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Re-Imagining Apple

Posted by Zonk on from the later-this-year-from-the-orange-company dept.

FirienFirien writes "Business 2.0 has put up a selection of ideas from Pentagram Design, featuring some interesting rumoured ipod innovations, as well as a look at what may be next for Apple. From the article: 'The project was led by Robert Brunner, who was Apple's chief designer from 1989 to 1996, and who oversaw the design of the PowerBook line, among many other hit products.'"

16 of 541 comments (clear)

  1. An interesting set of designs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    An interesting set of designs, but ones that show that non-steve-approved designers just don't get it.

    Those products all look like any old generic electronics product. They entirely lack the current Apple design features of absolute minimalism.

    If steve could create a sphere with one single button on the outside, that glowed, and had any realistic expectation that it might sell, he would.

    (and the button would be optional)

    1. Re:An interesting set of designs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      There's a real opportunity out there for somebody to create a mock ad for the "iPhone shuffle." It's just got one button on it: "call."

      Tagline: "Life is random."

  2. How's that again? by 93+Escort+Wagon · · Score: 5, Interesting

    'The project was led by Robert Brunner, who was Apple's chief designer from 1989 to 1996, and who oversaw the design of the PowerBook line, among many other hit products.'

    Perhaps that should read "... chief designer from 1989 to 1996, a period where Apple saw its market share drop to near irrelevance".

    Weren't these the same people Steve Jobs saved Apple from?

    --
    #DeleteChrome
    1. Re:How's that again? by rebeka+thomas · · Score: 5, Insightful

      > Yeah when he opened up the architecture to clones and you
      > started seeing Macs everywhere.

      He did no such thing, And those clones were crap. They relied on better performance figures on paper with woeful hardware support & reliability.

      I had the misfortune of supporting Macs during the 1990s. Apples were marginally better than most suppliers, but most clones were cheaper & more prone to failure than the worst PC brands.

      --
      RST
    2. Re:How's that again? by Otter · · Score: 5, Funny

      As a Performa 636CD owner, I must take exception to that! Could a computer that made me a plaintiff in three separate class-action suits be poorly designed?

      --
      What I'm listening to now on Pandora...
    3. Re:How's that again? by n1ywb · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The PowerBook series set the standard for laptop computer design. They were terrific feats of industrial design. And the rest of Apple's products were usually pretty good that standpoint as well. The bad old days were not the result of poor industrial design. Poor price/performance, a crashy and rapidly deprecating OS, and crappy developer programs probably had a lot more to do with it.

      --
      -73, de n1ywb
      www.n1ywb.com
  3. Apple is rolling by DoctoRoR · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Apple is the new Sony. Their iPod is this generation's walkman, and Apple is smart enough to leverage that success into other products. Apple has always been good at design. The unix-core of the Tiger OS extends that nice design into the innards.

    More food for thought: Paul Graham's essay on Japan vs US design, which gives a nod to Apple as one of the few US companies that get it.

  4. Is it just me... by jberkom · · Score: 5, Interesting

    ...or are those designs really, really ugly? They bear hardly any resemblance to real Apple products. I'm guessing that's due to the fact that style-man Jobs became CEO in 1997, by which time this designer was gone.

  5. a music revolution.. by bizmark22 · · Score: 5, Funny
    i vote for a new ipod, that not only has no screen, and less storage space, but also no controls at all.. it holds 5 songs, just turns on and off at will, and plays whatever the hell it wants at random...

    but damn it would be the same size as a chiclet and only cost $75...

    Mines on preorder as we speak...

    --


    I read slashdot for the sigs...

    1. Re:a music revolution.. by Fear+the+Clam · · Score: 5, Funny

      No, this would be better than radio. He said *five* songs.

  6. Re-Imaging Apple? by bbeebe · · Score: 5, Funny

    Be sure to make a backup first...

  7. The next big thing... by bsdparasite · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I'll tell you why these are not even close to what may come out of Apple.

    Simplicity. I don't think Apple is in the game of mixing functionalities (I think Sony is a better contender for that). That is why there is no FM tuner in iPods.

    Watch that plays music? No one wants to do anything except keep time using their watch. I mean no one sensible.

  8. Missing the point by legLess · · Score: 5, Insightful

    These folks have done some cool work, but they're totally missing the point. Steve Jobs would rather shave with a cheese grater than let these things out into the wild with an Apple logo on them. Take one look at any of these gadgets and my first reaction is, "Huh, I bet that does a lot of cool stuff." But I'm a geek, and these designs are by geeks for geeks, and that's exactly what Apple is trying to avoid.

    That silly-looking wirless iPod necklace thing -- what's with the bevelled see-through skeleton around it? How does that make it work better? The skeleton around the iPodWatch -- what does it add?

    Apple succeeds because they hide the complexity, not because they call attention to it. Flashy complicated designs advertise internal complexity. While a geek sees power in complexity, most people see added cognitive burden. "Oh, shit, I bet that thing has a million features that I'll never figure out."

    --
    This isn't as much "normalization" as it is "don't take so many drugs when you're designing tables."
  9. Re:1989-1996 by geoffspear · · Score: 5, Funny

    I for one appreciated the attention to detail given by Apple when they sharpened all of the edges of the metal casing inside my Powermac 6100 to razor sharpness. Everyone knows that NuBus cards work better when they're covered in human blood.

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    Don't blame me; I'm never given mod points.
  10. Digital Country Club? by MisterSquid · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Someone should string FirienFirien and Zonk up by their editorial tonsils. We can't RTFA unless we shell out money. There is no option to register for free or view advertising in exchange for a subscription. Since when did Slashdot becaome a digital country club where one has no option but to pay to play? Oh, I forgot. 90% of Slashdot doesn't ever bother to RTFA.

    That said, I think the most interesting element about this article (of which I could read two paragraphs in addition to its headline) is that a major business news publication is engaging in rumor-mongering just like the fan-based Apple sites. It looks like even the mainstream media has begun imbibing Jobs' Purple Kool-Aid.

    Not that I'm complaining. (Just check out mistersquid's profile on http://discussions.info.apple.com/ if you don't believe me). I just find it interesting that mood of Apple's fan-base is starting to be reflected in major media channels.

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    blog
  11. Get a clue by Locke2005 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    they are rapidly turning into a consumer electronics company And so are Dell and Gateway... hmm, I wonder why? Could it be that computers are now commodities with razor-thin profit margins, while consumer electronics can still be sold for several times their actual worth? Business is all about margins, and you don't get good margins by competing directly with Asian manufacturers. Someday even HP might figure that out...

    --
    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.