Apple's industrial design: The value of a decisive bastard with good taste

There's a splendid article in MIT's Technology Review on The Secret of Apple Design. It confirms a lot of what I've always thought about Apple's industrial design prowess but couldn't put into words.

The article argues that Steve Jobs improved Apple's industrial design not because he's a great designer, but because he protects the work of the company's designers from being watered down by committees and compromises.

In the article, former Apple design director Bob Brunner (himself a fantastic designer) describes what happened at Apple before Jobs' return:

"The businessman wants to create something for everyone, which leads to products that are middle of the road.... It becomes about consensus, and that's why you rarely see the spark of genius."

But the issue's more than just decisiveness vs. bureaucracy. I think Steve Jobs also has very good taste in hardware. I watched the Apple industrial design folks up close for almost ten years, under both Brunner and Jonathan Ive. The groups produced a huge variety of product concepts, ranging from sublime to downright ugly. The bureaucracy pre-Jobs (including, alas, myself) generally picked designs that were nice but prudent -- easy to produce, low risk, not too expensive.

Steve Jobs picks the pretty ones. The ones your average risk-averse business manager would look at and say, "gee, that's nice, but..."

Steve sometimes goes overboard (remember the G4 Cube, a triumph of gorgeous shape over practicality; or the magnesium fetish of the NeXT computer?). And I think his taste in software interfaces isn't as good as his taste in hardware, which is why the current Mac interface is (in my opinion) tarted up like a teenage girl just learning to apply makeup.

But Steve usually chooses very well in hardware -- and even when he does make a mistake, since he's Steve no one can punish him for it.


Steve envy

I've been trying to figure out what lesson this gives to CEOs at other companies who are jealous of Apple's gross margins. The obvious (and useless) advice is that you need to have taste as good as Steve Jobs, and trust your gut. The trouble is that most of us don't have the design taste of Steve, we have the design taste of Larry King.



Yikes.

There is another alternative. Hire someone with good taste, and then back their choices vigorously when everyone else tries to compromise them. Go watch the movie Amadeus. If you can't be a Mozart, be a Salieri -- recognize and use the genius in others.

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Nokia Project 95

Nokia's "Project 95" will take Peter Schindler - a seasoned traveler - on a 20,000-plus kilometer, Nokia-solely-sponsored, road-trip across China. Peter will be equipped with various Nokia Nseries devices, most notably the Nokia N95. He will keep a record of his excursions by maintaining a mobile blog that shares his thoughts and images taken through his Nokia N95, which can access the internet anytime and anywhere.

"I am looking forward to this adventure, driving across China," said Peter, who has traveled by himself over one million kilometers throughout Europe, the United States, and Asia. "I am eager to explore the modern lives of Chinese people; their thoughts on life and their expectations for the future. The Nokia N95 will allow me to share my experiences with people around the world."

The Nokia N95 will be Peter's most important and powerful partner. The Nokia NSeries flagship device was launched in September 2006 and will debut in China in May 2007. The all-in-one multimedia computer features an innovative 2-way slide design, an integrated Carl Zeiss five megapixel camera, GPS* and multimedia player. The device features a large 2.6", 16.7-million-color QVGA display - allowing users to watch and record videos, listen to music, take high-quality photos, browse the internet, use instant communication, search on the internet, and access e-mail while on the move.

Please visit project95.sina.com.cn for updates regarding Peter's adventure. Peter will also share pictures and videos with netizens - taken with his Nokia Nseries devices.

Netizens can also actively participate in the journey: they can advise a route for Peter, ask Peter to deliver personal greetings to friends, and vote on a name for Peter's car, among other things - all through project95.sina.com.cn.

Peter will commence his journey in Shanghai on May 9 and conclude the trip in Beijing on August 12.

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Mobile phones and navigation: I've seen this movie before

Reuters published an article saying that navigation features are the hot new data function on mobile phones. News.com picked it up, and by now I'm sure it's all over the Internet.

Which is fine, and very exciting. But I keep remembering all the other things that were supposed to be the hot new data functions on mobile phones. Remember mobile video? Wasn't that the cool new thing just a couple of months ago? And e-mail? And MMS? And PIM? And WAP? And so on?

And despite all that effort and all that investment, at a briefing a week ago Nokia said that mobile billings are 84% due to voice, 10% SMS, and everything else accounts for just 6%.

