Jason Fried at 37signals asks “What happens when it’s all glass?”, worrying about whether Apple will lose its edge with the way industrial design is moving:

I wonder if Apple will soon lose their perceived industrial design edge. It’s not that they aren’t incredibly good at it—they are the best in the business—it’s that industrial design is trending towards transparency. It’s all going glass. Everything is turning into a screen, from edge to edge. Once it’s all about glass, it’s all about software.

Luckily for Apple their software is outstanding. But, I think over time great software is less of a competitive advantage than killer hardware only because software, across the board, is getting better quickly.

The key here is perception. Apple must be careful to not get drowned out by a crowd of me-too imitators. Technology news pages are full of Android tablets that are supposed iPad killers, but all I see for the most part is a gang of iPad rip-offs. Advocates argue that Apple’s design decisions were ‘obvious’, hence everyone’s interfaces being so similar to iOS. If that’s the case, why did no-one release something like iOS before Apple? Why did it take the iPhone and iPad to push the industry forwards?

That’s why this time round things will be different. Apple’s share will of course dwindle (although its profits won’t), but not to the level seen on the desktop (where, remember, Apple is still profitable, despite commanding only a tiny market-share). And Apple will always excite the industry and consumers, because it dares to innovate. Android may have the lead in a few areas (such as notifications), but iOS forges ahead almost everywhere else, especially in places where it really matters, such as usability, robustness and elegance.

Differentiation is going to be the key in mobile and touch. Apple has the best industrial design, the best product integration, the best vision and the best selection of mobile apps. These things didn’t happen by accident and they didn’t happen by copying someone else. So what will happen when it’s all glass? Apple will still be out in front.