The Secret History of the iPhone
Fast Company has spent months in research to bring you the never-before-heard history of the iPhone. This article, an extract from the new book, “Design Crazy,” describes how the iPhone evolved from a Mac tablet (not unlike Microsoft’s Surface) to the sleek design we eventually saw. Only a select few Apple employees were allowed to see the actual iPhone interface; the rest had to test against an intentionally hideous decoy, until Scott Forstall convinced Steve Jobs otherwise.
It's a bit ironic that Scott Forstall did convince Steve Jobs to use an OS X based OS and a touchscreen for the iPhone instead of the iPod-based scrollwheel phone they were also working on and now Scott Forstall has been fired.
If I look at iOS 7 (which I now regard as Apple's Vista, the more I look at it the more is wrong with it) I wonder if one day Tim Cook will have to go and Apple will beg Scott Forstall to return and save them...
OK, for me there's a certain amount of nostalgia involved: I saw the iPhone UI back then and was blown away, it was just lightyears ahead of all other devices. Steve jobs called it "5 years ahead of other phones". Then, Apple sat on its laurels and did basically nothing and five years later others were closing in on Apple. Basically everything I like in iOS was already there in 2007 and most of it has gone now, even in small details (like the calendar that doesn't let you browse the month while looking at every day's events). Sniff.