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The most impressive thing to me is how similar the iPhone X is to the original iPhone (shown side by side in the second picture). Ten years ago, Apple totally

by marze 9y ago

The most impressive thing to me is how similar the iPhone X is to the original iPhone (shown side by side in the second picture). Ten years ago, Apple totally nailed the design. Same buttons, same speaker design, same full panel display. Even design work by a company as talented as Apple, you might expect that a new model ten years into the future may look quite different, but it looks the same.

saagarjha 9y ago
> Same buttons There might be a button or two missing…
- marze 9y ago
  True, but look at the change phones from ten years pre-iphone vs iPhone. http://www.mobilephonehistory.co.uk/lists/by_year.html http://www.mobilephonehistory.co.uk/lists/by_year.html Huge change. But after Apple nailed the modern smartphone design on the first try, ten years later it is remarkably unchanged.
  - robotresearcher 9y ago
    Remarkably, yes. But this release removing the biggest, most used, iconic button might not be the ideal moment to claim "same buttons!"
    - mikeash 9y ago
      75% the same after ten years is not too shabby!
phinnaeus 9y ago
> Same full panel display What?
- Zee2 9y ago
  I mean, relative to the competition, the original iPhone was certainly rather "full panel"! http://www.techpavan.com/wp-content/uploads/mobile-phone-market.jpg http://www.techpavan.com/wp-content/uploads/mobile-phone-mar... Devoting the majority of the vertical dimension of the profile of the phone to display was definitely not a priority of the market at the time.
  - Animats 9y ago
    The Nikon CoolPix S80 line of cameras were full-panel displays. That was probably the first full-panel device. This turned out to be less than useful. It's hard to hold the thing stable when taking a picture without touching the touch screen.
  - kalleboo 9y ago
    Looking at only candybar phones is pretty disingenuous. Plenty of smartphones before the iPhone were almost all screen, e.g. the Sony Ericsson P800 that Steve Jobs was said to have used https://cdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/pics/sonyericsson/snp800_00.jpg https://cdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/pics/sonyericsson/snp800_00.jpg The problem was they all used a stylus
jack6e 9y ago
> The most impressive thing to me is how similar the iPhone X is to the original iPhone (shown side by side in the second picture). And really, how similar every non-notebook/desktop Apple product has been to each other one. Design-wise, the iPhone was just an iPod with a bigger screen; iPod touch/nano/other variations are obviously just an iPhone in different sizes; the watch is just the iPod nano on a wristband; iPad is a bigger iPhone. Apple hasn't released a fundamentally new design idea in over a decade. On the one hand, the consistency of physical design is its own type of branding and creates solid brand recognition. On the other hand, the UI/UX that transformed interacting in the digital world from using keyboards and mice to using our fingers on touch screens is already old. Apple really has no need to be creative since they are still profiting from their slight modifications. But the next big, real revolution in personal computing design and usage will need to be more than a glass rectangle with slightly better curved edges.
- tqkxzugoaupvwqr 9y ago
  Why do you want them to design their products differently from previous models just for the sake of it? Apple iterates on their designs. Few/no changes mean Apple thinks their product is close to perfect (in the context of the available technology and intended usage). I much prefer Apple’s iterative and proven designs than other manufacturers’ products that are seemingly designed without experience from previous generations.
  - thomasjudge 9y ago
    Not to mention the equivalent in software, designers forcing new UI's on us with each major release. Looking at you, MSFT. Especially when those changes are largely w/r/t what's now trendy, such as the recent iteration in design towards everything flat. Not intending to start a design-related flamewar..
- Terretta 9y ago
  > the UI/UX that transformed interacting in the digital world from using keyboards and mice to using our fingers on touch screens is already old. The pencil is already old too. So? It's not clear to me that for things to be usable the way they get used has to change at some particular rate. On the contrary, the most usable user experiences (UXs) seem to be quite stable.
rsync 9y ago
"The most impressive thing to me is how similar the iPhone X is to the original iPhone (shown side by side in the second picture)." It makes the original iphone seem impressive, perhaps, but now ten years on we see that there has been no real innovation in the phone form factor since then. They're all just (iphones). I personally always liked the qwerty slate form factor of the Moto Q / Nokia E71 / Blackberry Classic. But there were many other different and interesting form factors (Nokia communicator, Helio Ocean, that square phone from Motorola that opened out a keyboard like a knife...). It's interesting and fun to browse through this nice visual history: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/05/the-evolution-of-cell-phone-design-between-1983-2009/ https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/05/the-evolution-of-ce... ... and it makes me wish there were some new form-factor innovation in mobile phones.

