iPhone 5 Industrial Design

I love how they embrace the variation (we’re talking mircons though) in parts between the case and glass and optimize their assembly and part handling robots to get the best (of 750 parts) fit for each case…that part made me giggle. The images look SO tight on the parts, it’s crazy, can’t wait to hold one. I will be preordering ASAP. I can’t believe people are complaining about the connector, it’s obviously meant to be the new standard, gotta make the jump sometime.

The earbuds are interesting, the overall form is very organic, but the pill shaped details are so rational in comparison, it’s a little bit of a weird juxtaposition to me. We’ll see how they feel, sound, and look in person I guess.

Looks great. All black version is killer.

What I find however ( and may be more technology than design) over last few versions (4-4s-5) is a lacking compelling reason to upgrade. I’m not moaning that it doesn’t have whatever latest tech per se, and I’m certainly an early adopter but seems they only really having something “I have to have” every 3 gen or so. Maybe that’s the business model to coincide with contracts. Dunno. I had first gen, 3GS , 4s. iPad first gen. Hard to justify new hardware where there is little change, though I respect the evolutionary process and not change for changes sake. Just saying, I would love a new iPhone, but don’t feel lacking in speed, screen rez, and 4s is hardly a brick so will wait for a bit. I could see something functional in design adding to the momentum. Kickstand, faceplates,etc. not that apple , I know but when to most people specs and processors is irrelevant would help in differentiation.



R

Fwiw, new connector sounds great. Have to move forward sometime. Though was a bitch when I had the first iPod on FireWire and the moved to USB.

R

I am fascinated that they are able to generate such excitement over such tiny incremental details. Conversely, I don’t think the details are generating the excitement. The industrial design is the same as the previous version.

They have successfully engineered cyclical excitement and desire to consume and reconsume. That is the insanely great part.

I couldn’t get over how beautiful apples communication is. This page here: http://www.apple.com/iphone/design/ is just designer porn. Industry leading sh*t right there.

I can’t get that excited over the phone - a BBC article likened it to a Toyota Camary. Great car, but everyone has one and they’re a little boring now… I tend to agree.

INDEED
First time I looked at that page, I was in AWE…just drooling

All black is gorgeaus, i want a retuna mbp to match.

Am i the only one who was a bit baffled about the amount of leaked info and images that turned out to be true?

superb precision…great chamfer …impressive detailing…

I love Apple, but I loathe the last two iPhone designs.

The original iPhone was also ugly to me, with the plastic antenna cover on the rear not really lining up to anything else, and the curves feeling too “fat” or unrefined. The then iPhone 3G was released, and everything was forgiven. The single piece of plastic on the back was clutter free and beautiful, and the curves were perfect. Then came the iPhone 4 and ruined it. Ok, sure, as a pure statement of form, it’s very well designed. But why did they throw the ergonomics out the window? The iPhone 4, in my opinion, is not made to hold by human hands, so I refused to get one (also, glass and metal is so much colder than plastic, and thin glass feels fragile no matter what they say). And some of that could have so easily been fixed with just a slight curvature on that metal frame.

And now, the iPhone 5. I really, really hope that pictures don’t do this phone justice, because to me, it’s a horrible mess. They say it’s an all metal backside, but there’s still glass inlays somewhere? I don’t get it, but maybe I will when I hold it. Right, now, it just feels as if they took the clean statement from the iPhone 4 and cluttered it up, making it both a form and ergonomic failure. It looks like a spare part which fell out of some cold, industrial machine. I don’t feel attracted to it like the iPhone 3, which invited me to squeeze it, or spin it around on the table, or tap it with my finger to rock it back and forward.

It breaks my heart because it doesn’t have to be this way, and Apple themselves have the proof: The iPod Touch. Both this new iteration and the last one used the same front as the iPhone, but their backsides are worlds apart better! Both the last generation Touch and this one are absolutely the most beautiful tech devices on the market today, and I can only pray that the iPhone 6 will finally unify their design.

Right now, although I’m a Mac user, I’m seriously considering getting a Nokia. Their Lumia looks more Apple than Apple.

nxakt: Right on about publicity. That is nuts.

eobet: I agree, the iPod designs are much more interesting than the iPhone. Maybe that’s just because we all saw the iPhone a month ago.

