Branding: Design choice - Apple iPhone

by Jon Sharpe, Creative director and chief executive, Play, Marketing 21-Mar-07

There is a chance that the BlackBerry, every marketer's favourite toy, has been usurped. Apple raised the bar and got everyone a little hot under the collar with the unveiling of its iPhone at the MacWorld Expo back in January.

In an age when we all have myriad devices crammed into our pockets, the
iPhone is intended to address consumer demand for convergence by
combining a mobile phone, a widescreen iPod, a two-megapixel digital

camera and impressive web and email functionality in one small, but

beautifully formed, device.

With the iPhone, design supremo Jonathan Ive and his team have continued
the lineage that began with the jellybean-inspired iMac and developed a
user interface as intuitive as it is ergonomic. While other smartphones
sport a baffling array of buttons, switches, tiny screens and cumbersome
keyboards, the iPhone offers a sleek expanse that provides touchscreen
access to an impressive range of features.

Apple's success has not come from innovation so much as from an ability
to transform technophobes into gadget aficionados by designing
functional, simple and unique products. In a market where superficial
feature overload is all too often confused for innovation, Apple has
again proved that it ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it.

Design: Jonathan Ive.