by marze 9y ago

saagarjha 9y ago

> Same buttons There might be a button or two missing…

marze 9y ago
True, but look at the change phones from ten years pre-iphone vs iPhone. http://www.mobilephonehistory.co.uk/lists/by_year.html http://www.mobilephonehistory.co.uk/lists/by_year.html Huge change. But after Apple nailed the modern smartphone design on the first try, ten years later it is remarkably unchanged.
- robotresearcher 9y ago
  Remarkably, yes. But this release removing the biggest, most used, iconic button might not be the ideal moment to claim "same buttons!"
  - mikeash 9y ago
    75% the same after ten years is not too shabby!

phinnaeus 9y ago

> Same full panel display What?

Zee2 9y ago
I mean, relative to the competition, the original iPhone was certainly rather "full panel"! http://www.techpavan.com/wp-content/uploads/mobile-phone-market.jpg http://www.techpavan.com/wp-content/uploads/mobile-phone-mar... Devoting the majority of the vertical dimension of the profile of the phone to display was definitely not a priority of the market at the time.
- Animats 9y ago
  The Nikon CoolPix S80 line of cameras were full-panel displays. That was probably the first full-panel device. This turned out to be less than useful. It's hard to hold the thing stable when taking a picture without touching the touch screen.
- kalleboo 9y ago
  Looking at only candybar phones is pretty disingenuous. Plenty of smartphones before the iPhone were almost all screen, e.g. the Sony Ericsson P800 that Steve Jobs was said to have used https://cdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/pics/sonyericsson/snp800_00.jpg https://cdn2.gsmarena.com/vv/pics/sonyericsson/snp800_00.jpg The problem was they all used a stylus

jack6e 9y ago

> The most impressive thing to me is how similar the iPhone X is to the original iPhone (shown side by side in the second picture). And really, how similar every non-notebook/desktop Apple product has been to each other one. Design-wise, the iPhone was just an iPod with a bigger screen; iPod touch/nano/other variations are obviously just an iPhone in different sizes; the watch is just the iPod nano on a wristband; iPad is a bigger iPhone. Apple hasn't released a fundamentally new design idea in over a decade. On the one hand, the consistency of physical design is its own type of branding and creates solid brand recognition. On the other hand, the UI/UX that transformed interacting in the digital world from using keyboards and mice to using our fingers on touch screens is already old. Apple really has no need to be creative since they are still profiting from their slight modifications. But the next big, real revolution in personal computing design and usage will need to be more than a glass rectangle with slightly better curved edges.

tqkxzugoaupvwqr 9y ago
Why do you want them to design their products differently from previous models just for the sake of it? Apple iterates on their designs. Few/no changes mean Apple thinks their product is close to perfect (in the context of the available technology and intended usage). I much prefer Apple’s iterative and proven designs than other manufacturers’ products that are seemingly designed without experience from previous generations.
- thomasjudge 9y ago
  Not to mention the equivalent in software, designers forcing new UI's on us with each major release. Looking at you, MSFT. Especially when those changes are largely w/r/t what's now trendy, such as the recent iteration in design towards everything flat. Not intending to start a design-related flamewar..
Terretta 9y ago
> the UI/UX that transformed interacting in the digital world from using keyboards and mice to using our fingers on touch screens is already old. The pencil is already old too. So? It's not clear to me that for things to be usable the way they get used has to change at some particular rate. On the contrary, the most usable user experiences (UXs) seem to be quite stable.

rsync 9y ago

"The most impressive thing to me is how similar the iPhone X is to the original iPhone (shown side by side in the second picture)." It makes the original iphone seem impressive, perhaps, but now ten years on we see that there has been no real innovation in the phone form factor since then. They're all just (iphones). I personally always liked the qwerty slate form factor of the Moto Q / Nokia E71 / Blackberry Classic. But there were many other different and interesting form factors (Nokia communicator, Helio Ocean, that square phone from Motorola that opened out a keyboard like a knife...). It's interesting and fun to browse through this nice visual history: https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/05/the-evolution-of-cell-phone-design-between-1983-2009/ https://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2009/05/the-evolution-of-ce... ... and it makes me wish there were some new form-factor innovation in mobile phones.