the original iphone and other lost apple designs

July 17th, 2007 comments stumble it! digg it! by: technabob

Back in the early 1980’s, industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger of frog design fame was cranking out machines for a young little tech company called Apple Computer. As a matter of fact, he was the man behind design of the wildly popular Apple IIc personal computer.

Now, Esslinger’s son, Marc, has put together a never before seen gallery of designs that Apple never released.

My personal favorite has gotta be the Phone Mac, complete with a touch-sensitive screen. Maybe that’s where they got the idea for the iPhone (although I thought this was.) The caption from the gallery even says that it was a collaboration with AT&T if you can believe it!

In addition to the Phone Mac, the gallery features a variety of interesting machines, including some wild early Macintosh and portable computer prototypes. There’s even a 1984 design for a wireless wrist communicator which wasn’t far off from predicting today’s technological marvels.

Be sure to hop on over to Fudder to check out the entire collection. You won’t be disappointed.

[via Ministry of Tech]

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filed under:  computing design retro

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tags: 1980sappleattesslingerfrogiphonemacintosh

July 17th, 2007 comments: stumble it! digg it! by: technabob

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