Linked: “Apple’s Design Language Has Killed Fun in Consumer Electronics”

Apple’s Design Language Has Killed Fun in Consumer Electronics:

Mike Murphy:

For a while, the company stuck to this design trend, selling increasingly ambitious and playful products, including the original iPod, the iBook G4, the Power Mac G4 Cube, the iPod Nano, Touch, and Shuffle, and even the iPhone 5c. Today, the only colors you’ll find on Apple products is black, white, shades of grey, and occasionally, gold. We don’t even have rose gold anymore. Real pops of color are reserved for accessories like watch bands and phone cases.

Something changed over the last decade. Perhaps it was the hiring of Angela Ahrendts from Burberry to run Apple’s retail division and her increasing influence within the company. Perhaps it’s just because metal looks more premium than plastic does. For whatever reason, Apple looks and acts far more like a luxury brand than a consumer-technology brand in 2018.

 

I’ve been thinking of this a lot lately. The reason I remain a Mac User, actually more broadly, the reason I remain an Apple customer is a list that does get smaller every year. My computing life has become more limited, sort of more specialized and less general as I get older and more mature. I’m no longer a tinkerer. I don’t have time anymore. Back on topic, I use Apple computers because I love the Mac OS. If a machine from Lenovo ran Mac OS, I would have already switched. 

If iPhone went away, I’d go back to using a feature-phone. I’ll never use Android. I’d maybe try to find an old Blackberry with a keyboard to make texting easier. If the iPad went away, I’d get a Kindle for reading…just one of the basic ones.

The design edge of Apple versus everyone else isn’t what it used to be in how the hardware feels. Everyone has upped their game and remained low priced compared to Apple. To those who don’t need MacOS, I don’t know if I can recommend it unless they care about their privacy and then Apple is the only tech company that has your back. 

I’d use Linux before Windows but Linux isn’t known as the OS for photographers and project managers but I’d give it a shot. 

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