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Apple's First Phone Designs

MacRumors

MacRumors

macrumors bot
Original poster
Apr 12, 2001
63,446
30,651


The son of Hartmut Esslinger, a designer for Apple in the early 80s posted a collection of never before published images of Apple Designs from the early 80s including several Apple phone designs.


5b1169e356_300.jpg



This design resembles Apple's Apple //c design.

Article Link
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2007/07/18/apples-first-phone-designs/
siurpeeman

siurpeeman

macrumors 603
Dec 2, 2006
6,318
23
the OC
it makes me want apple to incorporate phone capabilities in all macs. just plug in a phone line (in addition to support for voip) and dial away.
 
nostaws

nostaws

macrumors 6502a
Jan 14, 2006
520
472
some cool looking stuff. Interesting to see. Jobs was at apple then. In the images, I saw the apple phone, and a cube computer design. Both which jobs revisited upon returning. I wonder how much of that stuff is representative of Steve Jobs, and if any of that is still floating around in his head for product ideas.

I assume that triangle thing was a mouse, it actually looked pretty comfortable in the hand for being so angular.
 
J

JPyre

macrumors 6502
Mar 28, 2005
365
12
Pistolvania
Macrumors said:
5b1169e356_300.jpg
Click to expand...

"I know that hand. It was in the fall 1973 Bulova watch catalog." - Derrick Zoolander


Interesting stuff, I wonder if the bill collectors would still charge a fee for check by phone. This also brought back to mind the AT&T video phones, what ever happened to them?
 
LimeiBook86

LimeiBook86

macrumors G3
May 4, 2002
8,001
45
Go Vegan
Wow some of these are so cool! :D This Macintosh design almost looks like an iMac.

Plus I'm sure this would of ended up worse than the puck-mouse, hehe :) Great story!
 
S

Scottgfx

macrumors 6502
Feb 26, 2002
316
8
Fort Myers, FL
Macrumors said:
The son of Hartmut Esslinger, a designer for Apple in the early 80s posted a collection of never before published images of Apple Designs from the early 80s including several Apple phone designs.
Click to expand...

Perhaps it was because of the breakup of AT&T in the early 1980's, but it seems everyone was working on phones. As evidenced by this...

http://www.atarimuseum.com/ataritel/index.html

Atari actually had some good industrial design back in the day. Too bad they got caught up in the price war with Commodore.
 
Lixivial

Lixivial

macrumors 6502a
Jan 13, 2005
947
16
Between cats, dogs and wanderlust.
nostaws said:
In the images, I saw the apple phone, and a cube computer design. Both which jobs revisited upon returning. I wonder how much of that stuff is representative of Steve Jobs, and if any of that is still floating around in his head for product ideas.
Click to expand...

Well I think the Cube was probably derived from his NeXT origins, personally. Plus it would appear he's always been/still is fascinated with cube designs (NeXTCube, G4 Cube, Fifth Avenue Apple Store). But I, too, have always wondered if he trawled through Apple's past when he returned in '97.

I mean, it's quite amazing how a lot of those designs reflect current and recent Apple products. As LimeiBook86 pointed out, this looks like the G3 iMac.. This looks like the iBook/MacBook, or then-future Apple laptops. Leopard's Stacks dates from around 1994, and I'm sure there are a many more unutilized prototypes/ideas that have since been implemented that we don't know about. And if the naming on the images is accurate, it would seem certain names even came from that foregone era as well.

Interesting stuff, indeed.
 
fixyourthinking

fixyourthinking

macrumors 6502a
Oct 24, 2002
665
0
Greenville SC
Forgot the Apple Paladin

Apple actually shipped 20 or so (for beta testing) of the The Paladin which was a Phone/Fax/Computer/Scanner/Copier/Printer. It was based on the PowerBook Duo. I owned one in 2002 and sold it a few months later on eBay. I'm surprised this was left out of the mix. Good article though.



front.jpg
 
iMeowbot

iMeowbot

macrumors G3
Aug 30, 2003
8,634
0
adzoox said:
I'm surprised this was left out of the mix.
Click to expand...
The images linked in the OP are from frog design. That project was from after their relationship with Apple had fallen apart.

Lixivial said:
Well I think the Cube was probably derived from his NeXT origins, personally.
Click to expand...
Kinda sorta. frog did the cube, so there is a relationship of a kind to the sketches and mockups seen here.
 
T

thejoshu

macrumors newbie
Nov 14, 2003
19
0
Many of these (all? I'd have to take a look) were published in Paul Kunkel's excellent coffee-table book AppleDesign. Good luck finding a copy.
 
kdarling

kdarling

macrumors P6
Jun 9, 2007
17,373
5,924
First university coding class = 47 years ago
So where is Apple and their home phone now? We need one.

Verizon has stepped in with their new Hub using VOIP, with 800x480 touchscreen and neat little widgets for family use:

patterson-42527461-1233262878.jpg


I think this will be a year of home convergence. I have an HP Touchsmart in the kitchen, which is used by everyone for surfing, weather reports, TV Guide, notes and especially video Skyping. It can DVR too, with a cable attached. Also has voice control. It just needs a landline phone connection as well.

Nokia's been working for years on integrating smartphones with home entertainment systems and so forth.

Should be fun. Can't wait. Apple needs to be in this arena, and not just with Apple TV.
 
WPB2

WPB2

macrumors 6502a
Jul 1, 2008
711
1
Southeast, LA
siurpeeman said:
it makes me want apple to incorporate phone capabilities in all macs. just plug in a phone line (in addition to support for voip) and dial away.
Click to expand...

Dude what are you talking about. You want to use you mac as a telephone (PSDN). That is a step backward. How about Skype, google talk, or the many other VOIP services out there. There are way too many to name.
 
chr1s60

chr1s60

macrumors 68020
Jul 24, 2007
2,061
1,857
California
It would be interesting to see the impact that these earlier Apple phones would have had on Apple's entry to the cell phone market.
 
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