This makes me think of "risk management". Most big capital movies today are more or less the same (think superhero movies), most cars look pretty much the same,

This makes me think of "risk management". Most big capital movies today are more or less the same (think superhero movies), most cars look pretty much the same, and phones too, like you point out. I think that because these products carry significant investment risk (because they're expensive to develop), producers end up making very similar products, so as to minimize the risk. If you were to do the opposite and innovate or stand out, you would stand to reap large rewards if the market recognized your product, but also the chances for the worst-case scenario would increase accordingly as well. Someone once told me that "risk management" is the worst branch of management. I'm still working out what he meant by that, but by now I have a few guesses.