Prototype of turn of the century Apple iPad spotted in court filings

If there is one good thing about the Apple-Samsung dust up, it is the possibility to see history in the making. As both sides turn over documents pertaining to the patent wars, Apple has revealed pictures of an Apple tablet that was made in the early 2000s. Apple's Jonathan Ive dates the prototype as being from 2002-2004 pre-dating the current version of the Apple iPad by quite a few years. The late Steve Jobs had told an audience back in 2010 that it was a tablet that led to the development of the Apple iPhone. The interesting thing about the design of the tablet is the edge to edge screen and the lack of a physical home button. Note the thickness of the device.

The idea to build the Apple iPhone is said to have come after Steve Jobs' unhappiness with the Motorola ROKR. This was a phone that Motorola produced in cooperation with Apple which was launched in September 2005. Jobs called the device the "iTunes phone" as it was considered at Cupertino to be part iPod and part phone. In a bit of a put down, he said owning the ROKR was like having an "iPod shuffle right on your phone." Viewing the introduction of the ROKR in the video below, you can see some problems it had returning to music from a phone call at about the 3:39 mark.

Moving back to the tablet prototype, Ive's deposition refers to the tablet seen in the photos as the 035 mockup. Apple is trying to assert its '889 patent against Samsung, This is the patent that covers the design and technology of the modern day Apple iPad and was referenced by Apple in the letter sent by the company's attorneys to retailers in a bid to get them to stop selling the Samsung GALAXY Tab 10.1 tablet and the Samsung GALAXY Nexus.

source:  NetworkWorld via TechCrunch

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