Apparently Apple was working on the idea of a touchscreen phone way back in 1983, even before the Macintosh was released. An interesting new prototype has surfaced, designed by Hartmut Esslinger – a desk phone with a complete touchscreen interface.
Esslinger, the co-founder of Frog Design, was contracted by Apple in a 1 million dollar annual deal to produce design concepts. Esslinger also worked with Apple on other projects, including the Apple IIC.
In 1982 he entered into a $1 Million dollar a year contract with Apple Computer to create Apple’s design strategy. The result was the Apple “Snow White design language” which was applied to all Apple products from 1984 to 1990 including the Apple IIc and the Macintosh.
The image comes from a gallery of images posted by Fudder. The original image is owned by Frog Design, although Fudder doesn’t reveal how they obtained the image.
It’s pretty fascinating to think that Apple was working on a phone, even a touchscreen phone, two and a half decades before the iPhone was released.
