Hey guys, it’s Greg with Apple Explained.
And today we’re going to explore the history of iPhone design.
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So the iPhone is perhaps the most iconic smartphone ever made.
And that’s largely due to its incredible design, which was unprecedented back in 2007
when it was first revealed.
I mean just look at some of the existing smartphones on the market in those days, they don’t
even appear to be in the same category as the iPhone.
And that’s why everyone was shocked by its introduction, because the iPhone really was,
as Steve Jobs put it, at least five years ahead of any other phone.
And that may leave you wondering how Apple even came up with the iPhone’s radical design
in the first place, as there was nothing else like it at the time.
Well, in order to understand Apple’s design process, you have to first understand their
design philosophy.
Because despite what many people may think, Apple doesn’t design products just to look
good.
They design products to work well.
And that principle drives almost every design-based decision within the company.
And we can get an idea of how the original iPhone was designed by understanding how Apple
wanted the device to work.
So let’s start by considering the purpose of the iPhone.
Jobs himself said Apple wanted it to be the smartest phone on the market, in addition
to being the easiest to use.
And in order to execute this goal, Apple had to reimagine how a user interfaces with their
smartphone.
Because if we refer back to all the smartphones that existed before the iPhone, you get an
idea of how complicated the user experience really was.
Dozens of small plastic buttons fixed into place, each with their own function.
A small display featuring a cumbersome operating system that you might navigate with arrows,
a scroll ball, or touchpad.
And as you might imagine, this wasn’t the fastest or easiest way to interact with the
content on your smartphone.
And Apple found a better way.
They used a technology called multitouch alongside a large touch-sensitive display which functioned
in a very similar way to a desktop mouse.
Because with just a finger, users could navigate to the content they wanted just with a tap.
Which was a much more natural, simple way to use a smartphone.
And this also meant the device no longer needed a fixed plastic keyboard with all kinds of
different buttons.
Instead, Apple used the extra real estate to include a larger, 3.5” multitouch display.
Something unheard of in competing smartphones.
But that didn’t mean the iPhone wouldn’t have any buttons at all.
Because something called a home button was included which served one simple function
across the entire operating system, which was to return the user to the home screen
from wherever they were at.
Now if you take a step back and imagine what a phone with these features might look like,
it probably isn’t too far off from what the original iPhone ended up becoming.
Because Apple is predicable in one aspect, and that’s when it comes to their simple,
straightforward design aesthetic.
So Apple really wasn’t trying to build a phone with the prettiest design, they were
trying to build a phone with the best user experience and features which informed what
the iPhone ended up looking like.
Now another signature quality of the original iPhone was the large black plastic section
on the back, which seemed to interrupt the beautiful aluminum panel.
But it didn’t matter to Apple if some people considered this ugly, because it served a
necessary function.
And that was to ensure a strong antenna connection since aluminum prevented radio signals from
passing through.
And we’ll see other examples of Apple making what appear to be unappealing design decision
later in the video.
So that’s part the story behind the original iPhone design, but what about the others?
Because the iPhone has taken an interesting path since 2007, with what some may consider
high and low points.
Now I’m going to discuss every iPhone model that received a major redesign.
Which leaves out all of the S iterations and a few others.
So let’s begin by discussing the iPhone’s first redesign in 2008, with the iPhone 3G.
And as the name suggests, this model ran on AT&T’s faster 3G networks, which brought
with it some challenges.
Because one of the reasons why Apple chose to put the original iPhone on the slower EDGE
network, was to save battery life.
But data speed were painfully slow, and not long after its release, users began expecting
Apple to create a modern 3G-capable iPhone.
So in order to accommodate this change, the iPhone’s design changed with it.
This time ditching the aluminum back in favor of all-plastic.
Which again, allowed radio signals to pass through without difficulty.
And strong signal strength on the iPhone 3G was crucial, since a weak signal placed even
more demand on the device’s battery.
And because the 3G’s battery was actually smaller than its predecessor, it needed to
conserve as much power as possible.
Now things took a much different turn with the iPhone 4.
Because Apple decided to ditch the plastic back in favor of an all-glass design.
In addition to a stainless-steel band that went around the sides.
Now the switch from plastic to glass was likely to prevent scratching, since glass is a much
harder material.
Although it is much more susceptible to shattering.
Now perhaps the iPhone 4’s biggest design change was the stainless-steel band.
And this is where Apple made another surprising design decision, since they allowed unsightly
lines to interrupt the seamlessness of the steel band.
But this was the result of Apple integrating the antenna system into the band itself, another
decision based on function rather than pure aesthetics.
Now the next major redesign came with the iPhone 5 in 2012, and is widely considered
to be one of the best.
