Apple MacPhone

Years before the iPhone, Steve Jobs had a plan to revolutionalize the landline phones. His idea was to build a MacPhone, which was a stylus-operated tablet fused with a landline. Since Steve wasn’t good at drawing, he asked John Scully to come up with an initial outline. And the responsibility of turning this idea into reality was given to the German-American industrial designer Hartmut Esslinger. Having worked on Sony’s smash hit Trinitron and WEGA TVs, Hartmut was one of the most influential designers in the 80s. In the time when fax machines were just getting popular, the MacPhone was ahead of its time. Using its on-screen keyboard, you could compose and send an email right from the MacPhone. There wasn’t any official statement from Apple for cancelling this project, but as per speculations it was a result of Steve Jobs being ousted in 1985.

Leave a comment