Curved glass design for the iPhone was once considered by Apple

Prototype designs from the past is a great way of seeing the way a company thinks before arriving at its final product, most of the time ending up looking nothing like previous sketches. Thanks to the ongoing Apple versus Samsung lawsuit, several prototype designs of the early iPhone were uncovered and it was also revealed that at one point in time, Apple did consider using a curved glass design for the iPhone. This was revealed by Doug Satzger in his testimony in the Apple versus Samsung lawsuit. Satzger spent 12 years in industrial design at Apple before moving on to Palm, and now Intel and according to his testimony, there were several factors that prevented Apple from using a curved glass design at that time:

“The technology in shaping the glass, the cost relative to shaping the glass at the time, and some of the design features of this specific shape were not liked. […]

The technology at the time had a lot to do with it. The qualities of the glass at the time had a lot to do with it. These are models — I’m trying to remember a time frame — that were before gorilla glass and before a lot of the other factors.

My recollection of it was that to get the extruded aluminum design that was applied to the iPod to work for the iPhone, there were too many added features to allow it to be comfortable and to work properly. […]

If you put an iPod up to your ear, the sharp edges, because of the processes, aren’t comfortable, and you can’t get antennas to work properly in a fully enclosed metal jacket. So each one of those things needed to apply other features that started.”

So what do you guys think? Would you have preferred an iPhone with a curved glass design, or are you perfectly happy with the way the phone is looking right now?

Tyler Lee
Categories: Apple, Cellphones
Tags: iPhone