Early 'Jony' iPhone 4 render shows Sony design influence


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20120726-14365407-jony-sony_inspired_iphone_prototypes15_1020_gallery_post_large_verge_medium_landscape.jpg

The Apple vs. Samsung trial is just a few days away, but the legal proceedings are already providing insight into the inner workings of Cupertino ? and how the iPhone's design team drew inspiration from Sony. A recent court filing by Samsung reveals that in 2006 Apple industrial designer Shin Nishibori was directed to design an iPhone prototype inspired by Sony's aesthetics after Tony Fadell internally circulated an interview with a designer from the company. An assortment of renders reveal his design, complete with a Sony logo ? save for one where the logo has been modified to read "Jony," presumably in honor of Apple's Jony Ive.

Apple designer Richard Howarth took note of the renders, and in a 2006 email told Ive that that he felt the design allowed for a "much smaller-looking product with a much nicer shape" for making calls when compared to another prototype, referred to as "P2." The extruded design of the P2 bears a striking resemblance to the iPod Mini, with a large screen replacing the scroll wheel (looking at the P2 prototype also strongly brings Nokia's Lumia line to mind). Pictured with the P2 is what is clearly an early prototype for what would become the iPhone 4 and 4S sandwich design. Howarth comments that Nishibori's Sony-inspired look is "only half a step away" from what is now Cupertino's current model. In an amusing aside, Howard also tells Ive that the iPhone 4 design "looks old" when compared to the P2, but that it would be more usable.

This is no doubt just the first glimpse inside Apple's design process that we'll get thanks to the forthcoming trial. Things are scheduled to kick off on Monday, and we'll be there to bring you all the news.

More pics....

http://www.theverge....-images#3597478

http://www.theverge.com/2012/7/26/3189297/sony-inspired-iphone-design-images#3597459

Source...

http://www.theverge....ne-4-looked-old

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I just don't see the sony influence. what sony equipment in or before 2004 looked ike that ? Looks more like a panasonic lumix camera with the button and metal rim, but even that is stretching a lot....

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I fixed it. Some times copying/pasting from TheVerge doesnt work to well.

so don't copy/paste from other sites and just post a link.
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I just don't see the sony influence. what sony equipment in or before 2004 looked ike that ? Looks more like a panasonic lumix camera with the button and metal rim, but even that is stretching a lot....

Did you look at all the pics? The iPhone 4 looks a lot like the Jony.

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This is news? Apple's decision to make "aspirational" products was driven by their desire to emulate Sony. The Sony brand used to carry a significant premium. Their TVs used to be at least a couple hundred dollars more expensive than Samsung, Panasonic or any of the crappy US brands.

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I would be curious to see the Sony phone they claim it's copied from

Influenced by Sony... not copied.

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Influenced by Sony... not copied.

Fine, I would like the see the 2006 Sony phone that influenced that prototype (I'm seriously curious, not trolling at all)
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Fine, I would like the see the 2006 Sony phone that influenced that prototype (I'm seriously curious, not trolling at all)

Don't think that a product was actually released by Sony. These are just prototypes they had. But I dont think thats the point of this article.

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Did you look at all the pics? The iPhone 4 looks a lot like the Jony.

yes.... and the "jony" was one of the iphone prototypes, according to the article you posted. they just changed the sony logo to jony on one of the renders.

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Wow ... seriously.

Clearly the 'Sony' reference was a metaphor used to imply 'sleek, modern, clean'. Nothing to do with 'Copy sony'.

This design looks like an extension of the iPod Nano from years before... which Apple designed. This is grasping at straws on Samsung's part.

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yes.... and the "jony" was one of the iphone prototypes, according to the article you posted. they just changed the sony logo to jony on one of the renders.

So the article is just badly written and the first part makes it sound like the images are in fact Apple's own 2006 protoypes with sony logo's to show inspiration, while they are actually Sony protopypes that inspired Apple.

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yes.... and the "jony" was one of the iphone prototypes, according to the article you posted. they just changed the sony logo to jony on one of the renders.

My bad...here is a better article with a better explanation...

http://www.macworld.com/article/1167886/court_documents_apple_looked_to_sony_for_iphone_design_inspiration.html

Apple looked in part to Sony for inspiration in designing its first iPhone, even having an internal designer produce ?Sony-like? mock-ups of cell phones that carried the name of the Japanese electronics company, according to internal Apple documents submitted to a California court on Wednesday

The documents were filed to the U.S. District Court in San Jose by lawyers for Samsung as part of an ongoing lawsuit with Apple over patent infringement. After months of in-court discussion and fighting, the two sides are scheduled to begin arguing their case in front of a jury on Monday.

