Apple's Secret 'Wallaby' iPhone Prototypes Revealed On10th Anniversary

. . No comments:
At first glance, they are rather nondescript boxes.

But in fact, there are incredibly rare iPhone prototypes used to helped create the phone's radical on screen keyboard.

Human interface designer Ken Kocienda posted the pictures to Twitter, revealing they were known internally as 'wallabies'.

'Happy 10th birthday.'

Kocienda said the prototype devices he showed off actually sat in his desk drawer at Apple for years, and admits parting with them was difficult. 

'When I left Apple, returning this hardware was tough,' Kocienda said, 'like saying goodbye to old friends.' 

Since the first iPhone was sold on June 29, 2007, Apple has sold more than one billion iPhones.

And while the original iPhone launched without an App Store and was fairly clunky, we've seen the devices becoming smaller, slimmer and loaded with innovative technologies. 

While the iPhone is now the world's most popular smartphone, sales were initially sluggish in 2007. 

According to one of its creators, the project began because Steve Jobs took a dislike to a Microsoft employee married to one of his wife's friends.

'It began because Steve hated this guy at Microsoft,' said former Apple executive Scott Forstall during a recent talk at the Computer History Museum.

The Microsoft employee was married to a friend of Laurene Powell Jobs, Steve's wife, and they ran into each other at social events. One time, the man went on about how Microsoft was going to fix laptop computing with tablets and styluses.

'He just shoved it in Steve's face the way they were going to rule the world with their new tablets [and] with their pens,' said Forstall. 

'And Steve came in on Monday, and there was a set of expletives, and then it was like, 'Let's show them how it's really done.''

Tony Fadell, one of the Apple developers of the device, said: 'The business model for year one of the iPhone was a disaster. 

'We pivoted and figured it out in year two.'

In an interview with Wired, Fadell said the iPhone was actually the result of several different projects.

'There was a large screen iPod for video that had a touch interface. 

'There was an iPod phone, which was basically an iPod Mini, perhaps a bit bigger, with a phone inside that had a wheel and a small screen. 

'There was a touchscreen Macbook Pro being worked on, a multitouch Macbook Pro.

Pictured is the first ever iPhone, which was unveiled in 2007.  Around 3.4 million units  of the 2G were sold that year.

That was what was going on from a hardware perspective. Then there were different software projects, too. This was over a period of nine to 12 months.'

The very concept of the iPhone came as a surprise to some of Apple's suppliers a decade ago, even though Apple, led by CEO Steve Jobs, had already expanded beyond computers with the iPod.

David Bairstow at Skyhook, the firm that supplied location technology to early iPhones, said: 'We still have the voicemail from Steve Jobs when he called the CEO and founder here. 

Timeline Of Ten Years 

2007:  After being unveiled in January, the first iPhone goes on sale amid passionate Apple fan reaction and queues outside retail stores.

2008: On July 11 2008 the second generation iPhone 3G launches, including in a white colour option for the first time. 

2009: The iPhone 3GS goes on sale in June, and sales for the year reach more than 25 million.

2010: The introduction of the iPhone 4 includes the first major redesign of the iPhone. The front and back casing are both made of glass for the first time, with a steel trim and edges.

2011: The iPhone 4s is introduced, including voice assistant Siri for the first time.

2012: The iPhone 5 ushers in another redesign, this time increasing the screen size to four inches for the first time.

2013:  Another 's' model, this time the iPhone 5s, is launched. The first iPhone to include a fingerprint scanner integrated into the home button, known as Touch ID.

2014: In September the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are unveiled, offering the iPhone in two sizes for the first time – both of which have increased screen sizes on previous generations at 4.7 and 5.5 inches respectively.

2015: In September the 6s and 6s Plus are released, complete with a new pressure sensitive screen.

2016: In September the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are announced, with the Plus housing a dual rear camera for the first time that is designed to capture images to rival that of a digital camera.






No comments:

Post a Comment

Popular News

Archives

Topics

Archive

Recent News

Visitors