Maybe Apple didn’t have much options with the iPhone’s design?

Apple is going to announce the 11th generation of the iPhone on 12th September 2018, and just as an another thought, I was keen on knowing how much has the design changed since its inception. And you can easily conclude that designs of all the previous iPhones, they are all just a rip off of the first gen iPhone. But when you actually compare it with other phone makers, Apple hasn’t been that bad after all.

There have been 5 major design changes in the lifetime of the iPhone, they are.

1. Introduction of the first generation ‘iPhone’.

The most basic of all and kind of a start to the legacy the iPhone currently holds, but there were a lot of unresolved bugs and flaws when Apple announced the iPhone back in 2007. The design of this iPhone was heartily welcomed and could have been one of the reasons for an unchanging design strategy of Apple.

2. Introduction of the iPhone 4.

The next major design change came with the iPhone 4, the box-shaped design and metal borders took Apple to new heights with this iPhone.

3. Introduction of iPhone 5c.

This was the first ‘budget’ phone from Apple, the 5c was considered for budget buyers and it was released in a plethora of colors, to me personally, it was just a bad rip-off.

4. Introduction of the iPhone 6/6 plus.

The design changed for the first time after iPhone 4 with the introduction of the iPhone 6, while increasing the size significantly with iPhone 6, Apple decided to go overboard and launched an iPhone 6 plus accompanying the generic model. The ‘plus’ model was considerably larger and was launched to cater to the demands of people who wanted phablets.

5. And introduction of the latest design (pun intended) of the iPhone X.

iPhone X was launched last year along with iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 plus. iPhone ‘X’ means the 10th iteration of the iPhone line up. While Apple didn’t change the design (except for the glass back) a bit for the iPhone 8, iPhone X had an all-new front fascia and chrome borders (taken from the iPhone 4 probably?)

Apple could have revamped the design and launched a new phone altogether but it chose to give its customers bit by bit every year, tomorrow we are going to witness the 11th generation of the iPhone and as for the rumors goes, it will be exactly like the ongoing iPhone X, with of course, a bigger variant to keep people engaged.

The truth is everyone understands this isn’t the best strategy, but in fact, its way better than everyone else on the market, and, who buys an iPhone for its design anyway?

Maybe we can all agree on the fact that the optimization and the iOS are what keeps apple going, this is strategy that rules the world right now, with the iPhone being the largest selling phone in the world.

Maybe Apple didn’t have much options with the iPhone’s design? was originally published in Hacker Noon on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.