Because it featured a sleek aluminum body with diamond-chamfered edges, and beautifully
placed sections of glass on the back.
Also, this design was 18% thinner, 20% lighter, and 12% smaller by volume than the iPhone
4s.
But it featured the largest display available for iPhones at the time, measuring 4” instead
of the usual 3.5”.
And there was something else special about its design, because it was the first time
an iPhone featured an aluminum body since the original.
And this helped tremendously in getting its weight down, as aluminum weighs less than
glass.
Also, this meant users wouldn’t have to worry so much about shattering the back of
their iPhone.
Now this was around the time when competing smartphones began to feature larger displays.
And Apple was proud that the iPhone 5 was still a compact phone that could be used one-handed.
But the market made it clear that big phones with big displays were more desirable, so
Apple changed their tune with the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus in 2014.
Because Apple went all-in with larger iPhones that featured 4.7” and 5.5” displays.
And they solved the issue of one-handed use by including a software feature called reachability,
which moved the screen content down when needed.
Now the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus designs were about more than just their displays.
They adopted some design cues from the original iPhone by featuring rounded edges, although
this made the phone quite slippery which caused some complaints especially since the devices
were already quite large and more difficult to hold securely.
Now these models had a couple design eyesores that I personally could never really look
past.
And it had to do with the antenna and camera.
Because while the iPhone 4 featured lines interrupting the antenna band, the iPhone
6 and 6 Plus models had unsightly lines interrupting the entire aluminum back panel.
And while this was necessary in order to enable strong cellular connection, I much preferred
the iPhone 5’s approach of adding attractive glass sections on the backside instead of
plastic lines.
And as for the camera, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were the first models to feature camera
bumps, where the camera unit would actually protrude from the back panel.
And many people, including myself, found this to be quite unappealing at the time, although
most have come to accept it today.
So Apple had made quite a few major redesigns to the iPhone up to this point, but things
got a lot less exciting with the iPhone 7.
It was technically a redesigned model, but changes were minimal.
The camera unit was more seamlessly integrated into the back panel, and the antenna lines
were moved.
Running along the top and bottom edges instead of across the back panel.
But perhaps the biggest change was the removal of the headphone jack.
And the decision remains controversial to this day.
Apple claimed they had to remove it in order to make room for the Haptic Engine, but other
people think Apple deliberately removed the headphone jack in order to boost sales of
the AirPods, their wireless earbuds.
Now the iPhone 8 released just one year later in 2017 featured another design overhaul.
But again, it wasn’t as radical a change as with the iPhone 4, 5 or 6.
The iPhone 8 featured wireless charging, which meant the backside had to be glass instead
of aluminum.
So it got a little heavier than the iPhone 7 and fear of shattering the back, as with
the iPhone 4, had returned.
Now there isn’t much else that changed with the iPhone 8’s design.
And this was likely because a second iPhone model had more of Apple’s attention and
resources.
And that was the iPhone X, which was actually introduced alongside the iPhone 8.
Now the iPhone X finally delivered a radical redesign that customers had been waiting for.
And it all started with the huge, 5.8” super retina display that dominated the frontside
of the device.
But there was one other thing on the front, a notch.
Which brings us to yet another design decision driven by function rather than looks.
The notch received more than its share of criticism from the tech community and beyond.
With some people going so far as to say it ruined the entire purpose of the iPhone X’s
edge-to-edge display.
But the function of the notch is quite interesting.
Because it houses some of the most incredible technology brought to any iPhone.
And that is the TrueDepth camera system.
Which enables great features like FaceID and selfie Portrait Mode.
But I want to focus on FaceID since I believe it fundamentally changes the way users interact
with their iPhone.
Because at first, there were passcodes that kept our iPhones protected.
And using a passcode was the most time consuming, inconvenient method of securing your device.
Then Touch ID came along and made things a lot faster, since all you had to do then was
rest your thumb on the home button.
But FaceID accomplishes something very interesting.
It allows you to secure your phone without doing anything differently than if your phone
weren’t secure.
Because you look at your phone whether or not FaceID is activated.
And this adds a level of convince to unlocking your iPhone that has never been achieved before.
So I think the notch is a welcome addition to the iPhone that makes using the device
even simpler and easier.
Which has been Apple’s design goal for the iPhone since the beginning.
Now I should also mention that the iPhone X adds a polished stainless steel band and
glass back that not only look incredible together, but enable some amazing features that make
the iPhone even smarter and easier to use.
So that is the history of iPhone design, and if you want to vote for the next video topic,
don’t forget to subscribe.
Thanks for watching, and I’ll see you next time.