Apple, You’re Designing It Wrong (Premium)

The notch at the top of the iPhone X has been universally rejected by nearly everyone. A company with Apple's design prowess should have---and could have---done better.

What's interesting about this is that almost anyone could have come up with a better design, given Apple's desires for this device and the sizing and placement requirements of the components it contains. I'm reminded, in a weird way of "The Lost World," author Michael Crichton's sequel to the blockbuster "Jurassic Park." It's a terrible book, which hurts because I'm a huge fan of Crichton. But my commentary at the time was that anyone, given the source material, could have come up with a better story. That the originator of that source material created such a stink bomb was disappointing.

Anyway, Apple.

The appeal of any design is subjective, to be sure. And, to be fair, there probably is some well-meaning soul out there who believes that the iPhone X design isn't just OK, it's perfect. There's no accounting for taste. But that person, imaginary, I hope, is wrong.

Criticism can be cheap. After all, I've never designed a smartphone. Who am I to complain about what the geniuses in Cupertino have come up with?

The problem is that other companies have already solved this problem. And they did so well before Apple announced the iPhone X. Samsung pioneered the near bezel-less smartphone design with its Galaxy S8/S8+ by emulating how PC makers handle the same issue: The bezels on the sides are nearly non-existent, but you leave a bit more room at the top, especially for the camera and related componentry.

There are even examples of notches on smartphone displays that are otherwise near bezel-less that are---yes, subjectively---much less offensive than that of the iPhone X. Andy Rubin's Essential announced its first smartphone, the Phone PH-1, back in May, and it features a small notch---which I called a "dimple"---at the very top of the display.

"This is a great design, because the camera neatly bisects the Android status bar, which has icons and other information on the top left and top right of the screen, so it's not wasting any space," I wrote at the time. "This is, suddenly, clearly the best way to do this."

It's what Apple might have done, had they not taken up so much space. Or they might have simply pulled a Samsung and not taken up any space at all, which I think is the best approach.

We'll never know why they didn't. Apple, like many companies, is very secretive, and particularly so about its mistakes. What we do know is that we're stuck with it. Apple, again like many companies, also tends to stick with its designs, reusing them for years on end. It will try to turn this mistake into an asset. Perhaps even meld iOS to the invented requirements of this hardware design. It's not far-fetched.

This reminds me, of course, of Microsoft's Surface Book, which suffers from a similarly self-imposed design mistake: This detachable laptop cannot b...

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