Former Apple exec, Tony Fadell, has been talking about the early days of the iPhone. Like, before it was released. Was there really a time before the iPhone?
Anyways, Fadell says the first iPhone might very well have had a QWERTY keyboard, or even an iPod-style wheel. Good lord. How different the smartphone world might’ve been…
The comments come courtesy of a two-minute teaser video for an upcoming edition of The Verge’s On The Verge web show thingy.
Recalling the early days of development, Fadell says: "There were all kinds of different gestations of it. We actually did three different types of iPhone. There was an iPod + Phone, then there was the iPhone and then there was the next generation iPhone, and that’s the one that actually showed up.”
The biggest problem with the iPod + Phone, essentially a plain old iPod with phone capabilities, was the small screen. Also, the wheel wasn’t exactly intuitive in the context of phone stuff. “Sometimes you have to try things to throw them away,” explains T-Fad.
And asked if a QWERTY keyboard was ever on the cards, Fadell reveals: "Oh, it was definitely discussed. It was a heated topic." Interesting. The full episode is expected later today.
