Apple considered physical keyboard for first iPhone
Ex-Apple executive Tony Fadell revealed that the company toyed with the idea of equipping the first iPhone with a physical keyboard, but ultimately settled on the intuitive multitouch design that changed the face of the game.
In a Friday interview with The Verge, the former iPod guru said that Apple narrowed down the original design to three prototypes before introducing the handset in January 2007.
Fadell, who officially left Apple in 2008 but was kept on the payroll as a special advisor to the late Steve Jobs until 2010, worked on 18 versions of the iPod as well as the iPhone up to the 3GS before leaving to start "smart thermostat" company Nest.
He notes that when Apple was readying its first handset, the final three designs were an iPod-phone hybrid, an undisclosed version also called "iPhone" and the final model that reached customers' hands.
When asked about his personal opinion, Fadell said that he recognized the potential of a virtual keyboard and would have waited for the technology instead of going with a hardware option. Jobs, who had the final say over what was released, apparently sided with Fadell and pointed out the lack of physical keys as being inherent to the now iconic design.
Before the iPhone's monolithic construction and screen-dominated face hit the market, the general trend was skewed toward QWERTY keyboards. At the time, Research in Motion dominated the sector, implementing physical keyboards in all of its designs including the lauded BlackBerry Pearl.
The overarching resistive touchscreen technology used in early smartphones was a major drawback for virtual keyboards which were far from intuitive and in many applications required a stylus. The iPhone brought capacitive touchscreens to the consumer, which allowed Apple to create a device that was not only sleek, but more user-friendly than its smartphone contemporaries. In addition, the extra real estate allowed larger displays to be used, which opened the door to totally new areas of device functionality like video and complex games.
After the iPhone debuted, the overall market began to pick up on multitouch screen tech and slowly moved away from physical keyboards. Some users still prefer the tactile feedback that a hardware solution provides, but the configurability, ease-of-use and eye-pleasing design of the virtual keyboard has won a strong following.
In a Friday interview with The Verge, the former iPod guru said that Apple narrowed down the original design to three prototypes before introducing the handset in January 2007.
Fadell, who officially left Apple in 2008 but was kept on the payroll as a special advisor to the late Steve Jobs until 2010, worked on 18 versions of the iPod as well as the iPhone up to the 3GS before leaving to start "smart thermostat" company Nest.
He notes that when Apple was readying its first handset, the final three designs were an iPod-phone hybrid, an undisclosed version also called "iPhone" and the final model that reached customers' hands.
When asked about his personal opinion, Fadell said that he recognized the potential of a virtual keyboard and would have waited for the technology instead of going with a hardware option. Jobs, who had the final say over what was released, apparently sided with Fadell and pointed out the lack of physical keys as being inherent to the now iconic design.
Before the iPhone's monolithic construction and screen-dominated face hit the market, the general trend was skewed toward QWERTY keyboards. At the time, Research in Motion dominated the sector, implementing physical keyboards in all of its designs including the lauded BlackBerry Pearl.
The overarching resistive touchscreen technology used in early smartphones was a major drawback for virtual keyboards which were far from intuitive and in many applications required a stylus. The iPhone brought capacitive touchscreens to the consumer, which allowed Apple to create a device that was not only sleek, but more user-friendly than its smartphone contemporaries. In addition, the extra real estate allowed larger displays to be used, which opened the door to totally new areas of device functionality like video and complex games.
After the iPhone debuted, the overall market began to pick up on multitouch screen tech and slowly moved away from physical keyboards. Some users still prefer the tactile feedback that a hardware solution provides, but the configurability, ease-of-use and eye-pleasing design of the virtual keyboard has won a strong following.
Comments
The world thanks them that this was simply a consideration.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
The world thanks them that this was simply a consideration.
Very true... And of course now wait for the "Apple just copied this from others like they have stolen everything else..." crap to follow.
I think they made the best choice...
Quote:
Originally Posted by mrstep
Very true... And of course now wait for the "Apple just copied this from others like they have stolen everything else..." crap to follow.
Apple didn't steal this. But it would also be wrong to say that Apple invented it. The credit Apple deserves is their bold decision to go with nothing but multitouch and to implement it as effectively as they did. Many people/companies foresaw that the smartphone was going to be more than a messaging device, but Apple saw that day arriving earlier than others did. Because of this, the keyboard, despite being superior for text input, was no longer indispensable.
Just curious, were there any multi-touch handsets before the iPhone?
