The iPhone could be a much different smartphone if a change desired by Steve Jobs had been integrated into the first model released in 2007. 10 years after that moment, a book called The One Device: The Secret History of the iPhone, tries to explain some of the mysteries of the first iPhone model released by Apple for global markets.
According to a designer who worked for 19 years at Apple and named Imran Chaudhri, the design of the first model of the iPhone could be much different from what we see now. More precisely, Steve Jobs wanted the iPhone to have a permanent button that would allow the quick return to a previous menu of an application, this being similar to the one that exists now in Android.
The permanent button for returning to a previous menu would have existed together with the Home button in the iPhone, as all Android terminals sold on the market now have. Steve Jobs' idea came at a time when the Apple company was thinking of launching an iPhone that only had a screen, without any physical Home button, which is exactly what the iPhone 8 will be this year.
iPhone – the incredible change desired by Steve Jobs
Imran Chaudhri did a long job of persuasion with Steve Jobs to prove to him that the existence of a single button in the iPhone suggests safety and predictability. A single button that does the same thing when you press it is easier for people to understand and use than multiple buttons, according to Imran Chaudhri, and this idea prevailed for the iPhone.
Steve Jobs was convinced that implementing a permanent button for returning to a previous menu is not such a great idea, and that's how we have the iPhone now. Of course, the idea was used in Android even if it didn't make it to the iPhone, and that's probably because some designers left Apple and came to Google with this idea.
The touch-based phone, which was originally supposed to be nothing but a screen, was going to need at least one button. We all know it well today – the Home button. But Steve Jobs wanted it to have two; he felt they'd need a back button for navigation. Chaudhri argued that it was all about generating trust and predictability. One button that does the same thing every time you press it: it shows you your stuff. "Again, that came down to a trust issue," Chaudhri says, "that people could trust the device to do what they wanted it to do. Part of the problem with other phones was the features were buried in menus, they were too complex." A back button could complicate matters too, he told Jobs.
Steve Jobs could be extremely stubborn with the implementation of the ideas he had, but he allowed himself to be influenced in situations where the arguments presented were logical and on his terms. Thanks to a good intuition, Imran Chaudhri managed to convince Steve Jobs that the iPhone does not need more than a permanent button for the screen, but it will disappear this year.
