- ⏰ 6 hours ago
- Julian Russo
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How far did the visionary spirit of Steve Jobs and Apple engineers go in the 2000s? Very far if we are to believe a certain revelation. While digital music players were already revolutionary at the time, Apple wanted to go further with the development and marketing of an iPod nano with very thin edges. A project that never saw the light of day.
An iPod nano with a screen the same style as an iPhone X?
It’s an amazing story from Tony Fadell, the former senior vice president of Apple’s iPod business. On his Twitter account, Fadell shared a unpublished image representing several evolutionary stages of the iPod nano at the time of design.
From left to right, we can see in the image below that the iPod sees its screen to grow gradually, the device also changes in size as the project progresses.
The penultimate phase of development had imagined offering an iPod nano without navigation buttonsa system that offered touchscreen interaction like on an iPhone.
Unfortunately, this type of iPod nano did not convince. At the time, Apple probably considered that consumers were not yet ready for this type of experience with a digital music player.
Tony Fadell explains that this image highlights 3D printed models, their mission was to give visibility to the engineers on the modifications that were made to the product. It was above all to make it possible to have “something to hold in your hands”, to put yourself in the shoes of a buyer who is touching an iPod nano for the first time or who is using it on a daily basis!
Fadell explains:
Creating a model is a way to trick your brain, stimulate your imagination – once you’ve made it physical, seen it and felt it, you can start imagining how it will be part of your life or that of your customers.
Why so much difference between the first iPod nano and the last two? There is a simple explanation, the engineers wanted test as much as possible in terms of design as well as how to use an iPod nano.
The outlook was plentiful, Fadell says Apple has long looked for what would please customers the most: “What if the screen was that big? What if the wheel was that big? What if there was no wheel?”.
The first iPod nano was born in 2005, Apple finally chooses a wheel with a menu, play/pause and next/previous button. The screen was at the top of the iPod nano, which roughly corresponds to the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th 3D model in the image above.
If Tony Fadell makes these revelations today, it is within the framework of the promotion of his book “Build: An Unorthodox Guide to Making Things Worth Making” coming out today. The former senior vice-president still has plenty of other anecdotes about his experience at Apple and the various advances around the iPod.
These are various mockups of the iPod Nano, we explored every possibility – what if the screen was this big? What if the wheel was that big? What if there was no wheels? #BUILD #BUILDtreasurechest #Buildbook will be officially released tmrw May 3rd! https://t.co/NKMxGjoEgg pic.twitter.com/XMUHztyj2E
— Tony Fadell (@tfadell) May 2, 2022