Tomas Chlebek [su_youtube url=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0eJZH-nkKP8″ width=”640″]
Related on the tenth anniversary of the introduction of the first iPhone many remember its beginnings. Blogger Sonny Dickson now published video showing two of the earliest prototypes of the operating system that later evolved into today's iOS.
Back then, it was called Acorn OS, and when starting both prototypes, the display first shows an image of an acorn (in English acorn). It is followed by an image of the click wheel for the P1 prototype and the octopus for the P2 prototype. A video of the P1 prototype appeared a few days ago and, like the latest one, it shows a system whose control is based on the click wheel, the main control element of the iPod.
The development of this software was led by Tony Fadell, who is considered for one of the fathers of the iPod. Today, this version seems somewhat ridiculous, but one must take into account the fact that smartphones at that time relied on the not very convenient control of touch screens with styluses, while the click wheel on the iPod was not only very popular, but also iconic and clearly associated with Apple.
Tony Fadell on Twitter in response to the posted video writes: “We had many competing ideas for user interfaces, both physical and virtual click wheels. The click wheel was very iconic and we tried to use that.” Delivers, that in the stages of software development that the video shows, they were far from having the iPhone hardware ready: “Back then, we didn't have any multi-touch displays. Both interfaces ran on the Mac and were ported to the iPhone long after we made it.”
Fadel too writes, that the teams creating individual forms of user interfaces did not compete with each other, everyone was looking for the best solution together, and Steve Jobs asked to try all the possibilities. Yet it was said that it was obvious which way was right, and an interface based on that of the iPod was doomed.
It failed against the interface created by the team led by Scott Forstall. Although it appears much more primitive in the video at first glance, it contains the basis of the control concept based on direct interaction with large icons via the touch screen.
There were many competing UI ideas – both physical & virtual clickwheels. The clickwheel was very iconic & we were trying to leverage that. https://t.co/pgs12H8Qm9
- Tony Fadell (@tfadell) January 11, 2017
The development of the iPhone originally began two and a half years before its introduction, as a development of the idea of the iPod. He could not only play music, but also video. At the time, according to Tony Fadel, Apple said to themselves, “Wait, data networks are coming. We should look at it as a platform with a more general purpose.” From this insight, Apple is said to have been on a clear path to transcend boundaries. While its competition was trying to shrink the PC into a phone, Apple was developing the iPod into something more sophisticated.
Alternatives for controlling the iPhone included a click wheel in the same form as on the iPod, a touch screen and a classic keyboard. After four months of fighting between keyboard and touchscreen advocates, physical buttons were rejected by Jobs. He called everyone into one room and told the keyboard supporters, “Until you agree with us, don't come back into this room. If you don't want to be on the team, don't be on the team.”
Of course, the ideas of a keyboard or perhaps a stylus did not disappear from the minds of those involved in the development of the iPhone for a long time, but the revolutionary nature of Apple's smartphone ultimately largely consisted in the combination of a large touch screen, icons and fingers.
When you see how much work they put into the development, I'm not even surprised that Jobs hated Android so much that he beat it without work... ?
But Android did absolutely nothing from the beginning. Development ran more or less in parallel with the development of iOS and the iPhone
I was quite surprised that there was a choice of Czech :)