Today at the Apple vs. Samsung trial, Apple designer Christopher Stringer took to the stand as Apple's first witness. In the course of his testimony about Apple's design process, he showed dozens of rejected iPhone and iPad designs — including some he actually showed in person. They give us yet another look at Apple's design process and reveal a bit about how the company forms its design aesthetic. Some of the newly revealed phones do appear to have more in common with Sony's design aesthetic than Apple's, for example "Apple Proto 87" goes for a flat, black metallic look with all the major buttons and ports on the side of the device.



Stringer said that Apple created "hundreds" of different models over the course of the design process, some of which would receive even more iterations as the team would try out different individual elements for the device.

"Apple Proto 0874," an iPad prototype, was particularly interesting in that it didn't go with a simple slab design, but included a thinner rail around the entire device that curves around the back on the top and bottom. Presumably that would have been meant to improve grip, but it's easy to see why Apple left this model on the cutting room floor:





We've collected all of the prototypes in the two galleries below, in total there's over 60 images, broken into 32 iPhone prototype models, CAD images, and six iPad model images.

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