Quote:
Originally Posted by Graham
Prototypes existed, which is perfectly acceptable prior art. And I think you'll find that Apple didn't release a prototype iPhone before the iPhone either.
Graham
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Well, I am not making a comment on the trial in particular, rather on the fact that prototypes that remained shelved suddenly took on a new importance.
There are other misleading elements on that chart; the F700 concept, for example, had a slideout keyboard and a UI that is not at all app- or icon-based. You can't tell from the photo.
There is also a time issue. The iPhone was enormously derided when it first came out. It didn't have 3rd party apps, it didn't have 3G, it was too expensive, so on and so forth. It took a couple years for it to catch on and have the influence it did on competing products. Android, too, needed to be invented to give other manufacturers an OS that could compare on features. I owned a Samsung iPhone clone once, called the Instinct if I'm not mistaken, which was marketed as an "Apple Eater" and had 4 rows of touchscreen icons and was an attempt at a blatant copy but its software was so feeble that I junked it after a year. Still, they tried.
