[alwillis]

In fact, Steve launched the iPod with a scrolling ball.

It was a click wheel, not a scrolling ball. Even now, the click-wheel would be a good UX: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPod_click_wheel

Steve launched Newton.

Come on now--Steve was at NeXT when the Newton was released. John Sculley launched the Newton.

Steve launched an iPhone with antennagate.

As Apple and Steve demonstrated, most smartphones at that time did the same thing as the iPhone 4; the only difference was it was Apple and not Nokia or Blackberry. And also because Steve was pretty blunt about his feelings and didn't do the corporate CEO thing any other Fortune 500 CEO would have done--https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IorfYuF4gMM

[CodeWriter23]

The click wheel came at v2 or v3. The original had a scroll wheel which actually spun, with buttons around the perimeter.

[Semiapies]

The click-wheel was great. I miss having such a simple, haptic interface.