Apple solely reveals off its completed merchandise, which makes the corporate’s secret prototypes and early ideas all of the extra fascinating. Particulars of those first-draft designs often don’t come out till years after Apple desires them up and discards them. Even in case you’re well-versed in Apple historical past, these alternate-history unreleased Apple merchandise will intrigue and confuse.
The wild and loopy concepts return greater than 40 years. If something, it proves that Apple repeatedly skates towards the following hit. The search for innovation continues, irrespective of whether or not the corporate is in dire straits or cruising on success. Hold studying or watch our video to see the wildest Apple merchandise that may have been.
The wildest and weirdest unreleased prototypes from Apple historical past
Apple Jonathan prototypes
Photograph: Rick English/frogdesign
By late 1984, after the primary couple fashions of the Macintosh shipped, Apple executives began to plan for the following large factor. Wait, what? That’s loopy, proper? The Macintosh was undeniably approachable and straightforward to make use of. Nonetheless, it wasn’t modular just like the Apple II. Plus, higher-end machines from Solar, Amiga and DEC simply outperformed the Mac. Apple’s concept of making expandability easy took the type of a bookshelf-like machine code-named the “Apple Jonathan.” The Apple Jonathan can be expandable and upgraded by including new modules, which have been all concerning the dimension of a hardback e-book.
![Jonathan Modules Apple Jonathan modules](https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Jonathan-Modules.jpg)
Photograph: Rick English/frogdesign
The modules can be plug-and-play, and you may merely add an additional laborious drive, extra highly effective graphics, peripherals and third-party equipment. Such a machine would have been extremely bold from an engineering standpoint. In fact, as a result of this was to be knowledgeable pc, it could be black, as these Apple Jonathan prototypes present.
In the end, Apple by no means launched a product like that — nor has some other pc producer. In actuality, the Macintosh received out. The road was expanded to the low-end Macintosh Plus, the midrange Macintosh SE and the large, top-of-the-line Macintosh II.
Apple Paladin prototype
![Apple Paladin Apple Paladin](https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Apple-Paladin-1440x1080.jpg)
Photograph: Jim Abeles/Flickr
One other experiment with the Macintosh form factor arrived within the Apple Paladin, which took the concept of an all-in-one pc to the following degree within the Nineteen Nineties. This unreleased machine mixed a pc with a desk cellphone, scanner and fax machine. You’d have the ability to swap between the totally different capabilities by urgent the various buttons on the entrance. The Paladin would have been focused at small companies that needed all these separate options on a decent funds or individuals who can be intimidated by the complexity of shopping for a PC tower, monitor, fax machine and scanner all individually.
The thoughts races imagining simply how briskly Apple co-founder Steve Jobs would have destroyed it with a baseball bat if he ever noticed an Apple Paladin prototype.
Big Newton pill
![Apple newton bic tablet prototype_26663798597_o A giant Apple Newton prototype.](https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/apple-newton-bic-tablet-prototype_26663798597_o-1440x960.jpg)
Photograph: Jim Abeles/Flickr
The smartphone earlier than the smartphone was the PDA, or private digital assistant. The PalmPilot was essentially the most well-known instance. Apple’s PDA providing was referred to as the Newton MessagePad, and it was the fervour undertaking of then-CEO John Sculley. The Apple Newton merchandise that shipped within the ’90s have been all roughly the dimensions of a contemporary iPad mini — barely too large to truly slot in a pocket.
Nonetheless, the unique Apple Newton prototypes included a much bigger version that by no means noticed the sunshine of day. The display was concerning the dimension of a sheet of paper, with even greater black bezels increasing it right into a sprawling pill. This isn’t a PDA you whip out to jot down some notes in a gathering. It is a pill you’ll have arrange on a desk.
Early variations of the Apple Newton famously struggled to make good on guarantees of seamless handwriting recognition. Everybody mocked the machine for this downside. Later variations, like my MessagePad 2000, lastly fulfilled the unique dream. Nobody knew it on the time, however the “killer app” that might have made the Newton nice hadn’t been invented but: Wi-Fi.
Maybe if Apple gave the Newton extra time, a bigger, extra highly effective, extra succesful model — just like the unreleased pill on this prototype — might have grow to be a possible product.
