For months, maybe years, before it was released, there were news stories about it. Then there were stories about how many stories there were. Crazies, fired up by all that writing, stood in line for days to get the first crack at it—leading to article after article about whether it was worth the wait. When the price suddenly dropped $200 without warning, you guessed it: headline city. We at I.D. wondered if there was anything left to say. We decided there’s always something left to say if you ask the right people. So we called them. — The Editors (Reporting by Tim Murphy)
The best thing about my iPhone is “…the home button.” – Stefan Sagmeister, graphic designer “…its bright, clear touchscreen.” – Karim Rashid, product designer “…I actually know how to use it.” – Jeff Keedy, professor of graphic design, CalArts
The worst thing about my iPhone is………………. “…it’s a somewhat banal object—hackneyed in color, finish, and shape, and not very innovative from a material or form point of view.” – Rashid “…the poor-quality earphones.” – Tod Lippy, editor, Esopus magazine “…people on airplanes asking me in loud voices if I love my iPhone.” – Vivian Rosenthal, designer, Tronic Studio “…the amount of time it has taken me to figure out how to hack it.” – Jamie Gray, proprietor, Matter
The first person i called on my iPhone was “…my girlfriend.” – Sagmeister “…my girlfriend.” – Rashid “…my partner.” – Lippy “…another designer. To gloat, of course.” – Keedy
My iPhone really helped me “…impress a client and a 10-year-old (not the same person).” – Keedy “…get directions to a funeral.” – Lippy
I’d trade my iPhone for “…an iPhone with more capacity.” – Neil DeGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist, American Museum of Natural History “…a first edition of Ed Ruscha’s All the Buildings on the Sunset Strip.” – Lippy “…a 60 GB iPhone that’s hot pink and made of silicone rubber.” – Rashid
Once I meant to type “…‘This word correction program works, actually’ and I accidentally typed ‘This word correction program works fucking fantastically.’” – Sagmeister “…my first name and I accidentally typed ‘SRIF.’” – Lippy “…‘I love you’ and I accidentally typed ‘Could you pick up the laundry?’” – Rosenthal “…‘Please DON’T TEXT ME’ and I accidentally typed ‘If you don’t want to talk to me, that’s OK.’” – Keedy
Apple’s decision to lower the iPhone price to $400 a few weeks after its intro was “…a PR misfire.” – Lippy “…good for everyone else.” – Rashid “…great for me. That’s the day my BlackBerry was stolen and so I purchased a brand-new iPhone. I wonder how many other people in the design community coincidentally had their BlackBerries stolen the day Apple lowered the price.” – Gray
I haven’t purchased an iPhone yet because “…a knowledgeable friend convinced me that by waiting six months or so I could buy the inevitably better version that will operate on a faster telecom system.” – Kurt Andersen, novelist/radio personality “…at almost 70 years old, one doesn’t jump into anything new that quickly.” – Ed Fella, graphic designer “…before the thing was even released, Apple announced they’d work on improving service and features for version 2.0. That’s like saying, ‘Please pay $600 to be our beta tester.’ Thank you, no.” – Chip Kidd, graphic designer