Like Mike Schramm over at TUAW, I love this photo of an iPhone that has been “aged to perfection”. In fact, it looks very similarly to the way my first iPhone looked a few years in.
No doubt Steve Jobs’ heart would stop if he saw one of his products looking this way, but in truth, that’s one of my issues with Apple’s products: they have never been designed to age gracefully, but instead, seemingly to exist in a vacuum of asceticism.
It’s something I have always liked about the first iPhone that it can handle scratches better than the models that followed it, as long as the display is protected. It’s hard to imagine that a workman’s iPhone 4 will look nearly as good despite its blemishes four years down the line.
John Brownlee is a writer for Fast Company, and a contributing writer here at CoM. He has also written for Wired, Playboy, Boing Boing, Popular Mechanics, VentureBeat, and Gizmodo. He lives in Boston with his wife and two parakeets. You can follow him here on Twitter.
20 responses to “An Original iPhone, Aged To Perfection”
This illustrates the big difference between Apple and most other personal electronics: Apple’s finishes are a bit more delicate than others (the “ascetic aesthetic?”), but their functionality is a lot sturdier. Consider the number of devices you’ve probably tossed that still looked great, and then the Apple devices you still own that are beat-to-snot but you can’t throw out because they still work great. That’s why I’m still using a c. 2004 PowerBook. I can’t justify spending 1500 bucks to replace a perfectly good computer, and the damn thing refuses to die.
I love this. This is what those that obsess over every scratch miss out on. There is something noble and honest about a device that’s got a few notches on it and “shows it’s age.”
It’s not a Faberge egg, it’s a tool.
On the day the first generation of iPhones were released, I avoided the 5th Ave “Flagship” store and later that afternoon went to the SOHO store. I even found a parking place within a block of the store, which was in itself amazing. There was still a 1/2 block line outside but it moved fast. Before you could count the passing of five minutes we were herded thru the front door, around counters, up a ramp or stairs, and to the back of the store where the precious iPhones were kept. You had your choice of 4 or 8 megs (I think) and there was a limit of 2 per person. I begged a bit, swore I was buying for myself, my partner, our daughter and our son and was allowed to purchase four of the little jewel-like objects only after a hasty consultation with a manager standing nearby. I was out of the store (and $2500 dollars and some change poorer) as fast as they could run my AMEX thru their handheld scanners. My receipt printed and I remembered to buy Applecare – which was not offered yet. Got home and of course AT&T in NYC was frozen with initiation/registration requests for iPhones. I was already an AT&T Wireless Customer so my process was easier than for many. It took all night to get the info entered and for it to finally “take” resulting in a working iPhone the next day. Remember I had four of them to set up. It was frustrating, but I got thru it. I should have known there and then it was an omen about AT&T and their commitment to iPhone Quality of Service. Loved the iPhone. Loved what it could do (not much back then) and wondered when some decent apps would come along?? The data & email and maps all worked wonderfully. The voice calls – not so good in NYC. In fact it was seldom I could maintain a call of longer than 2 minutes without it dropping. We drove to CA a few days later where I was working as a writer on a film I’d co-authored. I had not seen America in all it’s splendor since I was 9 years old on c.1959 “family vacations” which is now relegated to transfer from 8mm film to DVD’s and streaming video on a server in our basement. We took my grandmother’s car on that vacation and the old pics of that ancient ’57 Fleetwood with the fins and chrome from hell still make me laugh! On the way across our nation, every place we stopped to eat, and every motel/hotel we overnighted in, various people would see us using our iPhones and come over and talk, ask to see them, etc. Several people tried to buy them at a substantial premium over what I’d paid – so constrained was the supply in those first few weeks after release. I wouldn’t have parted with them for $5k and the offers topped out at about $1500 or $2000. I kept them of course.
I’m currently onto the latest offering from Apple – the Verizon iPhone and anxiously awaiting the G4/LEI version later this year or early 2012. My mother has inherited the original I bought all those years ago and is happy on AT&T in Phoenix. The other phones I bought that day are all still running in the hands of a sister, and my niece and nephew. Is it four or five years this summer since I bought those phones? Amazing thing is they’re still running and although much slower for data than my current version – they still work well enough to be usable for both phone and email.How many other phones are still working (and someone wants to actually use them) four or five years after their intro date? Apple – the products were amazing then and still are, today. And talk about getting your monies’ worth – iPhone were and still are incredible in that area.
Agreed in full; It’s a tool!
There is something beautiful about the aged iPhone–it has character.
@MarkinScottsdale:disqus TOO LONG. I did not come here to read a book.
Type your comment here.
yeah, that iPhone looks awesome.
Or you could take batter care of the things you own….
Great story, funny stuff, love my new Iphone! also am in the film business so its cool to see how we all relate haha.
@Guest One, nothing to say but wow, defining mediocrity one comment at a time. what do you have better to do? dishes in the sink?