It still rankles me when I think of the ignorant blogger who months ago insisted Apple had "reached the limits of industrial design" with the iPhone 4, his idiotic assertion being that Cupertino's glass rectangle could sustain no further modifications.
What a tool.
Case in point, check out Mac Funamizu's latest concept phone, which manages to breathe life into a perfect little rectangle by the means of some subtle curves in all the right places. (For the record, Funamizu's design is not branded "iPhone-" anything, it's just a concept design of his called the Zimmer.)
I want to touch this thing so bad it pains me to watch the animation:
Mobile Phone Sketch: Zimmer from Mac Funamizu on Vimeo.
Japan-based Funamizu (who is fine post-earthquake, by the way, though in an area where goods are being rationed) never ceases to amaze us with his clever concept work. Another of his conceptual objects I'd like to own is his Peel Moving Notifier Concept.
It's a standalone clock that wirelessly syncs with your computer. When it's time to give you an alert, a screen on one of the faces peels backwards to reveal a message/e-mail alert/reminder, et cetera, with the amount of peeling it does correlating with the urgency of the message.
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Comments
Concept cars are generally different to what we see above. They usually concentrate on some design theme or technology and propose how it might work in the existing architecture of a car.
But this phone proposes no new design features. If no one had ever done monoblock aluminium milling before then I might see some potential. But Apple already do this, in production.
As I said before, this phone offers nothing other than some questionable form study, with little thought as to what might determine form - such as assembly, ergonomics... etc...
The issue isn't whether the activity of generating 'concepts' is relevant (see my first sentence in the last comment), more the gap I perceive in the understanding of the designer as to the real value of what has been achieved.
I am not referring to the work illustrated here, more the general theme of the article.
Neither the tenor of the first article paragraph, nor that of your first sentence (ron) do much to encourage debate.
Design genius I'm not. Opinions I do have though. Manners too for that matter.
the iphone4 is far from perfect. I know many people that prefer the 3g(s) form factor. and personally i prefer the ipod touch to both but realize you cant shove all the phone stuff inside it right now.
The real achievement though is maintaining this level of intent while still enabling the product to be made, and to function appropriately in a demanding marketplace.
The ratio of interesting 'concepts' (lots) to 'great manufactured products' (far fewer), suggests there is gap to be filled somewhere - possibly in the understanding of designers as to the complexity of achieving manufactured 'greatness', or the willingness to go beyond first stage 'notions' and add appropriate rigour to concepts.
Front of phone - interesting
Back - not so much
Charging
Camera (front and rear)
Headphone port
Microphone
It's pretty easy to design a phone that doesnt actually work. It's a whole nother thing to make one that actually works as well as the iPhone 4
I certainly think it is the best iphone yet, and one of the most beautiful AND beautifully functional handheld objects in the world. No offense to your design tastes, hipstomp, or to Mr Mac Funamizu's fantastic work, but the iphone 4 is a masterpiece of design to which there is no current comparison, and I have often wondered to myself how Apple could possibly improve upon it.
I agree with Carl, a little Motorola, little apple and not a great piece.