Check Out An iPad From 2002
Photos emerged this week of an iPad prototype from a decade ago (which in tech terms means somewhere in the middle of the Bronze Age). The clunky-looking device was reportedly put aside until new technologies could bring it up to the design and performance specs of Apple visionaries like Steve Jobs.
The photos are part of a patent lawsuit involving Apple and Samsung. They were included with documents as part of the deposition of Apple designer Sir Johnathan Ive, portions of which were recently made public. They were picked up by Yoni Heisler at NetworkWorld.
Ive describes what he remembers from the early model, known as Prototype 035:
My recollection of first seeing it is very hazy, but it was, I’m guessing, sometime between 2002 and 2004, some but it was I remember seeing this and perhaps models similar to this when we were first exploring tablet designs that ultimately became the iPad.
Just to give you a little context, in 2002, Apple had released the original iPod just a year earlier. Napster had been bought out, and restarted as a “members only” service, but fell apart quickly as executives left. And bloggers were just starting to make a scene in online journalism.
What do you think of the proto-iPad?
[via TechCrunch]
2002? WHY THE PICTURES IN BLACK AND WHITE AND SO GRAINY