Samsung and Apple are currently fighting over rectangles and retail packaging. The legal battle is a classic CF, but the process has yielded a treasure trove of early Apple product designs. So far court documents have revealed early iPhone and iPad designs. Some models have kickstands, others are inspired by Sony — all pretty interesting. But today is Samsung’s turn with freshly-minted court documents revealing some early feature phone concept designs. And you know what? Samsung’s early designs are lame.
Once a staple of Samsung’s mobile portfolio, these sorts of fashion-forward feature phones attempted to bridge huge gap between more basic devices and the smartphones of the day.
The designs displayed here are all sliders, and there are three main categories to pore over — there are variations of the 2.5-inch Skin Slide, 2.7-inch Slide, and 2.9-inch Q Slide concepts. Again, nothing super-exciting, but it’s always sort of cool to see what exactly goes into creating a device mean to stick with users for years. It’s worth noting that there are a few familiar faces to be found — the “Q bowl” design looks nearly identical to what the company would eventually call the “Glyde,” a piss-poor QWERTY slider that wound up on Verizon’s shelves back in 2008.
Meanwhile, the Apple/Samsung battle will continue to rage on for weeks to come. The two companies are at odds over trivial, but still substantial (and usually patented) details. For now though, feel free to indulge in a blast from Samsung’s not-too-distant past.
The amazing Chris Velazco contributed to this report.