Before Apple launched the first generation iPhone in 2007, they developed several prototypes whose designs were certainly different from the iPhones we know today. Apparently, there is also an iPhone prototype with a unique design because it has an iPod-style button.
The prototype was exhibited by Tony Fadell, who was responsible for developing the iPod. Not long ago Fadell released a book titled 'Build' which tells his experience working at Apple and other technology companies.
Fadell told before 2007, Apple had never developed a mobile device except the iPod. The music player was then used as the basis for the first iPhone concept.
Because Apple had imagined the idea of adding a phone feature in the iPod, this unique prototype was created. It looks like the iPod Nano but with the typical iPhone color, complete with a Click Wheel, numeric keypad, and one camera.
According to Fadell, this prototype was made by a third-party company during the early stages of development for the 'iPod Phone'. This prototype has a swivel design that can be rotated to switch from the Click Wheel to the numeric buttons.
Fadell revealed that Steve Jobs had insisted on asking his team to create an iPod with a telephone function instead of making a new device. The reason, Jobs considers the design of the iPod is so iconic that Apple phones should also have a Click Wheel.
"We worked for weeks trying to figure out how to get the input to work with the click wheel. We couldn't do it, and after the whole team was convinced we couldn't do it, he (Jobs) said, 'Keep trying!'" Fadell said, as quoted from 9to5Mac, Wednesday (11/5/2022).
"At some point we all say, 'no, that's not going to work,'" he continued.
Although Fadell thought this concept was a good idea, he later realized that the experience of using a mobile phone with the Click Wheel was not as good as expected.
This then made Apple engineers to rethink this project, and create an iPhone prototype with a large touchscreen, almost no physical buttons, and using an operating system based on Mac OS X.
