Last week I introduced you Acorn OS, the first version of the operating system for the iPhone 2G, it being created by an Apple engineer based on the iPod and its interface. This project was led by Tony Fadell, the "father of the iPod", his device was named P1, and in the end the operating system was not chosen because it was too difficult to use.
The second project was led by Scott Forstall, who would become Apple's senior vice president and oversee 6 years of iOS development. This project was called P2 and was based on controlling the iPhone using icons to facilitate interaction with various functions of our terminals, it being finally chosen for use.
In the video clip below you can see a comparison between Acorn OS and what is the basis of the iOS operating system, to understand the difference between them. Acorn OS is extremely difficult to use and requires interaction only using an existing wheel at the base of the iPhone 2G screen, the whole method being undesirable for Steve Jobs.
iPhone 2G – comparison of the first two operating systems
Wanting to launch a smartphone that was extremely easy to use, Steve Jobs focused on the development of what would become the iPhone OS from 2007. This method of using a smartphone proved to be so good that all competing smartphones were based on it and absolutely all existing ones now are based on it.
"The P1 project is Tony Fadell's project. The P1 iPhone is essentially an iPod OS on a touch screen device. At the time, the iPod had control of the market and people were very comfortable with the device. Then there was the P2 project, Scott Forstall's. Contrary to the P1 interface, the P2 OS used individual icons to interact with the phone rather than a scroll wheel. It was the first true touch and app driven phone experience. When the iPhone was undergoing development, both projects ran what is known as Acorn OS and ran on the same hardware. Both teams were extremely competitive because both project teams wanted to impress Steve Jobs."
If Steve Jobs had chosen to use Acorn OS as the operating system for the iPhone, then there is a good chance that the current way of using a smartphone would have appeared much later. The video clip below shows us a turning point in the history of the evolution of mobile phones and we have to thank those from Apple who created this system.
