Apple's Click Wheel Touchscreen

Apple's Click Wheel Touchscreen iPhone Prototype 

 

HIGHLIGHTS

• The iPhone prototype had a touchscreen click wheel
• It doesn't appear to have a working browser
• typing messages would've been tough
• It's no surprise that Apple considered a bunch of designs before finalizing the iPhone, but the interesting thing is that Apple actually considered making an iPhone with a click-wheel interface. A similar interface was used on the iPod Classic and in hindsight we know that it wouldn't have aged well.
  The report claims that the prototype was designed around an operating system called "Acorn OS", which was the internal code name for the software.
• The interface does look rather odd if you look at how touchscreen devices have evolved since then. For one, the click wheel does appear to be a waste of screen space and it's clear that Apple thought the same way. Had this device become a reality, one can imagine having a hard time trying to use the click wheel to select each character for an SMS or dialing numbers like retro landline phones with the rotating keypad.
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