iPad, iPhone, News/Rumors July 30, 2012

Early iPhone and iPad Prototypes Revealed

If you are curious to see how the iPhone and the iPad looked before their definitive design, check out these ‘highly confidential’ photos revealing early iPhone and iPad prototypes that never saw daylight.

Users that already got used to Apple’s design standards will find these prototypes a little odd, even though there are several similarities between the early design and the final one. Anyway, an iPad with kickstands or a simple iPhone should not take us by surprise; it is well known that large companies, including Apple, are testing multiple design concepts before releasing the best. Even though none of this prototype hit the market, it is captivating to see how the most beloved Apple products could have looked.

An iPhone prototype, labeled N90, that features a slim profile, a smaller screen and a more simple design, but using the same glass and metal body, was the early iPhone 4.

Another iPhone prototype, labeled boeing-V6, seems to have taken some curious directions, such as an odd, diagonal finish of the corners, not at all similar to the current iPhone design.

Anyway, apart from unusual iPhones, I guess I could have fancied an iPhone having the same cuts and finishes as an old iPod Nano.

Most of the iPad prototypes feature kickstands and the “iPod” designation on the back, and some of them also a bulky and bizarre design. The fact that Apple named its tablets as “iPod” brings about other curiosities from inside the Cupertino Company. Yet, the design of these iPad prototypes comes to contradict the first iPad designed by Steve Jobs, which was previously revealed.