Sonny Dickson, famous for his iPhone leaks over the years, posted a video Tuesday on YouTube allegedly showing the two original competing iOS prototypes.
The video below shows how primitive Apple’s prototypes were at the time. One of them has a massive touch scroll wheel and tiny icons, while the other looks like you are navigating through one of those sketchy pop-up ads that’s sure to steal your identity.
On the left is the P1, created by Tony Fadell, the “Father of the iPod.” Fadell wanted the iPhone’s operating system to be based on the iPod’s user interface, and to be operated using a touch wheel.
It was competing against codename P2, an entirely new operating system that could be navigated using touchscreen icons. The clunky OS, as the video shows, was much slower to boot up than the light and snappy iPod OS. But as we now know, the P2 won out, and the rest is history.
H/T BGR