Very slick, but why do they give the depth dimension in MM and the volume in IN^3. :confused: :laughing:

Also…umm…the new Nano?? Yikes.

eobet: totally disagree 200%.

First gen iPhone was super. Nicely radiused, great feeling metal back, rational, beautiful object. Went to the US to get one.

3G iPhone was terrible. Crappy plastic, elliptical or some sort of nonsense radius curves, cheap feeling and scratched to hell. First iPhone broke so had to get this one. Always hated it.

4G/S knocked it out of the park. Clea, rational, great material story, perfect weight balance, tight finish.

% is a continuation on what the 4G has done, and stepped it up a lot. Design, fit and finish is so far and away better than any other phone out there it’s not even in the same ballpark. Like comparing a BMW to a little tikes plastic trike.

R

Mr. Ives? Is that you?

  1. Agree 500% with R.
  2. iPod touch’s back looks much more cluttered to me. Circles in various sizes and materials, a random black slot…
  3. new nano IS a Lumia. Except it’s aluminium like it should’ve been and not the overhyped PC like it’s some new spaceage material.

Great page.

They lifted that ‘level of precision you’d expect from a finely crafted watch’ line from Engadget’s review of the 4. But it absolutely applies. Something that precise-feeling seems like it shouldn’t cost a few hundred bucks.

So is the iPhone now simultaneously still really sexy but non-consumerist because people who want something new will abandon it?

Updates are bound to just be iterative for a while, until they do something really ground-breaking again. I personally still find the iterative advances to be quite impressive in terms of what they accomplish with hardware.

Have you seen the top/bottom of the Lumia 800/900? I’d say that’s higher res than the iPhone. BMW sells some blue cars…=)

As much as the hubris of making a glass cellphone annoyed me with the 4, at least it was clean. The 5 has the same lack of human-ness, but with more clutter. And the main impact areas in a drop are still glass? Rad :unamused:

Also, that aluminum back is going to look reeeeeally rough in a couple of years, especially in the black anodized version. I like the beat-up look in some products, but I don’t think this is going to be one of them.

That’s exactly my point. It used merely a radius or two, then a completely flat backside (with a black piece of plastic which didn’t align to the bottom of the screen at the front, making it look like shit from the side). The iPhone 3G had Class-A surfacing, for crying out loud. Something you only saw in cars back then! Someone should look into it, but I suspect that the iPhone 3G could have been the first mass produced consumer product that used more than tangential continuity on its surfaces. And the best part is that they used it both to make the phone look slimmer than it actually was, and make it comfortable to hold. Plus you could play with it on a table which I never understood why they didn’t advertise as a killer feature. :wink:

Also, I just noticed that the new Lumia 920 actually has a curved backside like the 3G had. Swoon! :smiley:


EDIT: By the way, remember when all computers were beige and dull, and the iMac came in and completely changed it by infusing not only color and form, but some humanity with the carrying handle? Well, today, Apple is in danger of becoming dull because all of their products are cold blocks of metal, and now it’s their competition which infuses their products with a dose of humanity instead.

Now, I’m partial, but in my opinion, Apple should look at Playsam. They have ultra minimalistic design, but every product has some kind of detail which add a touch of humour or heart to it. Just a very small detail is enough, just like how the Lumia 920 added the slightest curved rear compared to the 900. As I said earlier, just a little curvature on the metal frame of the iPhone 4/5 would do so much.

I think the iPhone 4 was the high point of that Apple aesthetic. It seems like they don’t really know where to go now, but were forced to come out with something.

I did a paper for a business class looking at the smart phone market about 6 months back. It seems like there is still another 2-3 years of solid global growth before the market goes into decline from saturation. Because of the lack of solid competition, Apple will sell whatever they come out with.*

Eobet: I’ve used tangential continuity on products before. No one cared or noticed because it’s difficult to see such things on hand held product. It’s fun to geek out to as a designer though.

  • Competition: Blackberry has no competent management or marketing. Nokia is not a player in NA and their brand has taken a huge hit. Samsung/HTC/etc. will sell huge numbers, but at a lower profit margin than Apple can demand. Even before the court cases, these guys were considered the dollar store version of a smartphone and that’s not going to change. In other words, their products are really in a different market segment from Apple and therefore aren’t really competing.