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Industrial Design Excellence Awards 2004

Posted by michael on from the caress-it-like-the-skin-of-a-lover dept.

burgburgburg writes "The IDEA 2004 awards (Industrial Design Excellence Awards) have been announced. Apple won 2 Gold (for the iPod Mini and the G5), a Silver (for the iSight) and a Bronze (for the Apple Wireless Keyboard). Some comments: 'Like a modern touchstone the iPod Mini is a product people will love to hold. The designers skillfully integrated the satin aluminum case with flush controls and a simple touchpad interface to create a jewel-like piece of technology.' - Monty Montague, IDSA, Design Principal, BOLT. 'The G5 is impressive with visually lithe qualities and a host of thoughtful and innovative user features wrapped in aluminum. Its well-engineered technical features, such as its cooling system and internal component mounts, are honestly and elegantly executed. The G5's aesthetic is a pure and graceful expression of Apple's philosophical precept of leaving no detail un-designed. This is what results when engineering and design play nice with each other.' - Christopher Alviar, IDSA, Principal, CG/A"

3 of 263 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Sure, the G5 is nice... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    Hint: fire wire and usb is slower than ide/sata/scsi

    plus the drives will run hotter in a caddy than they will inside the case.

  2. The G5 Can't Cook by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Flamebait
    ' The G5's aesthetic is a pure and graceful expression of Apple's philosophical precept of leaving no detail un-designed. This is what results when engineering and design play nice with each other.'
    The G5 is like a beautful wife who can't cook and costs a fortune. Yes, it has impressive speed--speed you might have to pay half as much to get in a PC. But the G4 desktop family could accept twice as many external & internal drives even though it was smaller. And the G5's quietness reflects Steve Job's 'French General' mindset. He's always going overboard to correct the most criticized last problem--in this case a G4 model that was overly loud.

    If Apple keeps losing 0.5% marketshare or so a year, in less than a decade it'll be history. That's sad when you consider just how impressive OS X is in comparison with Windows. It's sad when you consider that, unlike Microsoft, Apple really is innovative. It's sad when you realize that Macs really are far more hassle-free.

    Apple's problem is that it's too obsessed with winning design awards like these--awards that are likely translate into maybe 1000 additional sales a year. That's a tiny drop in the great ocean of desktop computer sales and a recipe for disaster.

    Apple needs to realize that Windows (and soon Linux) have improved visually to the point where most untutored buyers can't see a difference. They're buying a computer to do something other than make a fashion statement, and by that standard Macs simply don't measure up.

    I've own Macs for almost 15 years. But when I consider replacing my seven-year-old beige G3 I balk. Apple's dismal desktop sales reflect the unpleasant fact that, unlike their laptops, their desktops are grossly uncompetitive. In the PC world, I could find a dozen and more models that have a blend of features and price I like. With Apple I find nothing making the hassle of an upgrade worthwhile.

    In desktops, Apple has the same mindset that almost sent Henry Ford into bankruptcy. Ford's problem was a "any color you want as long as it is black" mindset. He paid no attention to the market and let General Motors steal away his customers. Apple's 'don't listen to the market' mindset is identical to Ford's. I've got two perfectly good monitors. I don't want to pay more for an eMac or iMac to get a computer that forces a monitor on me and leaves me no option to add a second. I want what the PC world provides in abundance--a box that lets me mix & match to get the features I want at a reasonable price. I don't want optical audio out or a WiFi card built in. I don't want a low-end machine that probably cost Apple more to make because they deliberately crippled it in comparison with pricer models.

    Apple is, unfortunately, still mired in the Eighties, when it was different enough to maintain market share despite the fact that it didn't deliver what the market was really wanting. But now isn't then. If if doesn't want its computers to become mere appendages to iPods, it needs to look at the sort of computers people are buying, and build models just like them. It needs to copy as well as innovate. Wise people know how to do both.

    In short, Apple needs to listen more to us and less to a bunch of elitist, stuck-on-themselves artists and designers. A computer is a tool. It isn't an object to be placed in an art museum to be "ouuud" and "ahhhhd" over.

    --Mike Perry, Inkling blog , Seattle

  3. Big bucks and you get screwed. by gurrufio · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    The Blue-and-white G3 with the faulty IDE controller that corrupts a second hard drive, the short-lived battery on the iPod, the faulty headphone jack. Great machine (I started off with one myself), but too many problems associated with it. Besides, nothing you can do on a Mac that can't be done on a PeeCee for a fraction of the price. I recall a joke award given to apple (NYT or somethin')"Designed-Like-a-Picasso-and-Priced-Like -One"