Early G4-era iPad prototype
![Enhanced buzz wide 29987 1342646190 3 iPad 2 next to the iPad 035 prototype.](https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/enhanced-buzz-wide-29987-1342646190-3.jpg)
Photograph: Buzzfeed
Even after discontinuing the Newton, Apple stored growing tablets internally, as shown by this prototype from 2002. With its white polycarbonate shell, it appears very very similar to a member of the Apple household of the period. You may think about it becoming in completely subsequent to the traditional white plastic iPod, the iMac G5 and the iBook. It’s about as thick as a laptop computer of the early 2000s, however and not using a large array of ports and slots, the smooth white case appears fairly trendy.
The iPad began as an experiment into the brand new expertise of capacitive touchscreens. Older resistive contact screens, used within the Apple Newton, Nintendo DS and a few higher-end vehicles, required a stylus for smaller screens and couldn’t help multi-finger gestures.
Screens that you may faucet along with your finger as an alternative of poke with a stylus have been an thrilling improvement. In line with former Apple government Scott Forstall, the very first touchscreen tech demo concerned a ceiling-mounted projector pointed at a table-size capacitive floor. The Rube Goldberg contraption ran an early model of Mac OS X, and was used to check out interactions like swiping to scroll and dragging home windows to maneuver them round.
![Enhanced buzz wide 30669 1342646253 6 iPad 2 next to the iPad 035 prototype, both showing their displays.](https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/enhanced-buzz-wide-30669-1342646253-6.jpg)
Photograph: Buzzfeed
It’s unknown how developed Apple’s smooth white pill prototype was. No photos present it powered on, so who is aware of what software program it ran on — or if it was useful in any respect. It wasn’t till years later that the pill experiment was shrunk down into the first iPhone, which shipped in 2007. And it took one other three years after that for the iPad as we know it to ship.
The Mac mini iPod dock
![Mac mini iPod nano Dock Prototype Mac mini with an iPod nano dock built into the top](https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Mac-mini-iPod-nano-Dock-Prototype-1440x960.jpg)
Photograph: @DongleBookPro/X
Within the 2000s, when Apple was most aggressively making an attempt to take again PC market share, Apple executives tried to piggyback off the success of the iPod as a lot as potential. Based mostly on what they referred to as the “iPod halo impact,” the considering was that if folks come into an Apple Retailer to purchase an iPod, staffers might attempt to promote them a Mac on the identical time.
The face of this marketing campaign was the Mac mini. For simply $499, you may actually unplug your PC and plug in a Mac as an alternative, utilizing the identical show, keyboard and mouse. And what higher strategy to present that that is the “iPod pc” than to construct an iPod nano dock into the Mac mini? You may simply think about how these can be lined up and displayed within the Apple Retailer proper between the opposite iPods and Macs.
Whereas the iPod nano and Mac mini look actually cool plugged into one another, it begs the query of what occurs when Apple modifications the design of the iPod nano, or in case you purchase a full-size iPod as an alternative. Truthfully, what in all probability killed the concept is that when the iPod wasn’t plugged in, there was a gap within the high of the pc. Steve Jobs would have discovered that upsetting.
The iPod cellphone
![IPhone Prototypes The two iPhone prototypes, side-by-side.](https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/iPhone-Prototypes.jpg)
Photograph: Sonny Dickson
As soon as Steve Jobs and his lieutenants determined to make a cellphone, there have been two totally different approaches: Shrink the pill prototype, or take an iPod and add a phone to it. Apple wasn’t certain at first which might be a greater path to pursue, so the corporate arrange two groups to try out each approach.
The iPod group loved a head begin, for the reason that music participant was already a totally developed (and well-liked) product line. Including a mobile radio and a brand new a part of the consumer interface for dialing numbers was all that wanted to be completed. However the limitations instantly began to indicate. The iPod’s click on wheel interface is nice for scrolling by a library of songs, however in response to former Apple VP Tony Fadell, it was horrible at dialing cellphone numbers.
The iPod was a consumption machine: You organized your music in your Mac, and also you browsed and listened to it in your iPod. The iPod didn’t have a keyboard for typing cellphone numbers — a lot much less texting or including new contacts.
This loopy prototype concept even received some display time at an Apple occasion
![Rotary iPod Phone Joke image of an iPod with a rotary phone dial.](https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Rotary-iPod-Phone.jpg)
Photograph: Apple
From a contemporary perspective, an iPod cellphone sounds completely ridiculous. However from 2004’s perspective, the iPhone we ended up with was extremely bold and wasn’t assured to work. Mac OS X was nonetheless operating sluggish on full-size desktop computer systems — operating the identical basis on a pocket-size, battery-powered machine can be a serious effort. Mac OS X was in the midst of a processor transition from PowerPC to Intel — the ARM chip contained in the iPhone can be a 3rd totally different platform.
