This is EXACTLY the kind of terrible idea that makes Apple so innovative and creativeLuckily, it tends to be the better ideas that make it to shelves.
This is not at all surprising. If you're an innovative company, you are going to have teams of people brainstorming all kinds of novel concepts. Nobody expects them all to become products - your team comes up with several hundred concepts, most of which never get beyond the "concept document" stage. A few of the best ones go further, to an actual design document, and to engineering mock-ups. The ones that go over best at that stage make their way to products. All the rest fall by the wayside.
But during all this work, you file a patent application for every concept you can. You need this as protection - someone else may be developing the same idea at the same time. Without the patent, they can sue you, even though you never saw their product during your R&D. With the patent, either they won't sue (because the patent is yours) or you'll have a portfolio of other patents to threaten counter-suit with.