Sounds like Apple didn't get the memo from Android development team
Quote:
Originally Posted by stelligent
Apple didn't steal this. But it would also be wrong to say that Apple invented it. The credit Apple deserves is their bold decision to go with nothing but multitouch and to implement it as effectively as they did. Many people/companies foresaw that the smartphone was going to be more than a messaging device, but Apple saw that day arriving earlier than others did. Because of this, the keyboard, despite being superior for text input, was no longer indispensable.
Yes, like everybody and their moms know touchscreen is the future but know shit all how to implement it.
Perhaps you meant "lack of ease of use"?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chris_CA
Since when is ease of use a drawback?
Perhaps you meant "lack of ease of use"?
Ah, you'd think so, but that's not the case. Turns out that early virtual keyboards were too easy to use. They were too easy to type on, so people were typing faster than the keyboard could handle. Bits and bytes were getting jammed up, and don't get me started on the eInk stains. Virtual keyboards had to be made harder to type on so that people would slow down and catch their bits.
UHD is the future, too, but for some reason I can't find anyone who makes those displays nor any 7,680 × 4,320 content. Funny that.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SolipsismX
UHD is the future, too, but for some reason I can't find anyone who makes those displays nor any 7,680 × 4,320 content. Funny that.
Sharp makes Super Hi-Vision TVs, I think.
Well, a Super Hi-Vision TV. Don't ask the price. I don't remember it and it's probably six figures.
The look and feel are all so obvious now, consider Samesung. Back then however, not so...
On a different note, I have one of those Nest thermostats, and I love it. I didn't know there was a direct Apple connection. That explains a lot.
This isn't surprising at all. Heck, it isn't even noteworthy, really. Most of us can't even imagine how many prototypes Apple went through while creating the original iPhone, though it sure would be fun to know. And I doubt that any of us, including anyone at Apple, could have imagined what the iPhone would become in such a short time. I strongly suspect the iPhone exceeded everyone's expectations. The best innovations tend to do that.
The real revolution wasn't the iPhone. The real revolution came when Apple opened up the iPhone to developer apps.
So Apple looked at many different designs before they settled on one?
That's news how?
Quote:
Originally Posted by Tallest Skil
Ah, you'd think so, but that's not the case. Turns out that early virtual keyboards were too easy to use. They were too easy to type on, so people were typing faster than the keyboard could handle. Bits and bytes were getting jammed up, and don't get me started on the eInk stains. Virtual keyboards had to be made harder to type on so that people would slow down and catch their bits.
If Apple would have brought out the iPhone with a keyboard the iPhone would have been "just another phone." However, without the keyboard, it was so unique! Imagine the balls it took to eliminate the keypad alone. No one else thought to eliminate what had always been there! My hat's off to genius backed up by strong conviction!
2007, the last time Steve Ballmer had a good laugh.
Quote:
Originally Posted by IQatEdo
The look and feel are all so obvious now, consider Samesung. Back then however, not so...
Smartphones were trending in that direction prior to the iPhone. Granted Apple definitely accelerated the progress.
I'm saddened by the de-emphasis of the physical QWERTY keyboard though. I'm eligible for an upgrade, but I've been holding onto my G2 because I can't find a decent phone with a physical keyboard anymore. As good as the virtual keyboards of today are (and I've used everything from the iphone's to swype), I'm always faster and more accurate when I switch to the physical keyboard on my phone. Not to mention I will always prefer the feel of physical keys (even a mediocre one such as the G2) over something virtual.
Quote:
Originally Posted by majjo
Smartphones were trending in that direction prior to the iPhone. Granted Apple definitely accelerated the progress.
I'm sorry, but this isn't even close to true.
Smartphones were trending in 2 directions:
1) QWERTY style phones, with trackpads to control a cursor (kinda like how laptops work, like how BBs were designed, and how all Android prototypes till mid 2007 were designed)
2) Touchscreens which implanted a desktop style interface on the phone, and were operated with a stylus (like Windows Mobile, O2 and Nokia phones)
There was absolutely no movement towards a touchscreen phone solely designed to be used with your fingers, with a desktop class OS, with the interface, however, redesigned for a smaller, mobile device.
You only need to see the dismissive comments by existing manufacturers like RIM (who thought the iPhone demo was a sleight of hand, and that the phone was not actually possible), Palm ("PC guys are not gonna just come in"), and MS (Ballmer's many comments dismissing the iPhone). The only people who realized what a breakthrough iPhone was Google, probably because (1) they are smarter than most and (2) their CEO was on Apple's board and had advance and inside knowledge and demos of the iPhone.
There is absolutely no reason to believe that smartphones would have trended towards the iPhone design if Apple hadn't released the iPhone.