When the iPad debuted in 2010, reviewers and consumers were struck by its groundbreaking design. The original Engadget review noted that the device was “possibly a sign of things to come for the entire personal computer market” – a prediction that seems increasingly apt. However, the iPad didn't arrive out of nowhere. A recent designboom post shared images of early Apple prototypes, including a “Tablet Mac” design study from 1982, from the book “Design Forward” by designer Hartmut Esslinger.
Esslinger, who has also worked with SAP, GE, HP, Motorola and others, was a designer at Apple throughout much of the 1980s. He helped create the “Snow White” design language, which reached the market in the form of products such as the Apple IIc. The images posted on designboom offer a look at design studies such as the “Tablet Mac,” which featured a square screen and a plug-in keyboard, and the 1984 “Macphone,” which supplemented a traditional phone with a stylus-controlled screen. “Design Forward” chronicles Apple's shift toward a design-centric philosophy of a unified aesthetic across all of the company's products.
“Steve [Jobs'] desire to end the disjoined [aesthetic] approach gave birth to a strategic design project that would revolutionize apple's brand and product lines, change the trajectory of the company's future and eventually redefine the way the world thinks about and uses consumer electronics and communication technologies,” Esslinger wrote.
If an accident has left your iPad or iPhone as functional as a prototype from the early 1980s, you can turn to iPad repair services from iResQ to get your device running smoothly.