Illustrations and picture of more than 40 iPhone and iPad prototypes have surfaced, showing the evolution of Apple's design process that ended up in the first generation iPhone.
As much as Apple's design is admired, it may be even more stunning that Apple now claims that its design team has only 15 people who sketch, discuss and discard product designs. The disclosure of the drawings have the purpose to show the complexity of a design process and provide a counter weight to Samsung's claims that Apple cannot "patent rectangles". The court process will focus on two very different stances of the iPhone product design - whether Apple, in fact, created the design, or if it simply used already existing trends to design the iPhone. The case is also expected to provide a precedence how far-reaching a design patent can and should be.
As painful as the revelation of the iPhone designs are, Samsung is also suffering. The proceedings have confirmed that Samsung is working on a tablet with a screen size and resolution greater than that of Apple's device. The result of the court battle will have some interesting implications for the smartphone and tablet industry.
