iPhone 3G dock as evidence of Apple's new love for swoops

I think this image from iLounge showing the last three docks for Apple media players — iPods, the iPod EDGE, and the new iPhone 3G — is a concise indicator of where Apple's industrial design is going. Less basic geometric shapes, more soft arcs.

Apple iPhone 3G Dock [iLounge]

P.S. A full week in and I still don't have a 3G, Brownlee. How do you like them apples?

[#1 posted by John Brownlee , July 18, 2008 6:48 AM]

Pfft. If getting an iPhone 3G didn't mean waiting in line for 8 hours, you'd have CAVED.

[#2 posted by ike , July 18, 2008 2:20 PM]

I agree; I think other evidence of this design trend is the Macbook Air. It'll be interesting to see how much further it goes.

[#3 posted by ahaley , July 18, 2008 8:23 PM]

Yeah, thanks Apple. Now I have to retrofit my old dock to work with the 3g. jerks.

[#4 posted by Anonymous , July 19, 2008 2:19 AM]

I agree with "Ike" -- the MacBook Air is the product that most closely adopts that visual language you identify. The soft arc you're referring to is very much analogous to the language the MacBook Air uses to communicate thinness.

[#5 posted by zikman , July 19, 2008 10:08 AM]

http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1811646
doesn't seem so far fetched now

[#6 posted by Anonymous , July 19, 2008 5:55 PM]

I'd have to say the swoops hearken back to the industrial designs that gave us the hip flask, iconic Elmer's glue, Coca-Cola bottles, and the TiVo peanut remote, rather than some new product aesthetic. The volume you add to the center of the center of the phone instead of making it flat is temporally free space that would otherwise be occupied by the air between the back of the device and the curvature of the hand. The shape gives the user a more secure grip and no-look orientation; TiVo's peanut fails here because it still doesn't distinguish the IR beam side very well, but you can't have everything.

[#7 posted by Anonymous , July 20, 2008 4:47 AM]

Its a bit of an apples with oranges comparison (excuse the pun), because the universal dock at the rear has an audio out and IR remote where the two iPhone docks are just for docking and charging.
Also the the universal dock at the back is actually newer than the middle iPhone version 1 dock. The old universal dock had a round black IR receiver, not the smaller horizontal stripe.

[#8 posted by Anonymous , July 20, 2008 11:58 PM]

I'm not sure if the Universal dock is the most accurate choice for this demonstration. Part of its design is for the "nest" to be gigantic so as to fit all iPods, iPhones, etc. Granted, I'm sure the shape of the older iPods is just as boxy...