The highly-anticpiated patent trial between Apple and Samsung is set to kick off tomorrow in a US District court in northern California. And even if you’re not interested in all of the patent-talk, there are still several reasons to look forward to the litigation.
The court-ordered revelation of early iPhone and iPad prototype designs, for example, is particularly exciting. Apple has kept information regarding the development of its two most popular products extremely close to the vest over the past ten years. And this trial will force the company to finally reveal at least some of those secrets…
In fact, it already has. We’ve seen a number of Apple’s prototypes and prototype designs for touchscreen smartphones and tablets revealed in pre-trial filings over the past few weeks. And AllThingsD has just uncovered several more.
“Among the many filings on Saturday was a document with dozens of sketches and prototypes for both the iPhone and iPad. Some had already been included in earning filings, but Saturday’s collection was particularly extensive.
The filing features a host of sketches, images from computer-aided design programs, and photographs of actual models that Apple fabricated as part of its design process.”
We’ve included a couple of the images from the filing in this article, but AllThingsD has a gallery of over 100 photos of iPad and iPhone design sketches and mockups posted on its site. They’re really worth taking a look at.
It’s interesting to see the evolution of design that both the iPhone and iPad went through over the years to become what they are today. Just think, at one point or another, project leaders had to say no to all of these designs.
What do you think?