Early iPhone design talks sparked by a Samsung ‘fashionphone’
We’ve seen a number of early iPhone prototypes come out as evidence in the Apple / Samsung trial, but today we got our first glimpse at the very beginning of the iPhone process in 2005, when Apple was considering grafting a phone onto the existing iPod line. We now know that’s literally true — early discussions involved putting a ring of number keys around the iPod click wheel. “This may be our answer,” said Steve Jobs in an email to Jony Ive. As it happens, in 2005 Samsung and Bang & Olufsen had just released the SGH-E910 “fashion phone” with a similar arrangement, and iPod head Tony Fadell sent an Engadget blog post about the phone to Jobs and other Apple execs. “Weird way to hold the cellphone,” said Fadell, but using the round…
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Early iPhone design talks sparked by a Samsung ‘fashionphone’
