Is this the new Apple Tablet? (1983 edition)

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Despite all the rampant speculation of the last few months, no one outside of Apple really knows what this Wednesday holds in store, but Wired has turned up an interesting precedent for the rumoured iTablet/iSlate.

It’s called “Bashful” and it’s a concept tablet device developed for Apple in the early 1980s (Apple used the ‘Snow White’ off-white design ‘language’ for its devices in those days, though we doubt ‘Dopey’ ever made an appearance).

The device was produced by Frog Design, who recently found these photos in its archives and they give an interesting look at what a tablet device could have looked like over a quarter of a century ago.

Technology clearly wasn’t up to delivering anything like the touch-screen devices we know today, but the Bashful tablet is still a surprisingly compact computer — not that this was a working model, of course.

The concept designs included one model with an attached keyboard, a handle for easy portability (ah, those were the days), plus an external floppy disk drive and even an attached phone.

We have no idea if the Bashful tablet ever got past the mock-up stage, but it obviously never went to market and it wasn’t until the ill-fated Newton MessagePad that Apple tried its hand with a portable touch-screen device. The MessagePad first appeared in 1993 and was canned with the return of Steve Jobs as Apple CEO in 1997.

So, will this week’s anticipated tablet be third time lucky for Apple..? We’ll find out in about 55 hours…

[Wired]