[fiveSpeedManual]

Apple and Google should save money and hire the same design firm (similar to how Toyota and Subaru collaborated on the 86/BRZ).Their flagship phones already look very similar. "Premium" != "Aluminium unibody, with edge-to-edge glass" /s

[herge]

I though that Apple and Google already used the same design firm: Apple inc.

[rck404]

Please. This fanboyism without any concrete evidence is just a troll comment. I can go an about how Apple ios design brought in inspiration from Windows Metro & from other competitors too but, this thread isn't about that. Please do provide specific examples or notes to validate or create a new thread.

[ethanbond]

Did any Android manufacturer release a phone with a similar form factor as the iPhone prior to the iPhone? Yet suddenly now it's almost impossible to find a phone that doesn't mirror the iPhone...

[cromwellian]

Yes, the LG Prada phone for one. But it's terrible for other people to follow Apple, but completely ok for Apple to ape the design of others.

Designs pioneered by Android and later aped by Apple

* 4, 5, and 6 inch Phablet phones. Remember this commercial? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O99m7lebirE

* Mini tablets. http://thenextweb.com/apple/2010/10/18/jobs-7-tablets-should...

* Edge to Edge Displays (now rumored to be in iPhone 8)

* Removing physical home buttons for soft buttons w/haptics (now rumors iPhone 8, iPhone 7 half way there)

* Dual cameras, multi-led flash

* Wide gamut display, shipping in AMOLED phones first.

* Builtin water-resistance, done in Android phones for years, even with a headphone jack present

You can argue that when Apple adopts the design of Android phones, they execute better, but what's galling is that any feature Apple has first is referred to as "theft" when Android adopts it, even if Android improves on it, not the other way around is just overlooked.

[ethanbond]

It's pretty apparent, really, that the iPhone was in no way inspired by the LG Prada, given that the iPhone was announced less than a month after the Prada was announced.

Maybe you could argue that all the slab devices were inspired by the Prada, despite the Prada 2 itself backing away from the form factor and adding a keyboard?

I didn't claim Apple doesn't steal features from others. In fact, Jobs himself has been very vocal about his feature theft.

My only argument is that the iPhone form factor, despite its dominance today, was never "obvious." The iPhone is what created a world in which it's nearly impossible to buy a phone outside of that form factor.

[cromwellian]

There were slab smartphones before the iPhone, arguably, they retained a lot of buttons (usually cursor keys, or 2-4 macro buttons, especially on models that had resistive touch). I've consistently been an early adopter of high tech smartphones and carried a few.

The iPhone didn't drive a flurry of copying of the slap concept because of it's slabbiness, it drove it because of it's features. Do you think the Blackberry's adoption was because of it's keyboard, or because of the addictive nature of push messaging in the crackberry's implementation?

An iPhone with a keyboard form factor, but with all of the other features it launched with, would have still dominated. The OS was radically advanced over Symbian, it had a much better screen, CPU, and just worked better. I had plenty of Symbian smartphones with Wifi, none of them could lock on as quickly as an iPhone or seamlessly switch.

The iPhone did everything right for a Smartphone, and created the demand that made it something non-geeks could use. This is what compelled everyone else to follow.

Go grab you iPhone 2007 model and compare it to today's iPhone 5/6/7, the designs don't match or feel the same at all.

Capacitive touch IMHO is the main advancement, not the overall industrial design.

[bitmapbrother]

No, but the LG Prada was released in May, 2007. It is the first mobile phone with a capacitive touchscreen.

[Nursie]

You mean a slab of glass, most of which is screen?

Wow. Design award of the decade... Or actually simply what people thought about before but wasn't possible until then. (The LG Prada around at the same time shows this)

It's pure fanboyism.

[Alupis]

Not to mention old sci-fi movies and tv shows having similar looking devices for decades.

[ethanbond]

Strange that if it was so obvious or so easy, there were people saying stuff like this [0]:

"Apparently none of you guys realize how bad of an idea a touch-screen is on a phone. I foresee some pretty obvious and pretty major problems here. I’ll be keeping my Samsung A707, thanks... Color me massively disappointed."

"Touch screen buttons? BAD idea. This thing will never work."

"no qwerty keyboard? ojhsdodsagfadhjldgs!!"

"This looks like a disgusting bastard child of iPod/Cellphone/PDA. Yes it's shiny, but I’m sure it won’t be so shiny once you touch it."

"lol last i checked many companies tried the tap to type and tap to dial ... IT DOESNT WORK STEVIE, people dont like non-tactile typing, its a simple fact, this isnt a phone its a mac pda wow yippie.... "

"It took apple how long to develop this ONE PHONE, samsung and motorola release new phones every few months lol, and constantly innovates and gets better, im sorry but if im sending text messages i'd rather have my thumb keyboard than some weird finger tapping on a screen crap."

Somebody should ask that last guy what phone he uses today.

And yet it seems literally no other company can figure out a form factor that competes with it. So yes, you're right, design award of the decade.

Do you really think that's HTC/Samsung/LG/Huawei/Motorola's inspiration for all their devices? They're modeled after the LG Prada?

[0] http://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2015/11/17-of-...

[Nursie]

No, I think that that was the direction phones were moving in anyway, and it was an obvious step.

I also think that fanboys like yourself give way, way too much credit to Apple for 'inventing' the form factor and the smartphone when they weren't even first to market with that form factor and other smartphones had been around for years.

They did what they do well - designed a good product with mass appeal at the high end of the market, they even lead the market. I'm not trying to claim they're somehow bad or just derivative (because I'm not a fanboy)

[herge]

The lady doth protest too much...

[bitmapbrother]

I think it's more of a symbiotic relationship. Google lifts hardware design elements from Apple and Apple lifts OS features from Android.