You probably already read Stephen Fry’s intelligent, thoughtful article on Steve Jobs. If not, go and do so now, because it’s very good. But the Macalope‘s column today reminded me that I wanted to briefly discuss a couple of points Fry makes that at least half the tech press simply doesn’t seem to understand, and yet that drove almost everything Jobs worked for: design is about how something works, not just how it looks. Good design encompasses everything, from form to (where relevant) technology to human impact.

Fry:

Only dullards crippled into cretinism by a fear of being thought pretentious could be so dumb as to believe that there is a distinction between design and use, between form and function, between style and substance. If the unprecedented and phenomenal success of Steve Jobs at Apple proves anything it is that those commentators and tech-bloggers and “experts” who sneered at him for producing sleek, shiny, well-designed products or who denigrated the man because he was not an inventor or originator of technology himself missed the point in such a fantastically stupid way that any employer would surely question the purpose of having such people on their payroll, writing for their magazines or indeed making any decisions on which lives, destinies or fortunes depended.

This is something I entirely agree with. The mistake people make is to assume not only what Fry mentions later, quoting a Jobs interview with Fortune magazine —

In most people’s vocabularies, design means veneer. It’s interior decorating. It’s the fabric of the curtains and the sofa.

— but also that this was all Apple and Jobs have ever been involved with.

It’s depressing that too often these days in technology, someone will talk about design in the negative. They will dismiss a well-designed product as an expensive trinket, or something unsuitable for anyone who doesn’t want a dumbed-down experience. They’ll suggest cheaper alternatives. But, really, good design improves everything: how something looks, how something works, how something interacts with you, how something can save you time or bring you joy.

The final words,I’ll leave to Jobs:

Design is the fundamental soul of a man-made creation that ends up expressing itself in successive outer layers of the product or service.

Odd article on TechRadar about Samsung and Google pulling the Nexus Prime product announcement:

Samsung and Google decide to postpone the new product announcement at CTIA Fall.

We agree that it is just not the right time to announce a new product. New date and venue will be shortly announced.

TechRadar leaps to the conclusion a lot of other sites have come to:

It’s likely that the companies decided to postpone as a mark of respect to rival Steve Jobs, who passed away earlier this week.

If so, that would be astonishing from a business standpoint, allowing a rival to steam forward, because an industry figurehead has passed away. Frankly, I don’t believe it for a second. Maybe I’m just a big ol’ cynic but I reckon if this really was the case for the delay, the joint statement would (and should) have said so. Instead, chances are that the delay is down to other reasons (technical, or just not wanting to get buried in the tech press, which, clearly, mostly has Steve Jobs on its mind right now), and the statement has been cunningly worded.

Ian Betteridge agrees:

Call me a cynic, but thats a vague enough statement to allow people to interpret it as Jobs-related, while meaning something else.

Hmm.

Update: All THings D now reports:

We believe this is not the right time to announce a new product as the world expresses tribute to Steve Jobs’s passing.

So, turns out I am a cynic, but this is also a lesson in communication for Google and Samsung: say what you mean and don’t be vague.

I was lucky enough to chat with Graham Linehan recently, for a magazine interview. As is often the way with interviews, we ended up just chatting in general for a bit, mostly about the internet and Twitter. He made some comments about social networking, social and digital evolution, and Twitter, which were too good to end up on the cutting-room floor. Therefore, the interview’s now online on the .net website. Go! Read!

It’s like accelerated evolution, but at the same time, it’s kind of an artificial evolution, because it’s all technology-based. If the oil runs out, we’re back to just sitting in pubs.

CNN:

Steve Jobs, the visionary in the black turtleneck who co-founded Apple in a Silicon Valley garage, built it into the world’s leading tech company and led a mobile-computing revolution with wildly popular devices such as the iPhone, died Wednesday. He was 56.

Apple’s statement:

We are deeply saddened to announce that Steve Jobs passed away today.

Steve’s brilliance, passion and energy were the source of countless innovations that enrich and improve all of our lives. The world is immeasurably better because of Steve.

His greatest love was for his wife, Laurene, and his family. Our hearts go out to them and to all who were touched by his extraordinary gifts.

Rest in peace, Steve. You will be missed.

Charles Arthur rounds up analyst responses to the iPhone 4S and iCloud. As you might expect, it’s a mix of sensible, rational objectivity and quite a lot of crap.

CK Lu, Gartner:

Apple no longer has a leading edge – its cloud service is even behind (Google’s mobile operating system) Android

It is? The seamless integration and back-up of iOS and OS X data doesn’t seem behind Android’s equivalent cloud services, nor do the media-oriented options (at least in the USA), although they’re not really ahead either—just different.

it can only sell on brand loyalty now.

And not, say, build quality of the devices, usability, and the fact iOS has way more useful apps…

Users may wait to buy the next iPhone; if they can’t wait, they may shift to brands with more advanced specifications.

