I know this may upset a few, naturally it is meant as a provocation and hopefully may spark some thinking

1. 10 reasons why
is bad for design

2. 1: Design attributions Apple’s design may be good
(or not –see below), but too
many people accept that the
success of the company can
be attributed to their design
achievements
Jobs, Ive and the media have
reinforced this causal
relation, underplaying the
primary role of marketing
and exaggerating the
ancillary role of design
Yet, many designers prefer to
believe fabricated stories
that attribute commercial
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2012/05/jonathan-ive-knighted/
success to ‘design strategies’

3. 2: The ‘inevitability’ illusion Apple’s successes largely
depend on a system of
‘engineered anticipation’,
while their failures go
largely unnoticed -or are
grossly underrated.
Their product design
escape objective
evaluation and
professional scrutiny.
Critical views are non-
existent or are rapidly
dismissed as ‘dissenters’
of a higher cause.
www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/9488354/New-iPhone-New-iPad-
Rumours-drive-Apple-value-to-new-heights.html

4. 3: Sosumi: Double standards Apple has shown a double
standard in regard to
intellectual property.
Jobs ‘borrowed’ many
inventions from Xerox
PARC and SRI in the 1980s
and the company is well
known by experts to
improve existing
technologies.
Yet, Apple is the most
active company launching
patent battles against
http://www.mbaonline.com/
Also see: http://www.androidauthority.com/patent-war-infographic-88534/ competitors.

5. 4: Stereotypes The corporate strategy of
Apple has been built in
building simplistic and
ridicule stereotypes.
Sadly, many in the design
world have blindly
adopted this worldview
and equate the ‘creative
type’ with buying Apple
products.
The irony is that “think
different” becomes a way
of conventional, uncritical
conformism.
http://www.apple.com

6. 5: Cult and rhetoric Indoctrination, delusion
and infatuation of a
leader’s personality have
been very successful
components in Apple’s
commercial strategy.
Apple fanatics are made
believe that by buying
these products they
somehow ‘change the
world’.
Few people are critical of
Apple’s revolutionary
http://www.world-and-local-news.com/2012/06/5-signs-that-apple-is-cult.html rhetoric.

7. 6: Greenwashing Apple is constantly
questioned for its
strategies, materials,
suppliers and
‘sustainability’ claims.
They have addressed
some complaints, but the
core of their strategy is
“planned obsolescence”.
Many corporations engage
in these practices, but it is
especially cynical coming
from a company that
http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/apr/21/apple-least-green-tech-company
markets itself in such
metaphysical terms.

8. 7: Bubble Apple’s growth is
unsustainable and the
company is over-valued -
this is 2012, check back in
a few years.
This is almost trivial from
a design viewpoint, except
that so many people are
claiming that design can
do miracles for any
company who follows
Apple’s example
(see slide #1).
mashable.com/2012/08/22/apple-is-ridiculously-valuable-infographic/

9. 8: (no) design contribution Besides setting superficial
trends in product
appearance, Apple design
has made no substantial
contribution to design.
Jobs and Ive follow the
modernist tradition,
praising Bauhaus, Braun
and Dieter Rams’s 50-year
old principles.
Their claims of “product
essence” and “purity” are
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/8555503/Dieter-Rams- uncanny and lead to a
Apple-has-achieved-something-I-never-did.html
racist ideology of design
and aesthetics.

10. 9: The designer is God Apple’s paternalistic view of
design is becoming a
paradigm in some design
circles.
In such conventional terms,
the “user” doesn’t really
know what he/she wants –
and the designers’
superiority enable them to
envision breakthrough ideas.
Fortunately, participatory
and co-creation methods
have shown in the last
http://www.thedailybeast.com/newsweek/2011/08/28/steve-jobs-
decades that individuals and
american-genius.html communities know better
than any self-proclaimed
genius.

11. 10: Gatekeeper Apple’s model of the
Internet consists of an
“app world” where they
get to decide and approve
what is made available to
the users.
This is not being
challenged by most
people, but it is as if back
in the 1990s Mosaic and
Netscape inspected every
website before its
publication.
http://gawker.com/5809978/listen-to-richard-dreyfuss-make-apple-sound-evil
Ludicrous.

12. Want more facts and arguments?
Check Morozov’s article:
http://www.tnr.com/article/books-and-
arts/magazine/100978/form-fortune-
steve-jobs-philosopher

13. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/business/apples-tax-strategy-aims-at-low-tax-states-and-nations.html

14. http://vator.tv/news/2010-04-05-ipad-launch-weekend-news-round-up

15. http://theredlist.fr/wiki-2-24-224-267-view-fiction-profile-adam-eve.html