Before Apple officially announced theiPhone in 2007, the company has secretly developed several prototypes. A detail has recently been revealed iPhone prototype featuring an interesting design and a Click Wheel dell’iPod which turns into a numeric keypad. Let’s find out the details together.
The prototype of the iPhone similar to an iPod
The prototype was revealed by Tony Fadell (via TechCrunch), one of the responsible for the development of the iPod at Apple in the 2000s. Fadell recently released a new book called Buildsharing some details from his time at Apple and other tech companies.
The story behind the development of the first iPhone has already been told by many people. After Apple’s partnership with Motorola to put iTunes on the ROKR E1 was a failure, Steve Jobs and other Apple engineers became convinced that they had to develop their own smartphone.
However, before 2007, Apple he had no other mobile device except theiPodwhich was first used as conceptual basis for Apple smartphone. While the company explored the idea of simply putting a phone inside an iPoda particular prototype was created with a Click Wheel which turned into a numeric keypad.
Thanks to a swivel wheel present in the prototype, users could quickly change the bottom of the iPod to use it as a phone. The prototype also had a integrated camera e i colors they were already quite similar to the official ones chosen for the first iPhone.
From prototype to new device
Fadell says it was Steve Jobs who encouraged the team a create an iPod with a phone instead of a completely new device. Since the iPod design had become so iconic with the Click Wheel, Jobs believed that even Apple’s smartphone it should have had this feature. Fadell said:
Jobs had very clear opinions on things – until they were clear or it became very clear that they weren’t going to work. He pushed us a lot to get the iPod Plus Phone to work. We worked weeks and weeks to figure out how to do input with the click wheel. We couldn’t, and after the whole team was convinced we couldn’t, he was like “keep trying!” At one point we all said to ourselves “no, it won’t work”.
The engineers and designers of Apple they then completely upset the project, creating a smartphone with a large touch screen and almost no physical buttons. We already know the rest.