IPhone ancestor appeared in 1983

Apple, for several years conquering the world with their smartphones iPhone, has developed a prototype touchscreen phone way back in 1983.

The author of the design was Hartmut Esslinger industrial designer (Hartmut Esslinger), designed for the apple of many devices, including Apple IIc, which is considered the first attempt to create an Apple laptop computer. In addition to his successful work at Apple, Esslinger also known as the founder of design studio Frogdesign, which has offices in various parts of the world.

As can be seen in the photo, it's a landline phone with a touchscreen, which is controlled using the stylus. Even though the machine was never destined to go into production, you never know what would consist of a current telephone industry, if Apple found worthy in the 80 years to release such a product. However, the company's decision not to rush things could be explained by the fact that the market at that time was simply not ready for such a phone.

They themselves are part of a huge photo archive at Stanford University. Apple gave the institution a collection of your own documents in 1997, just after the return of Steve Jobs to the company. Earlier Apple documentation carefully guarded from prying eyes, but the university decided to open up access to it, some organizations and journalists.