Maybe navigation will be different. It certainly makes intuitive sense to me that navigation should be a hot feature in a mobile device. You need navigation when you're on the go, and that's when you have your mobile device with you. Reuters quotes the market analysis firm Canalys as predicting that the mobile navigation market will grow by about two-thirds this year.

And yet, and yet...

I remember a couple of years ago, Canalys predicted that navigation features in PDAs would be the hot new thing. And they were -- for a couple of quarters, until the market collapsed. We have this weird collective ability to forget all the past disappointments when we see a cool-looking new feature. We forget that cool doesn't sell, and nice doesn't sell. What sells is a comprehensive, simple solution to a compelling need that millions of people have.

I sometimes feel as if all of us watching the mobile market are a bit like Judy Jetson. Remember her? She was the teenage girl in the Jetsons TV show family, the one who always had a new crush every episode. "Ooooh, he's the dreamiest," she would gush. And if poor old George Jetson ever asked what happened to the boy from last week, Judy would roll her eyes and say, "daddy, you're old, you just don't understand."

So maybe I'm getting old.

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N95 wins best gambling phone award

The N95 has picked up another award, being voted best gambling device by slotland.com

"The Nokia 95 has a huge screen and amazing connectivity," said Lancelet. "So, for now anyway, it's our unanimous choice for the best phone for mobile gambling!"

Press release here

The N95 was recently awarded the prestigious TIPA award for best mobile imaging device 2007.

Buy the N95 here for free (UK Only)

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AAS give the E90 verdict

Although I'm not big on ESeries phones here, they still have a place, due to the fact they run S60. And on that point, the E65 is probably one of the best S60 phones I've used.

The E90 is going to be of big interest to all communicator fans and the guys over at AAS have given their initial verdict on the product. You can read what they have to say here

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Mobile downsizing

Not sure if mobile downsizing is a correct term or not. The last few weeks I've found that my mobile needs are covered not by a 'multimedia computer' but by the simple Nokia 6300.

The 6300 is small, compact, has a great screen, and covers all the basics you need on a basic phone, and does them well. The menu is snappy, there is no noticeable lag. The battery standby is very good, sound quality is fine. Not really better than a S60 phone in those regards, but at least equal.

Of course, a smartphone allows me to add third party software, so I can increase the functionality on the handset. Add a better email program, another web browser, games, etc. But, I can do all that with the 6300 too. I have added Yahoo Go 2.0 (which will never be as good as the native .sis file Yahoo Go) to the 6300 and it is actually usable. It runs much faster than I experienced on the N73 and E65. I have installed Opera Mini, which is fantastic. I've installed the GMail java app, Sky By Mobile and Yell.com All java apps, all freely available, and all work well on the 6300.

Of course, one noticeable feature missing from the 6300 that I do miss is 3G. When you've used 3G you miss not having it in a new phone. But looking around on the market at the moment, nothing inspires me. There isn't a handset that makes me reach for the credit card and buy it (I'm sure the bank manager is happy to hear that, too!)

Looking around at handsets to come, I can see something arriving that may make me reach for the plastic again. The Nokia 6120 classic.
The 6120 is a simple looking phone, plain in look and design (there is a resemblance to the N73 for me) but plain and normal looking is not a bad thing. For all the phone mods you can do, plain and normal is still the most popular look. But what makes the 6120 classic eye catching is not how it looks, it's what it offers under the casing. The 6120 classic is not only 3G but a HSDPA phone. This makes it an obvious handset for the data user. I've seen demonstrations of speed differences for HSDPA and if you want to download video, or songs, it makes a lot of difference.

The 6120 is a S60v3 phone, and includes a 2.0 megapixel camera. Whilst this may not 'lead the market' it is more than adequate for fun snaps. There is also Bluetooth 2.0 support, EDGE/GPRS for use in non 3G areas, offers an MP3 and video player.

The size of the phone is also something that appeals. Weighing in at just 89g and being just 15mm thick, the plain looking 6120 classic actually measures up to be a decent handset.

So, for me, whilst the 6300 offers everything I could want in a basic phone, and does it very well, for that little bit extra the 6120 classic looks to be the phone for me.

Buy the Nokia 6300 here
Buy the Nokia N73 here
Buy the Nokia E65 here

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N73 Godfather edition

Yeah, I know, it's not fresh news. The Godfather Edition of the N73 was announced a couple of weeks ago. This is of particular interest to me, as it mixes my favourite NSeries phone to date and the second best film of all time (Of course, Godfather II is the best film)

For anyone interested in seeing more, there's the official website here If anyone knows where the phone can be bought, drop me a line.

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