Early OG iPhone prototypes leak out, clash a virtual click wheel with icon-based UI (video)

This time around, however, Sonny Dickson went down the memory lane, and posted two of the original engineering prototypes that predated the OG iPhone - P1 and P2. The P1 concept was apparently headed by Tony Fadell, and heavily based on the ultrapopular at the time iPod. We have showed you the P1 unit before, down to the virtual click wheel on a barebones OS version with more limited functionality. The P2 on the right is the new and more interesting tidbit here, as its hundreds of iterations became the OG iPhone.

The P2 project was tasked to Scott Forstall, who led the original software development team for the iPhone and iPad. Needless to say, the rudimentary icon and app-based touch interface that you see on the P2 prototype here, is the one that won the heart of Steve Jobs, and ultimately started the whole touchy-feely smartphone shebang we are witnessing now. Both devices are running something called Acorn OS, hence the little squirrel food logo upon initial boot. Then the logos split - the P1 shows a regular iPod one, while the P2 which is running a complete mobile OS in an early alpha form, shows an octopus logo. 

The fun doesn't stop here, as there are the typical geeky messages left as Easter eggs at the bottom, concerning battery level indication, but changing from "Wow, isn't this ugly" to "My cat's breath smells like cat food." All in all, P1 and P2 look like a work in progress on the first edition of what will later become the most successful consumer electronics product of all times, and the culprit behind the $240 billion in cash and equivalents that Apple can boast with now.

source: Sonny Dickson via Apple Insider