A big part of the case revolves around allegations that some of Samsung?s cell phones and tablet computers are too closely styled after Apple?s products. With the recently filed documents, Samsung appears to be preparing to argue that Apple looked to other companies in designing its first cell phone and that such a practice is common in the consumer electronics marketplace.

The merits of this argument will be up to a jury to decide, but the documents do offer a fascinating look at some of Apple?s design thinking almost a year before the iPhone was first revealed.

Apple founder Steve Jobs? admiration for Sony isn?t a secret and the court filing appears to show that as part of the design process for the first iPhone, Apple asked one of its designers to answer the question: ?What would Sony do??

Samsung?s court submission includes images produced by an Apple computer-aided design (CAD) system of a mock handset that borrows from Sony design elements of the time. They include a jog wheel, a combined control wheel and switch, that was used on Sony?s Clie personal digital assistants.

A second submission includes a March 2006 email from Richard Howarth, a senior member of Apple?s industrial design team, to Jonathan Ive, Apple?s head of industrial design, concerning prototypes for the iPhone.

The email discusses mock-ups of a cell phone being prepared by Apple designer Shin Nishibori that Howarth refers to as ?the sony-style chappy.?

Included with the email were photographs of what apparently were 3D models of an early iPhone prototype and a phone based on Nishibori?s design.

?He?s able to achieve a much smaller-looking product with a much nicer shape to have next to your ear and in your pocket? wrote Howarth of the Nishibori design when compared to Apple?s prototype of the moment.

While Nishibori apparently looked to Sony for inspiration, it?s important to note that the resulting designs and mock-ups included in the court filing did not look like any actual Sony phones of the time.

Perhaps the two most striking aspects of the CAD mock-ups and one of the 3D models is that they look a lot more like the iPhone 4 than the original iPhone launched by Apple in 2007. The mock phone has a silver metal band running around the edge and a flat front and back.

The email was sent two weeks after Tony Fadell, then a senior executive in the iPod division, forwarded a BusinessWeek article to Apple?s senior management, including Ive and Steve Jobs, in which the head of Sony?s creative strategy unit was interviewed about the company?s design. In the article, he also discussed the iPod?s influence on Sony.

The case is 11-01846 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jos

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i have to wonder how could Samsung got hold of that CAD mockup and Apple got Samsung internal notes?

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i have to wonder how could Samsung got hold of that CAD mockup and Apple got Samsung internal notes?

Exactly. At first I though it was Apple that submitted these renders to the court at which I could only think "Why?". And now it appears that it was Samsung that did it. And how did they get such internal information?

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Exactly. At first I though it was Apple that submitted these renders to the court at which I could only think "Why?". And now it appears that it was Samsung that did it. And how did they get such internal information?

Apple has some dirt on Samsung as well. Internal stuff. There is a lot more info that has been released I have been reading. Just dont feel like posting it here ATM as there are going to be many more articles to come.

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Wow ... seriously.

Clearly the 'Sony' reference was a metaphor used to imply 'sleek, modern, clean'. Nothing to do with 'Copy sony'.

This design looks like an extension of the iPod Nano from years before... which Apple designed. This is grasping at straws on Samsung's part.

Then you are a moron if you believe that.
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Apple has some dirt on Samsung as well. Internal stuff. There is a lot more info that has been released I have been reading. Just dont feel like posting it here ATM as there are going to be many more articles to come.

But my question still remains, how did they dig this up? I can't imagine some disgruntled employee giving/selling this stuff away without the other party barring the evidence from the court (illegally obtained evidence?) nor has

this information been floating around on the internet via some unknown channels, since if that was the case, pro-Apple blogs (basically 80% of the blogs) would have already posted them.

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My bad...here is a better article with a better explanation...

And that article as well as the firts one both indicate what I first thought I read. The Jony phone was designed by an Apple employee, working at apple. and they wrote sony one it, except for on pic where they wrote Jony in reference to Ives. This early design was the brought up again, later.

So The phone is designed by Apple. the only thing they said was "design something that looks sony is" and for some reason the dude wrote sony on it. In any case. I still don't see how the Jony phone is Sony inspired as it doesn't look like any sony device. at most it could slightly, very very slightly resemble Panasonic lumix cameras a wee tiny bit.

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