4 ms·

I'm not sure how much hardware design has to do with a phone's success anymore. After the iPhone came out, every manufacturer now makes phones that are 90% scre

I'm not sure how much hardware design has to do with a phone's success anymore. After the iPhone came out, every manufacturer now makes phones that are 90% screen. How close are we to hardware design where the bezel around the screen is 1mm and the whole device is only a few millimeters thick? Won't every phone basically look the same with the OS and user experience the only differentiators? Isn't that pretty much happening already?

stcredzero 16y ago
Not anymore than watches all looked the same and accuracy, features, and water resistance were the only differentiators.
- flyosity 16y ago
  I don't think that's a valid comparison. All watches tell time, but how they tell time varies greatly. I own an automatic Panerai watch (http://cl.ly/4YkQ http://cl.ly/4YkQ) and it looks completely different from watches that Urwerk (http://cl.ly/4XvZ http://cl.ly/4XvZ) or Richard Mille (http://cl.ly/4XZR http://cl.ly/4XZR) make. Comparing how different those three watches look with the visual differences between, say, an iPhone 4 and a Nexus S and it's night and day. The Nexus S and iPhone 4 are about the same size, same thickness, same dimensions/proportions in width/height, about the same size screen, and the screen takes up about the same size % of the phone face.
jonhohle 16y ago
> After the iPhone came out, every manufacturer now makes phones that are 90% screen. That's the problem. Everyone is copying Apple. Most cars are just four wheels, an engine, some seats, and a steering wheel, but between Lamborghini, Ferrari, Königsegg, Maserati, etc. there is a ton of variation and very iconic design unique to each brand. The only company _designing_ phone hardware right now is Apple, and the only two companies designing phone software are Apple and Microsoft. For a piece of phone hardware to elicit the responses in this thread it should do something more than copy Apple's design from 4 years ago.

stcredzero 16y ago

Not anymore than watches all looked the same and accuracy, features, and water resistance were the only differentiators.

flyosity 16y ago
I don't think that's a valid comparison. All watches tell time, but how they tell time varies greatly. I own an automatic Panerai watch (http://cl.ly/4YkQ http://cl.ly/4YkQ) and it looks completely different from watches that Urwerk (http://cl.ly/4XvZ http://cl.ly/4XvZ) or Richard Mille (http://cl.ly/4XZR http://cl.ly/4XZR) make. Comparing how different those three watches look with the visual differences between, say, an iPhone 4 and a Nexus S and it's night and day. The Nexus S and iPhone 4 are about the same size, same thickness, same dimensions/proportions in width/height, about the same size screen, and the screen takes up about the same size % of the phone face.

jonhohle 16y ago

> After the iPhone came out, every manufacturer now makes phones that are 90% screen. That's the problem. Everyone is copying Apple. Most cars are just four wheels, an engine, some seats, and a steering wheel, but between Lamborghini, Ferrari, Königsegg, Maserati, etc. there is a ton of variation and very iconic design unique to each brand. The only company _designing_ phone hardware right now is Apple, and the only two companies designing phone software are Apple and Microsoft. For a piece of phone hardware to elicit the responses in this thread it should do something more than copy Apple's design from 4 years ago.