What if iPad Came First?

Steve Jobs admitted Tuesday that the iPhone came from an internal project working on developing a tablet-like device. When he saw a prototype he realized Apple could use the technology to create a phone. Some interesting thoughts from Matt Drance at Apple Outsider

iPad is neither an iPod nor a phone. It’s positioned as something entirely new between a laptop and a smartphone. iPhone gave users a much softer transition to this new interaction model, and built a tremendously successful platform off of it. People immediately understood iPad as a result. Without that transition, it risked being completely misunderstood: a new platform, form factor and interface that intentionally does less than a PC and has no third party apps. Not only would this have been a harder sell, but any lackluster reception would have completely tarnished an iPhone introduction later. We could be living in a much different world today.