Last week Apple hit the news and this time it wasn’t because of the iPhone 5 or iPad Mini leaks, but instead the official documents that show pics of older iPad and iPhone prototypes. Some of the iPhones were believed to resemble the older Sony devices, so people started criticizing the Cupertino giant. However, they came out today and proved them wrong.
It appears that Apple and a phone prototype called “Purple” made back in 2005, as shown in the image above. It has several resemblances to the OG iPhone and the Sony-styled devices came later, but just as enjoyable side projects, as they’re called by Apple. I seem to recall that at some point a designer/engineer close to Apple went ahead and said that they did actually borrow some design elements from Sony. It’s also very interesting that one of the older iPhone concepts resembles the Nokia N9 quite a bit, or better said… the other way around.
Anyway, I don’t expect Sony to press charges anytime soon, since they’ve never been the lawsuit type, at least not the phone making division. Also, it’s known that Sony and Apple were very close in the past, with Steve Jobs finding inspiration in Sony’s business when he took Apple to the heights of technology. The whole turtleneck thing and outfit was something he borrowed from a former Sony boss, as well as the business model, so Sony is credited with more than some random iPhone designs here.
