We’re literally left speechless: So this is how the first iPhone was supposed to look initially? In any case, the iPhone prototype unveiled by iPod inventor Tony Fadell leaves us speechless, the cell phone originally looked so different.
Today every child knows what an iPhone or a smartphone in general looks like – a large screen that is operated with the fingers by touch. But Apple’s original plan was very different. Apple originally planned an iPhone based on the successful iPod, and it was only later that the idea of a touchscreen matured. The inventor of the iPod, Tony Fadell, is now talking about this and also reveals a secret iPhone prototype from these days (source: TechCrunch).
iPod-based iPhone: No kidding, Apple meant business
The picture shows an iPhone, which resembles an iPod. The well-known “Click Wheel” serves as the central control element, but the prototype still has a surprise in store. Thanks to a swivel joint, users could have quickly changed the bottom of these iPods to ultimately use it as a phone. There is no sign of the touchscreen we are familiar with today. But this prototype already had a built-in camera and the colors are similar to the first iPhone that was actually presented later.
And this is what the first iPhone really looked like in the end:
Interesting: The crazy iPhone prototype was not made by Apple itself, but by a third-party manufacturer commissioned in the initial phase of the “iPod Phone” development. So long before 2007. Above all, Apple co-founder and then CEO Steve Jobs was initially a big advocate of the idea of an Apple cell phone based on the iPod, for him the “Click Wheel” had become such a brand-defining element. Fadell describes it this way:
“Jobs had very clear views on things – until they weren’t clear anymore,” he says. “Or it became very clear that they wouldn’t work. He was very urging us to get the iPod Plus Phone working. We’ve been working for weeks to figure out how Click Wheel input works. We couldn’t do it and after the whole team was convinced we couldn’t do it, he said, ‘Keep trying! At some point we all said, ‘No, this isn’t going to work.
Speaking of the iPod, here’s a ranking for us:
Even more mysteries
In the end, it didn’t, and the entire project was scrapped in favor of the iPhone we know today. Tony Fadell tells these stories and more in his current and recently published book “Build”. (view at Amazon). For example, the story of how Steve Jobs was once strictly against making the iPod compatible with Windows PCs. As we know today, Apple decided to do this later and initially resorted to an emergency solution. The iPod only really became compatible and comfortable with iTunes for Windows two years after the product launch.