Apple worked on the iPhone for years, and many ideas ran through the Cupertino engineers’ minds. Now, Tony Fadell has just had a weirdest iPhone prototypecorresponds to the initial stages and looks more like an iPod than the iPhone we all know.

Tony Fadell Father of the iPod and also involved in the development of the iPhone. He recently shared some of the secrets of the development of these devices and now, on the occasion of the launch of his new book, Build, TechCrunch New details and photos of his time working at Apple and other tech companies.

Good thing Apple didn’t embrace this “iPod Phone” idea

“iPodPhone”

This iPhone prototype has a design. largely reminds us of an iPod. Shortly after the triumph of the iPod, Apple focused on creating a smartphone after the failure of the ROKR E1. Steve Jobs and other Apple engineers were convinced that they needed to develop their own smartphones.

Fadell discovered that It was Steve Jobs himself who strongly encouraged the team to create an iPod with phone functions. rather than a completely new device. This was because with the Click Wheel the design of the iPod became so iconic that Jobs believed it should be on Apple’s smartphone as well.

“Things had very clear views on some things until it wasn’t that clear. The iPod Plus really pushed us hard to get the phone to work. We spent weeks and weeks trying to figure out how to log in with the Click Wheel. keep going!” he said..

Anyone want to see what I came up with when I cleaned my garage and found photos of everything I’ve done? pic.twitter.com/FrafhxT6AQ

– Tony Fadell (@tfadell) April 18, 2022

The prototype you actually shared in the images was not functional. It was sent to them by a third-party manufacturer to show them what they can do. Interestingly, it’s similar to concepts we’ve seen before the iPhone’s launch.

“This is a prototype that a third-party manufacturer sent me, saying, ‘We’re talented. Look at this amazing thing we’ve done. I think you should choose us because we can help you with this iPod Phone concept. It wasn’t half bad! It doesn’t work for many reasons, but it’s not a bad thought.”.

Finally the team convinced Jobs that the approach had to be different, abandoning the iPod design and switching to something completely new. Apple engineers and designers completely rethought the project, focus on a large touchscreenhardly any physical buttons and a Mac OS X based operating system.

Final prototypes of the first iPhone already look more like the final model

In his book Build, now available on Amazon, Tony Fadell reveals many of the secrets of his career. Apple is one of the most important companies it works for. But after the Californian company, Fadell created Nest, which was later acquired by Google. Something that allows him to see firsthand the difference between the two companies.