The New York Times’ John Markoff has stated that the iPhone’s life began as a “Safari Pad”. He states… “Apple’s multitouch technology began life not as a cellphone, but as a notepad-sized skunkworks project internally dubbed Safari Pad, run by Tim Bucher, then Apple’s head of Macintosh hardware. To his credit, Mr. Jobs seized on the technology and morphed it into the iPhone.”

Yes Steve Jobs turned their developing tablet browser into what we know today as the iPhone and the iPod Touch. Many think when he came up with this idea they dropped all progress and immediately started construction of the iPhone.. If this is true there could still be a “Safari Pad” coming, but was dramatically delayed due to the need of an Apple branded phone.

We do not know what Apple is up to up in Cupertino but many rumors are pointing to a Newton replacement around 1.5-3 time the size of the iPhone. This may be announced at WWDC in June, next years Macworld Conference, or just is another rumor and may never see the light of day.

[Via ArsTechnica]