IPHONE's inception that remained a prototype!!!

Surprisingly enough it seems Apple’s ambitions of entering the phone market dated back to the early days in 1980's.
Hartmut Esslinger, founder of design firm frog design, designed a touchscreen phone prototype for Apple (which now looks pretty impressive) while he was under contract by the company to work on projects like the Apple IIc.(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_IIc)


If you've read Steve Jobs biography, you might remember frog design as the company that won an Apple contest intended to create a “consistent design language” for all Apple products.
From the biography:

He [Esslinger] produced forty models of products to demonstrate the concept, and when Jobs saw them he proclaimed, “Yes, this is it!”

Jobs offered Esslinger a contract on the condition that he move to California. They shook hands and, in Esslinger’s not-so-modest words, “that handshake launched one of the most decisive collaborations in the history of industrial design.”

As far as my research goes, the prototype designed by Esslinger:

• was made in co-operation with AT&T (which later went on to carry the iphone exclusively more than 20 years later).
• had a monochrome touch screen.
• came with electronic check payment.

For unknown reasons this remained as a prototype and was never released to the market.
As per my guess:
May be Jobs didn't like the thick screen or he didn't find the stylus amusing!!!