The foolish concept of an iPod cellphone was immortalized within the introduction of the true iPhone, as a joke by Steve Jobs, earlier than the true factor was lastly proven off.
The numerous early, bizarre iPhone prototypes
![Screen-shot-2012-07-29-at-L (1) Early prototype iPhone that resembles an iPhone 4](https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Screen-shot-2012-07-29-at-L-1.jpeg)
Photograph: Apple
As soon as Apple settled on a software program stack, the matter of the cellphone’s bodily kind turned something of a design playground. In any case, it was the primary machine of its variety. Among the Apple cellphone prototypes look acquainted: a slick rounded black bar of cleaning soap that turned the iPhone 3G and iPhone 3GS; an ice cream sandwich-style design that turned the iPhone 4 and iPhone 4s; and designs with a tall and skinny display just like the iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s.
![Screen-shot-2012-07-29-at-L (8) iPhone prototype that looks a bit like an old iPod.](https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Screen-shot-2012-07-29-at-L-8.jpeg)
Photograph: Apple
Most of the designs have been impressed by the iPod of the time, with a rounded form, a silver face and even a sliding energy button as an alternative of a clicking button. Among the early Apple cellphone prototypes even have the phrase “MENU” printed on the Dwelling button as an alternative of the long-lasting rounded rectangle.
![Screen-shot-2012-07-29-at-L (9) iPhone prototype with octagonal corners](https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Screen-shot-2012-07-29-at-L-9.jpeg)
Photograph: Apple
Apple produced some actually weird one-off designs, too. One prototype was octagonal. One other added a large, rounded hump on the again. Whereas the unique iPhone might not have been the prettiest, these prototypes are proof that there are a thousand “nos” for every “yes” relating to Apple design.
The Apple automotive
![Canoo Apple Car Canoo EV with glass roof](https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Canoo-Apple-Car-1440x810.jpg)
Photograph: Canoo
One among Apple’s worst-kept secrets and techniques ever was the automotive initiative often called Project Titan. The corporate dumped billions of {dollars} into constructing a automotive earlier than pulling the plug this year. However what did the unreleased Apple product that aimed to remodel transportation appear to be? How did it work? What bizarre quirks and options did it have? That every one remained a thriller till Apple shut down the undertaking. With out something to lose, contemplating all that special talent was being laid off, the world quickly found out.
A number of prototypes of Apple’s unreleased automotive
![Canoo Lifestyle Vehicle_Adventure_Rear Seat with Air Vent Apple reportedly might make the interior of its autonomous vehicle look something like Canoo's Lifestyle Vehicle.](https://www.cultofmac.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Canoo-Lifestyle-Vehicle_Adventure_Rear-Seat-with-Air-Vent-780x439.jpeg)
Photograph: Canoo
The primary design, recognized affectionately because the “bread loaf,” would have regarded one thing just like the Canoo EV. As reported by Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, Apple envisioned this unreleased automotive as some type of minivan crossed with a VW bus. The prototypes sported sliding doorways and a glass cover.
“The cabin would have membership seating like a personal aircraft, and passengers would have the ability to flip a few of the seats into recliners and footrests,” Gurman reported. Going all-in on full autonomous driving, this mannequin didn’t include conventional car elements like a dashboard, steering wheel or pedals.
A second design beneath Kevin Lynch, Apple’s vp of expertise who took over the undertaking, was “pod-shaped, with curved glass sides that doubled as gull-wing doorways.” This radical Apple automotive prototype regarded even weirder — and nearly similar from the entrance and the again. It featured “ramps that might mechanically fold out” for shifting cargo. Apple designers appeared unbelievably assured that the corporate would nail full self-driving capabilities. The truth is, this mannequin didn’t even embrace home windows on the entrance or the again.
To this present day, no automaker can ship a totally autonomous automotive. So maybe it’s no shock that Cupertino couldn’t get it to work, both. No marvel Apple opted out of the sport. Nonetheless, a great deal of different automotive producers proceed engaged on the issue — with various levels of success. Perhaps Mercedes will ship on the first-class lounge expertise that Cupertino might solely dream of.
In relation to unreleased Apple merchandise, personally, I nonetheless want I had an Apple Jonathan.