Here’s a nice little nugget that sheds more light on how Apple at one point had seriously considered giving the iPhone a physical keyboard, as we learned last week.
The Verge’s sweet little teaser for their podcast series features former Apple engineer Tony Fadell (also known as the iPod Godfather) going into detail on different iPhone prototypes Apple originally tested…
The Verge notes that Apple went through numerous iterations before eventually settling on a final prototype which forwent a physical keyboard in favor of all-touch functionality.
The original prototypes included one with an iPod click wheel, another one with a physical keyboard and a final iteration, now widely recognized as the iPhone design.
Here’s the clip:
[tube]HA4C44ZOWgM[/tube]
This is just a teaser clip, the full episode will be available later today from iTunes.
Fadell, which used to serve as Apple’s senior vice president of the iPod division and now runs a startup behind the clever Nest thermostat, has never been so open about the intricacies of Apple’s product design before.
An iPhone with an iPod click wheel?
Seriously?