Development of what was to become the iPhone began in 2004, when Apple started to gather a team of 1000 employees to work on the highly confidential "Project Purple",[27] including Jonathan Ive, the designer behind the iMac and iPod.[28] Apple CEO Steve Jobs steered the original focus away from a tablet, like the iPad, and towards a phone.[29] Apple created the device during a secretive collaboration with AT&T Mobility—Cingular Wireless at the time—at an estimated development cost of US$150 million over thirty months.