Quote:
Originally Posted by Moejoe
I would say design, good design is integral to the usefulness of a product. Good design, in any form, promotes a feeling of comfortability and ease when faced with technology, but it also goes the same in architecture and many other fields. Form and function fitting together will always trump mere function without the form.
Take a look at a Fumihiko Maki building, or Andrew Lloyd Wright, whatever your fancy. They're buildings that integrate both concepts and are better for it.
Apple do get this right. They build computers how computers should look. Unobtrusive, sleek, they're the products of the idea of form and function meshed together. This is not the only reason for their popularity, Apple sells the idea of a lifestyle with every product. It's great marketing, also, that gives Apple their status (although not market share).
Another company that seems to be getting it too is Wizpac with their Txtr reader. Compared to the blocky, industrial design of the Sony reader (and the Hanlin derivates) or the clumsy mess of the Kindle, the Txtr is a shining beacon.
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I agree that design is important. My problem is that many of Apples products look great (and work well) but they tend to do less and cost more than rival products.
Case in point 2-3 years ago I was shopping for a 30GB mp3 player with a color screen that could also do video.
You had the 30GB Video iPod which was $300 or 350 (can't recall for sure) and never on sale.
Then you had the 30GB Creative Vision M: Which also looked great and is a well designed piece of hardware and sold for $199.99 and I got on sale for $150 from Amazon. On top of saving the money, the Creative had better sound quality (per reviews), a better screen (higher res, displayed millions more colors), and an FM tuner which I use a lot and the iPods lack without buying an adaptor. Plus you can just drag and drop files onto the creative and not be tied to a program like iTunes.
That's why I'll never buy Apple products. I'm not willing to pay more for a device that looks nicer and
does less than cheaper products from other companies.
I'll admit they have something unique with the iPhone/iTouch that competitors haven't rivaled yet. I just have no use for it. The internet sucks on the small screen, I hate typing on the touch screen keyboard (compared to the physical one on my LG Voyager) and the games suck compared to those on the DS or PSP.
But it is the best product of it's kind for people that need/want that kind of all in one device. I don't so I'd rather have stand alone devices that do all those things better.