Why All Phones Look The Same — Transcript

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1. 0:00If you were around in the  early days of cell phones,
2. 0:02you’ll probably remember the iconic designs  of the Motorola Razor, Sidekick, Pebble,
3. 0:08LG chocolate, and stranger designs like  the Samsung X830 or the Motorola V70.
4. 0:18There seemed to be an endless amount of unique
5. 0:20phones to choose from. Each with  their own unique operating system.
6. 0:25But today, that’s all gone away. Almost  every smartphone is a slab of glass with
7. 0:30a large touchscreen without much  any uniqueness or personality.
8. 0:34So what happened? Well, in  short, the iPhone happened.
9. 0:38It solved all the problems of prior mobile phones,
10. 0:41and added irresistible features  that forced the industry to copy it.
11. 0:46You see, the charm and uniqueness of phones in  the early 2000’s was a double edged sword. As
12. 0:52they often suffered from user experience issues  like slow navigation, lack of third party apps,
13. 0:58a poor user interface, lack of software  upgrades, and unoptimized technology.
14. 1:03With the arrival of iPhone,  Apple provided the industry
15. 1:06with a blueprint of how a mobile phone  should work, and how it should look.
16. 1:11Instead of offering a variety  of models and designs,
17. 1:14Apple simply made one version of iPhone. With  one operating system, and one button. This was
18. 1:19a controversial approach at the time, with  some arguing the iPhone was too expensive,
19. 1:24looked to much like a toy, and would need  a physical keyboard to be taken seriously.
20. 1:30But customers thought differently. And  once phone manufacturers noticed the
21. 1:34iPhone’s success, they had  no choice but to compete.
22. 1:38It became clear that customers were  demanding phones with an app ecosystem,
23. 1:42large touch displays, and an easy to use  interface. To deliver these features,
24. 1:47Google provided an operating system called Android  to hardware manufacturers like HTC, Samsung,
25. 1:53and Motorola. This way, apps could be developed  for one operating system instead of dozens,
26. 1:59and the user experience would remain more  consistent across devices than in the past.
27. 2:04But as these products developed,  their conveniences came at the
28. 2:08cost of uniqueness. There are still  differences between smartphones today,
29. 2:12especially considering foldables. But many people  can’t help but feel nostalgia for a time when some
30. 2:18phones would slide, others would flip, a few  would rotate, and some were indestructible.
31. 2:24This is Greg with Apple Explained, and if you  want to learn how I make videos like these,
32. 2:29let me know by clicking the link in the comments.