Steve Jobs’s Best Patents That Never Were

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Steve Jobs’s Best Patents That Never Were

by on August 25, 2011 at 4:30pm -

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For over 30 years, Steve Jobs and Apple helped bring the world some of the most unique and innovative computing products. From the early Apple 3 to the iPod, iPad, and beyond, each Mac invention required a patent — even those little plastic packagings that everything comes in. Earlier today, the New York Times released a feature showing all 313 patents that Jobs was listed on as one of the inventors. Among the list was a group of inventions called "Oddities": the inventions that never made it to the market. The following slideshow shows all the inventions that could've been and what we ended up with instead.
iMac G4 with Circular Base and Flexible Arm
iMac G4 with Pyramid Base and Single Arm
iMac G4 with Square Base and L-Shape Arm
iMac G4 with Pyramid Base and Flexible Arm
WHAT WE GOT: iMac G4

Jobs experimented with multiple bases and arm designs before deciding on this final design for the iMac G4.
iPhone Input System with Click-Wheel
iPhone Touch Keyboard

Before coming up with the touch screen design that we all now know so well, Apple experimented with their original click-wheel design for a phone input system.
iPod with Cross Input
iPod with Single Bar Input
iPod with Single Bar Input
iPod with Touch Pad Input
Multiple iPod Variations
iPod Touch and Original

Apple explored many different options to supplant the touchscreen and click-wheel designs for the iPod before sticking to some variation of these two designs. You'll find the other "input" designs on lots of iPod imitators from other companies.