[treepeople]

>the screen shape on this phone just makes so little sense.

It is the only design that makes sense. The other manufacturers just put a bar down the bottom that has no purpose at all. No one cares about a notch. Obsessive personalities are just fixating on it.

[parzivalm]

You easily could have just not put the notch in, and left a slight bezel on the top. Saying no one cares about the notch is a bit much. If it bothers someone, it bothers someone. If it doesn't bother you, it doesn't bother you. People are allowed to have different opinions.

[ahartmetz]

Here is what I think is the real purpose of the notch: Phones, and especially iPhones, are status symbols. A brand new iPhone only works as a status symbol if the people you want to impress can actually see at a glance that you have the latest model. It's the only strong and clear reason for this weird design I can think of.

[Theodores]

People are forgetting that Steve Jobs was always about the tech and the marketing. In his mind the marketing and putting the customer first was every bit as important as the product. Apple really was a synergy of product and marketing from the get go.

A lot of work went into the notch, I doubt that Mr Ive et al. thought the marketing angle first but you are right, the biggest thing about the notch is people 'bikeshed' over it and talk about it. It gets noticed. And yes it does identify you as having the latest model. That takes you into the marketing that Apple is 50% about (with tech being the other 50% in how Steve Jobs did products).

Although we no longer have Steve Jobs at the helm his vision lives on in the team that he built.

[waytogo]

Agree and well articulated!