Imagine this scenario: you get a beautifully wrapped box, with a bright red ribbon around it. The box isn't too big; it's about the size of that Samsung Galaxy S7 you were hoping for. You carefully unwrap the box, not tearing the paper, because you remember that your mother taught you to save such nice wrapping paper.
Sure enough, it's a box for a Galaxy S7! You open the box and pull out the phone inside. You try turning it on, but nothing happens. The phone feels strangely light; it's like there's nothing in the phone at all, no battery, no chips, nothing. And, in fact, that's what you have: the outer shell of a smart phone.
Apple recently argued to the Supreme Court that you should be just as happy as if you'd gotten a working phone. A lower court had awarded Apple the entire profits that Samsung made on several smartphone models, based entirely on part of the shape of the outside of the phones. The award was about $399 million.
According to Apple, this was completely fair; after all, it's the iconic design of the iPhone that drives sales. Apple was supported by friend-of-the-court briefs from the likes of Nike, Crocs, and Tiffany and Company, all of whom argued for the value of product design.
But of course, no one would be happy to open the present I described at the beginning of this article. We expect a smartphone to be able to do things, like, for example, make phone calls and send texts. The reality is that today's devices combine design with functionality; while we don't want the large brick-like cell phones of yesteryear, we do actually care about what a phone does and how easy it is to use.
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05.13.2025