This is Apple’s click wheel iPhone prototype

The famed early iPhone prototype comes to light in what appears to be a simulator of sorts. 

Quick Take : In 2007 this wouldn’t have been seen as odd. Even though, this prototype has little possibility or interface hooks to have the extent of third party apps that are available for iPhone today, it would have been interesting to see what developers would have built for this phone. At the time, there used to be games for iPod section on iTunes store, and even though basic, the games were pretty immersive. 

The interesting question over here is, had Apple taken this route, would have led to a voice controlled User Interface faster than what Apple’s done now? Look at the Apple Watch and Apple TV, and one realises that the watch has the same limitations with regards to input, that this prototype has, and it’s evident that for a lot of tasks, Siri is the desired input mode on the Watch and TV.

Either way, I’m equally excited about imagining this alternative universe where voice input would have had more prominence than touch-screen input and giant phablets probably wouldn’t have been a trend.