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Steve Jobs once made the point that “design isn’t how it looks, it is how it works”.

People often criticise Apple products for just being shiny but inferior; however, their real strength is in understanding that how it works is just as important as what it does.

The iPhone does much less than other “smartphones” but what it does has redefined how we interact with phones. The great Stephen Fry says the same about the iPad:

The moment you experience it in your hands you know this is class. This is a different order of experience.

However, my personal experience of this is my car. I drive an Alfa – a bottom of the range, not very flash one, but an Alfa none the less. It looks beautiful, both inside and out. It drives beautifully. The dials on the dashboard say “Benzina” instead of petrol, “Giri” instead of RPM. Everything about it shouts great design.

Apart from one thing – the manual does not fit in the glove box.

That is precisely the kind of thing Apple would never allow in one of their products.