What Did the First iPhone Really Look Like?
- Posted on January 10, 2012 at 12:52pm by
Liz Klimas
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The iPhone design as we know it may have just turned 5 years old, but the very first iPhone could really be decades older.
Mashable and several other techie sites over the years have resurrected images from what looks to be a cross between a regular cradle phone and an iPad. According to Mashable, the 1983 Apple phone was designed by Hartmut Esslinger featuring a built-in screen controlled by a stylus. Mashable reports that the “iPhone that never was” has had a renewed interest after the Associated Press’ recent tour into the undisclosed store house of prototypes and notes from Apple’s early days maintained by Stanford University.
(Photo via Mashable)
Clearly the now 5-year-and-one-day-old iPhone design made several technological advances since this version. Even at its young age though, the iPhone itself has undergone improvements almost every year.
Wired reports that the original operating system debuted in Jan. 2007, and within a year and a half, the second gen iPhone emerged adding GPS, 3G capability and the Apple App Store to the mix. As an improvement on the iPhone 3G, the next version Apple rolled out was the 3GS, which stayed true to Apple’s design roots by incorporating a more advanced display and camera. In 2010, the iPhone 4G redesign was introduced, or leaked according to Wired, with a larger and even more pixel-dense display. Amid several prototype leaks in 2011, the latest iPhone 4GS was released in October and brought to the Apple-loving community Siri, a voice-activated personal assistant.
Apple 4GS. (Image: Apple)
Rumors of the iPhone 5 have already begun to circulate with hints at a sleeker design or metal back, according to CNET, which keeps regular tabs on iPhone 5 rumors.
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rafa2design
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 6:48pmFor 1983 it was far ahead of its time.
Report Post »Ynnis Glytyr
Posted on January 11, 2012 at 1:35pmI love this thing. I hate all those super-small, super-thin gadgets, that cannot be operated by someone with a relative “normal” handsize (that’s why you need that stupid pen, also called stylus). That phone is right up my alley. Where can I get it? All those gadgets nowadays are nothing but a waste and a way for government to control us. If you don’t believe me, read up on how government can trace our whereabouts with all those stupid, stupid money-wasters.
Report Post »Cat
Posted on January 11, 2012 at 12:39pmWhat did the first phone really look like?
Two paper cups laced together with piece of string
Report Post »Cptnjarhead
Posted on January 11, 2012 at 9:04ami think the title should be “the first smart phone”
Report Post »wonder how many patents came from that device?
notice the virtual qwerty keyboard and what looks like a scrolling menu?
very cool and ahead of its time. For a phone.
grannyrecipe
Posted on January 11, 2012 at 6:33amHow can that be the first Iphone? I stands for internet.
Report Post »docthomp
Posted on January 11, 2012 at 12:58pmback in the day Dial up was the internet. you gained internet through the phone lines.
Report Post »grannyrecipe
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 8:27amIncorrect DOC, it wasn’t until about 1986 that some scientific and collegiate organizations used the internet. It wasn‘t until ’88,’89 that commercial access to the general public came about. Are you saying that Apple laid down all that money in R&D to develop an internet integrated phone for something that was of no practical use for years to come?
Report Post »grannyrecipe
Posted on January 12, 2012 at 8:30amThe internet wasn‘t commercially available until the late 80’s
Report Post »TomFerrari
Posted on January 11, 2012 at 4:53amLOL @ The NEWTON PHONE !!
Report Post »LawlessKO
Posted on January 10, 2012 at 10:00pm1983? really? If that’s so why was my Apple IIc so freaking big?
Report Post »Cousin_of_Marx
Posted on January 11, 2012 at 4:12amWhy was the Apple IIc so big?
Report Post »Who cares. Why is the national debt so big.
The answer is simple. Because Americans feel to see the wisdom in communism.
Just A Private
Posted on January 11, 2012 at 10:43am@Cousin of Marx,
Report Post »Stay on Subject
V-MAN MACE
Posted on January 10, 2012 at 9:51pmThat is some crazy stuff. You mean to tell me that I could have had an Apple phone to match my two ‘85 Macintoshes?
man…
Report Post »godhatesacoward
Posted on January 10, 2012 at 8:03pm1983? maybe 93!
Report Post »Dumbwhiteguy
Posted on January 10, 2012 at 7:03pmYou are kidding me?
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