The iPhone has been around for ten whole years. We’ve seen how the device and its software have grown over the past decade, but how did it all started? Sonny Dickson recently published a video showing two early prototypes of Apple’s mobile operating system, and how we have the iOS we’re using today.
The video demonstrates what Apple was working on prior to the launch of the first iPhone. Apple had different teams working on the operating system – the first one was led by Tony Fadell, who’s known as the “Godfather of iPod”, and another was by Scott Forsall. Tony Fadell’s version, known as P1, had a traditional click-wheel interface found on iPods but thankfully, Apple stuck to Scott Forsall’s version, P2, which is the foundation of iOS that we all love (or hate).
As you can see from the video, the P1 is basically a touchscreen version of an iPod. The P2 on the other hand, uses individual icons to interact with the phone, much like a very, very basic version of iOS.
Of course, these prototypes are nowhere near what we have today. According to Sonny Dickson, they ran on what is known as Acorn OS and are barely functional. However, they are extremely important because these are “the exploration of the ideas and concepts that would eventually become the first modern smartphone that would shape the industry for many years to come.”
(Source: Sonny Dickson via: The Verge)
