So many changes...
I am the proud owner of the Apple IIc Prototype #2 from the design lab of Hartmut Esslinger at Frog Design. Because many Greeks liked my Macintosh 1984 unboxing project, here is another Apple Gem from my collection in a photo series. I have compared the Prototype with the later sold Apple //c. Another Prototype is located at the digibarn.com computer Museum. I will do some research to get more informations about the Apple //c prototypes. If you know something about them, please let me know any detail!
Some more informations about Frog, Esslinger and Apple Snow White design language:
Hartmut Esslinger came to Apple and created a unique design language which took the project's code-name and helped establish Apple with a serious corporate image. Though Esslinger originally created a design for the Macintosh SE, it wasn't until the Apple IIc the Apple would first introduce the new design language. From the introduction of the Apple II through the Macintosh Plus, Apple's products favored a beige-like color scheme of differing shades. The Apple IIc was the first to introduce a product with a lighter, creamy off-white color, known in-house as "Fog" (though Esslinger originally argued for bright-white), a color that would persist in all Snow White design language products until the introduction of the Apple IIGS in late 1986, which marked a turning point in the unification of Apple products. Apple selected a warm gray color they called "Platinum" for the IIGS and all subsequent computers until the introduction of the iMac in 1998 (although a darker shade of gray was adopted for the PowerBook line and various peripherals).
Apple //c prototype #2 is on the left, on the right you see the later sold production version. The ventilation slots are much smaller than in the later sold version. The production version is an European Apple//c so you see some differences on the keyboard layout. The keyboard in the prototype is the standard Northern American Layout.
The backside - the prototype seems to produce much heat inside the case, the later sold version has lots of more ventilation slots.
My prototype is #2 (edding mark), on the right the later sold Apple //c with its info sticker.
The buttons are not labeled on the prototype.
The prototype (on top) has no coating on the case, it is plain shiny plastic.
The ports on the backside have no label. It seems that there is also a floppy drive prototype in it - the later drive used other colored plastic. The prototype is on the left.
On the prototype the logo is on a different location (between vantilaton slots) than on the later sold Apple //c. There is no Logo embedded in the prototype. It looks like they wanted to use the "Macintosh 1984" Logo, that was placed on a scuared ground plate.
Its running! It starts with the usual APPLE //c prompt. I did not opened the prototype but there is a working logic board in it.
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