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iPhone 4S and the persistence of design

Wednesday, 5 October, 2011 — design apple iphone

It’s not hard to find someone (or some people) seemingly disappointed with Apple not releasing a redesigned iPhone 5 today. Rumors were focused on a split iPhone 4S and iPhone 5 announcement, based on leaked parts and case manufacturers looking to get a jump on a new design.

I posit that outside of Apple, a lot of assumptions about what Apple would do are made based on how other companies treat design, not how Apple has demonstrated how it treats design.

Let’s first consider that most manufacturers have multiple phone models. LG, for instance, as of this writing, is showing 120 models / variants. Apple, today, has three phones, in four different capacities in two different colors. As near as I can tell, it breaks down like this:

So, we’re up to eleven active iPhone part numbers. By comparison, the iPad 2 has 18 variants (color, capacity, networking). While the variants might create the impression of complexity, you are left with some simple decisions:

• How much am I comfortable paying for a phone?
• If I’m willing to pay $100 or more, what color do I want?
• If I’m willing to pay $200 or more, what capacity do I want?

You aren’t making decisions about form factor or screen size. There’s no “gaming” or “texting” or “business” iPhone.

But, look back at the LG example. You could just as easily look at Motorola or Nokia and see that you’re making a different set of decisions, based on your presumed use of the phone. The flagship phones change frequently. They change externally. I believe they change because the companies believe users believe they have to change to be “new.”

As a counter-point to the rapid changing of a lot of feature and smart phones, let’s look at the design life of Apple’s computers:

This is somewhat cherry-picked. I’m not including the Mac mini, for instance. I’m also not including design refinements like port addition/subtraction, size variants, edge-to-edge glass or similar. This is a subjective marker of the common ancestor. Arguably, you could go further back with the iMac.

Now, let’s consider the design language of the iPhone. The 3G was announced in June of 2008. The iPhone 4, in June of 2010. The design language of the iPhone 3G, carried forward with the 3GS, will be five plus years old, when a contract signed today expires. The iPhone 4 design language will be three plus years on. Suffice to say, given the context of Apple’s computers, the iPhone 4’s design is not old.

So, what’s at issue? I suspect we have two immediate markers. First, the fast design iteration of the iPhone to the iPhone 3G. Second, the fast iteration of the iPad to the iPad 2. The first versions were to 1) establish the market and 2) learn. The lessons learned were rolled into the subsequent iterations. Apple’s not afraid to make a design departure when it wants to.

But, if Apple believes the design is true, it also doesn’t feel like it has to change anything. Consider the PowerMac G5 case. It’s been iterated, heavily, internally. But the external case is still a winner. Same with the current iMac. I venture to guess we won’t see many more frequent, radical changes. I expect the MacBook Pro will at some point get thinner, akin to the MacBook Air, but then what? The iPad 2 design could likely go years, even as it adds a Retina display and simplify variants to wifi or CDMA+GSM+wifi.

Now, let’s layer on a couple of points from Dieter Rams’s 10 principles for good design:

• Good design is long-lasting
• Good design is innovative

At first glance, these might be contrary positions. But consider, if design can be innovative, it should be. If it can be long-lasting, it should be. Since the original iMac, Apple’s hardware designs have been innovative, but they have also been long-lasting, and increasingly so every year. I daresay design that is incorrect has been edited out. Consider: the dalmatian-spotted iMac, the buttonless iPod shuffle, the four button + clickwheel iPod.

Here’s my bet: Apple knows it has a winner with the iPhone 4 design language. Glass back, external antenna and all. It’s a beautiful and functional object. It isn’t going to change until (and not a moment before) there is something better, functionally and more beautiful. That could be next year. It could just as easily be three years from now.