Pixo's iPod development deal
updated 07:45 am EDT, Tue August 17, 2004
Pixo and the iPod
The story behind , is detailed in a San Francisco Chronicle interview with former Pixo founder Paul Mercer. In late spring of 2001, about six months prior to the iPod's debut, Apple approached Pixo, Inc. for help in designing the iPod's user interface. "We were able to get something running and demonstrate it in a couple of weeks," Mercer says, crediting the quick turn around to his company's experience designing cell phone interfaces. Mercer, as well as many of his employees were previously employed by Apple. Pixo's involvement suggests "that they tried [to design] it inside and failed." Pixo was sold to Sun Microsystems late last year and Mercer now heads Iventor, a company developing operating systems for feature-rich handheld devices and cell phones.
