The Apple versus Samsung trial has managed to uncover some very interesting prototypes and designs of old, some of them actually giving us hints about future products. We’ve seen iPads with handles, iPads with a kickstand, an iPhone with 8 sides and many more prototypes, even an iPhone that looked like an iPod Mini.
During the trial veteran designer Cristopher Stringer took the stand and discussed the early iPhone and iPad designs, also saying that the core design group consists of 16 “maniacal” people who have to imagine products that don’t exist yet. Stringer claims that Apple has been ripped off and that it’s hard to always come up with something new. Among the older court filings of the case there’s also Douglas Satzger’s deposition, detailing a mystery iPhone with shaped glass.
Satzger worked at Apple from 1996 to 2008 as an “Industrial Design Creative Lead” and contributed to the iPhone 3G, 3GS and original iPhone design. He claimed that there was a strong interest in doing a two piece of glass handset, but it was too costly to actually make it into production.
