Ciccarese Design Brings the ‘Other’ iPhone Prototype to Real Life [PICS]

Last July during the Apple versus Samsung trial, court documents revealed iPhone prototypes the company had considered. One of them, pictured below is an iPod-based design (next to the general design Apple eventually decided on).

Ciccarese Design has released some concept images based on the iPod-inspired prototype–is this what we would be using if Steve Jobs and company had decided to go this route?

IPhone 5 Alternative Future 01

IPhone 5 Alternative Future 02

IPhone 5 Alternative Future 03

The Walter Isaacson biography on Steve Jobs shares details about the relentless desire and lengths at which Apple wanted in the final iPhone design:

The problem was that the iPhone should have been all about the display, but in their current design the case completely competed with the display instead of getting out of the way. The whole device felt too masculine, task-driven, efficient. “Guys, you’ve killed yourselves over this design for the last nine months, but we’re going to change it,” Jobs told Ive’s team. “We’re all going to have to work nights and weekends, and if you want we can hand out some guns so you can kill us now.” Instead of balking, the team agreed. “It was one of my proudest moments at Apple, ” Jobs recalled.

Earlier today, reports revealed details and images of what Apple’s cheaper plastic-backed iPhone could look like.

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