> iPhone wasn't successful because of its beautiful design
Relatively speaking I think that gave it an edge which helped make it successful.
I don't think Apple products in general have the best most usable designs, but they do have the most beautiful, most stylish most sophisticated-looking designs. People want that because a device like phone is part of their identity.
yeah, the Macbook for example, looks pretty, but its sharp aluminum edge cuts into my palm when I use the track pad, so I have black electrical tape on it so that it is functional. Which destroys its beauty. I'd take an aluminum router to it if I could, but it is a work laptop (on lease). And unfortunately I can't use a Linux laptop here otherwise I would...
Totally. In a world of pretty ugly flip phones and Blackberries, the minimalist early iPhone designs definitely looked cool at the time, and were attention grabbing to a degree. I think it definitely kept that edge for some time against early Android phones, which weren't necessarily as attractive.