What would the iPhone/iOS look like if Tony Fadell's team had won?

[amirite]

For those who don't know the story: http://daringfireball.net/2008/11/executive_scuttlebutt

Sources say he wanted iPhone to be built on Linux and essentially be an iPod with phone capabilities. However I'm certain Apple would have done something bigger than that—although it would have been incredibly different.

What do you expect the phone would have been like, and does anyone know if any prototypes or concepts ever leaked?

 

[Surf Monkey]

What would it have been like? Having observed that period of Apple's history while it was happening (as an outsider like everyone else) my feeling is that it would have been an abject failure.

 

[movieator]

Steve addressed this at the introductory keynote in 2007.

 

[Surf Monkey]

Steve addressed this at the introductory keynote in 2007.

View attachment 501875

Yep. Abject failure.

 

[amirite]

Steve addressed this at the introductory keynote in 2007.

View attachment 501875

Haha well that was obviously a little joke. I feel like it would have been full touch screen regardless.

Failure is definitely a word I'd use though. Even Apple was surprised how well the original iPhone sold.

 

[scaredpoet]

In fact, if you read the Jobs biography, there WAS work done on an iPod with phone capabilities, complete with scroll wheel interface. The consensus was that the user experience was lousy. it was fine if you already had a defined contact list and wanted to scroll through it, but for dialing or anything requiring non-predefined inputs, the idea fell short.