Apple and the Tao of Product Design
It’s said that product designers start with the proverbial uncarved block of wood, and then chip away until they get the shape they’re seeking. But with the new Apple iPod Hi-Fi, it looks like the designers didn’t do much carving at all. The just-announced iPod Hi-Fi is a 5-speaker iPod block, …er, dock, that measures 432 x 168 x 175 mm, weighs 14.5 lbs and delivers a curiously skewed 53-16K Hz frequency response.
Given that ears and iPods, as well as most other speaker systems operate at about 20-20K Hz, the performance (as well as the appearance) of the new Hi-Fi is interestingly uninteresting.
One might not be unjustified in assuming that some Apple designers have gone Taoist and now practise a form of creative minimalism as espoused by: “The block of wood is carved into utensils by carving void into the wood. The Master uses the utensils, yet prefers to keep to the block because of its limitless possibilities. Great works do not involve discarding substance” [Tao Te Ching Chapter 28]…
Naah…that would be too subtle even for Apple. They likely just wanted a cut of the booming iPod accessory market, or perhaps they’re being a bit more creative than that - they may be indulging in some perception engineering by preemptively prepositioning their next big product announcement so as to make it appear even more munificent.
Apple iPod Hi-Fi - website
