The prototype of the iPad that was released last week was just a hint of what the Apple-Samsung patent war is all about. Released via The Verge, the photographs included various CAD drawings and mock-ups of the iPhone as well as the iPad.
A few of these prototypes have a design strikingly similar to today’s iPhone 4 and 4S. A “Sony” label on some of these prototypes did rake up a controversy with Samsung seizing this opportunity to cry ‘foul’. Samsung probably thought Apple drawing inspiration from another company’ designs covered up its own job of using those concepts to outrageous levels.
One other prototype, much like a touchscreen iPod classic, appears to suggest that Apple probably considered using small hard disks, or, that they hadn’t yet learnt how to bring down the size of components. Another prototype of the iPhone seems inspired from the then aluminium iPod nano but appears more like Nokia’s Lumia. There are other prototypes which include one showing the ‘teardrop’ form factor and another like an octagonal iPhone. The final prototype shows a 16:9 widescreen iPhone with a touchscreen on just the top half of the front display. It’s quite unclear as to what Apple had planned with ¬the bottom half.
Among the iPad prototypes are those that model the ‘giant iPod touch’ along with its sleek chrome back which is prone to scratch. Quite contrary to this, one prototype has a back plate similar to a breakfast tray’s bottom! Atleast two other prototypes come with an in-built kickstand concept much like today’s Surface tablet from Microsoft. This particular iPad has been labelled ‘iPod’ and not ‘iPad’. This kind of makes sense because there are rumours that the iPad wasn’t named so until the eve of its debut.
Thus said, these prototypes offer a very good insight into the much reputed designs Apple brings out year after year. The prototypes are symbols of the level of innovation put into these products. Though there are designs that have gone horribly wrong, almost all of them could have been instant hits if Apple had tweaked them here and there.