I’m at a loss to see how the iPhone 4S is particularly underspecced. On Twitter, wireless charging was the one thing a few people complained to me about it lacking, but that’s hardly commonplace in competing systems. Other than that, you’re into specification willy-waving about things the mass market rarely cares about.

 

Thomas Husson, European consumer mobile analyst, Forrester Research:

Apple’s product strategists have opted to satisfy the premium position with an iPhone 4S that, like the 3GS at its introduction, relies on improved processing power and a new interaction paradigm, but eschews technology upgrades that their Android competitors rely upon today such as LTE and a larger screen.

LTE isn’t fully baked yet, and kills battery life, so Apple’s gone for compromise here. A larger screen would reduce the resolution and make the iPhone worse, not better.

Apple’s new Siri Assistant, unique to the new 4S, is a powerful harbinger of the future use of mobile devices [but] consumers will be much more slow to adopt this new interface than they did Apple’s revolutionary touchscreen of its first iPhone.

I think this is a given and Husson’s is a smart, balanced, rational viewpoint. It’s almost like he’s done some actual analysis, rather than spewing out bile.

 

Richard Windsor, Nomura Securities

[The iPhone 4S] is [not] likely to keep the Android community up at night and we suspect that even Nokia may be sighing a breath of relief …

Yes, because it’s not like Apple’s just improved what was already the USA’s number-one selling smartphone, and made the number-two one free on contract. Otherwise companies like Nokia would be bricking it right about now. [SUB: PLEASE FACT CHECK].

After weeks of fevered speculation about a low-end model and multiple SKUs [stock-keeping units] of a new iPhone, very little has come to pass explaining the 3% decline in the share price, making the total intraday swing of 5%.

That would be the share drop Apple gets after every single event of this sort, yes? And, man, Apple not returning to the bad old days of making its product line over complicated? THE IDIOTS!

We think that a low-end iPhone would be highly detrimental to the proposition of Android, but this time around it has been spared.

Ignoring the free-on-contract iPhone 3GS, clearly.

Hence we remain comfortable with our choice of the Asian Android vendors as the best way to invest in the smartphone market: we have ‘Buy’ ratings on HTC, Samsung, ZTE and TCL.

That’s right: you back those innovators! Let’s return in a year and see how well AAPL has done compared to those guys, shall we?

 

Francisco Jeronimo, IDC European Mobile Devices research manager:

The new prices announced to the new iPhone4S and previous iPhone versions allow Apple to compete in the price segments where Android is fiercely growing, the mid-range.

Jeronimo gets it. Apple is no longer the absolute high-end across its consumer range. It’s not cheap, but it’s increasingly grabbing the mid-range, and the new iPhone line-up and pricing structure can assist with this.

Apple will attract first-time smartphone users and users from mid-price Symbian devices looking for an upgrade, but will it attract current iPhone users to replace their current iPhone’s? Definitely not!

I agree. Few iPhone 4 owners will upgrade, but I bet a lot of iPhone 3G/GS owners will. Additionally, the point Cook made in the event was important: the smartphone industry has tons of growth yet: it’ll be a long time before we hit saturation, with sales mostly coming from upgrades.

In the previous announcements, Apple implemented significant software and hardware changes able to seduce users to get the latest version, but this is not the case with the iPhone 4S.

Ah. Maybe Jeronimo doesn’t entirely get it after all. No significant software upgrades? Did you ignore iOS 5 entirely? Hardware… fair enough, assuming you avoid mentioning the A5 chip, improved camera and ‘fixed’ antenna. And, also, the fact the new guts enable two of the best features of the new softweare: Siri and AirPlay mirroring.

Without a significant hardware differentiation there’s no strong incentive for a massive replacement, as users can just upgrade their iPhone 4s with the new iOS 5.

I’d say this is a good thing. Do we really want to be binning devices every year? Is that sustainable? I feel bad enough that I’ll be ditching my iPhone 3GS for an iPhone 4S, but maybe that’s just me. More importantly, though, that iPhone 4 owners can get most of the new features is great, because it shows Apple doesn’t immediately forget about you once you’ve bought a device (unlike many Android vendors), and it shows that if you do splash out, your device will likely be usable for several years to come and, about once a year, feel almost brand-new, for free.

 

Frank Gillett, cloud analyst, Forrester Research

Apple’s iCloud is an important new software platform and service that will integrate Apple’s customer experiences across their iPhone, iPad, and Mac products. This first version creates a personal cloud experience of the individual’s work, personal, and purchased content being seamlessly available across all their Apple products, in contrast to the fragmented experience of Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.

Next on Fox: Gillett vs. Lu ‘Who is right about these cloud services anyway?’ punch-up.

I believe the Siri Assistant feature is the beginning of a new user experience built around context that will eventually create a much more personal, intimate experience for using all of Apple’s mobile and Mac products. Both of these offerings will have enduring impact beyond the latest model of the iPhone.

Long game vs. short-termism. It’s clear Apple’s been, since Jobs’s return, laying groundwork for years. It’s into slow development and user experience, not quick fixes and knee-jerk reactions to current trends. You get the tech when it’s solid and ready, not before.