Not really too much new information here, but still worth a look as Tony “Godfather of the iPod” Fadell talks about the three iPhone prototypes Apple had in play during development. Apple seriously considered hardware keyboard for iPhone, until the very last moment when Apple decided to go with the touchscreen-only design.

Fadell left Apple back in 2008 but was an integral part of the development of multitude of iPods and the first 3 iterations of the iPhone. Fadell notes that initial iPhone prototypes included a keyboard-less model, an iPod/iPhone hybrid, and another version that we don’t know much about.

The ultimate decision maker was, of course, Steve Jobs who felt that a keyboard-less smartphone would was key to the iconic design Apple was trying to usher in, and as we can see today, did.

The interview comes courtesy of "The Verge"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=HA4C44ZOWgM