase “touching the future” sparked curiosity while hinting at the T-Touch Phone’s most important feature: its full touchscreen interface.
“Allow me to introduce today’s star — the T-Touch Phone.”
True to form, he moved straight to the main event. The stage lights dimmed, and the ID logo appeared large on the main screen. A meticulously crafted promotional video for the T-Touch Phone began to play. In a pitch-black space, the T-Touch Phone rotated with a sharp metallic gleam, its outline barely visible under limited lighting. As it slowly turned, the front face came into view. A thin speaker grille sat at the top center, a selfie camera lens on the right, and nothing else — the rest was covered in smooth tempered glass. At the very bottom was a small square hardware home button, smaller than a thumbnail. Between that button and the top speaker and camera lay an expansive expanse of nothing but flawless tempered glass. The dial pads that every conventional phone possessed were nowhere to be seen.
The T-Touch Phone on screen continued to rotate. The lighting brightened, revealing the rear. The back featured a matte metallic finish, different from the glossy tempered glass on the front, yet unmistakably ID Technology’s signature premium aluminum alloy — conveying an unmistakable sense of solidity. The most striking element on the rear was the camera module, noticeably larger than the one on the Tiffany Phone 2. Pixel count had doubled, and the lens was a mobile-grade optic from Germany’s Carl Zeiss. While the unit cost had risen, the image quality now rivaled that of compact digital cameras. Knowing better than anyone the importance of smartphone cameras, Yoo Jae-won had packed the device with the highest-end sensor available. Another distinctive feature was that the back was just as smooth as the front — because the battery was integrated. While removable batteries offered certain advantages, they created greater design drawbacks. Yoo Jae-won had therefore chosen an integrated design to maximize aesthetic appeal, compensating with Sanyo’s high-capacity 1,450 mAh lithium-ion battery.
The audience filling the convention center’s main stage watched the video in rapt silence. The name T-Touch Phone had already been public for some time, and most had assumed some form of touchscreen would be included. Yet no one had expected the dial pad to be completely eliminated.
“This is the T-Touch Phone.”
At the exact moment the video ended, Yoo Jae-won reached into his pocket and produced the real device. Reporters who had been waiting for this instant fired off a barrage of flashes, capturing the historic moment. Yoo Jae-won extended the phone forward, angling it so the front face was clearly visible, and held the pose. The physical T-Touch Phone matched the one on screen perfectly. The only difference was that the on-screen version had been computer-generated, giving it an almost unreal sharpness, while the real phone in his hand carried the same pristine, dust-free elegance.
The Gorilla Glass that Corning had originally developed and left sitting unused in a warehouse had been revived in the Tiffany Phone and was now a flagship product for the company. The version used in the T-Touch Phone was Gorilla Glass 3, offering significantly improved scratch and impact resistance. For today’s stage, the unit had even been waxed to enhance its luster.
“This is a fully functional production unit. Starting tomorrow, unlocked T-Touch Phones will be available at flagship stores worldwide. If your carrier is partnered with ID Technology, you can also obtain one at a lower price through their retail channels.”
Consumers had two routes to acquire a T-Touch Phone. One was to purchase an unlocked unit at the flagship store and choose any carrier. Four models would launch initially: 512 MB and 256 MB internal storage versions, each available in black or silver. A gold edition was planned for later, but the dye technology had not yet reached the level of luxurious gold tone Yoo Jae-won demanded.
“Now, let me demonstrate this device in action and show you exactly what kind of innovation the T-Touch Phone contains.”
As Yoo Jae-won spoke, the screen changed. A large image of the T-Touch Phone’s front appeared. A special USB cable was connected to the unit in his hand.
…….
‘Hmm?’
A problem had occurred. Connecting the USB cable should have immediately displayed a signal-acquired message. Instead, there was only silence.
“It would be wonderful if the phone’s screen could be transmitted wirelessly, but with current technology we must use a USB cable. However, as technology advances, a world where phone screens can be shared wirelessly will surely arrive.”
Yoo Jae-won recognized the trouble but continued guiding the event with apparent ease. Inside, his mind raced. The rehearsal had gone flawlessly. Now it seemed he might be writing a humiliating chapter in history. While the engineers worked to resolve the issue, he bought them time by sharing an idea that would later become standard in smartphones. Fortunately, the problem was fixed while he spoke. An engineer adjusted the cable, reinserted it, and the connection signal finally appeared.
Yoo Jae-won immediately pressed the power button, waking the sleeping T-Touch Phone. The screen, previously black, displayed the mobile Android operating system boot animation. After roughly ten seconds, the lock screen appeared. Against a refreshing backdrop of Jeju Island’s blue sea, the clock and weather widgets — standard smartphone features today but revolutionary at the time — materialized at the top. The weather widget was linked to Nextcom’s weather service, allowing functionality nearly identical to what would later become commonplace.
“Unlocking the screen is simple.”
Yoo Jae-won demonstrated by pointing to the bottom of the lock screen. An arrow in the lower-left corner could be swiped to the right to unlock. As his finger moved, the arrow slid smoothly across the screen. The locked display vanished, revealing the mobile Android home screen. It was only a single gesture, yet the impact was immense. The previously hushed audience erupted in thunderous applause and cheers.
From that point, everything proceeded flawlessly. The prepared T-Touch Phone executed every planned demonstration without a single error, and the audience responded with enthusiastic applause after each segment. The loudest ovation came when the mobile web browser launched and connected to the Matrix movie homepage. The strange cascading green characters representing the film’s source code rendered perfectly on the T-Touch Phone. No previous mobile device had achieved such natural performance, yet the T-Touch Phone ran the page faster than most contemporary PCs.
The T-Touch Phone announcement concluded in resounding success. The very next day, reactions poured in. Long lines formed outside flagship stores even before they opened. The first thing most early adopters tried was the swipe-to-unlock gesture. The second was visiting the Matrix homepage to watch the green source code cascade across the screen, savoring the feeling of having touched the future ahead of everyone else. It was not the true virtual reality of the Matrix that would emerge in the twenty-first century, but for the people of 1999, it was more than enough.