There is no software to make the design beautiful if the device is on standby on a desk. It’s just a blank rectangle.
The real question is why don’t more mainstream electronics look as creative as teenage engineering?
The kind of designs that (e.g.) Sony was selling on the scale of millions in the early 2000s were incredibly unique and eye-catching.
Sony S2 Sports WM-FS566
Sony Sports Walkman D-SJ01 Portable CD Player
Just to name a couple.
Teenage Engineering sells toys to rich people. Their products are all less functional than a budget laptop with some software. I love the TE design and products but it's pretty obvious why not everyone is doing this. They are selling a voice recorder that costs more than an entire iPhone which has a voice recorder app preinstalled.
A device which just provides a blank screen for the software to take over can perform the task of many single purpose gadgets, often even better. It just isn't as fun.
Well, the TE's audio recorder is very expensive, but comparing it to the iPhone's voice recorder is ridiculous, at least compare it to a semi-pro or pro field recorder.
As far as I can tell, the only thing the TE product does that your phone doesn’t is record from multiple external mics at once. Almost everything in the marketing page would work just as well on your phone though.
That's a big 'almost'. The number of channels you can record is a pretty important feature on a field recorder. What I mean is that it makes no sense comparing it to an iPhone. You could compare it to a pro field recorder, that's cheaper than an iPhone, and the features are more comparable.