Best of Category

iPhone

The iPhone was the 8-gigabyte gorilla in the room from the beginning. The jurors faced a quandary: They could ignore it altogether, succumbing to the sense that perhaps too much has already been said. Or they could choose to give it an award. "I think it's a mistake if we don't give an acknowledgment," Mackay said. "Who wouldn't want the iPhone in their portfolio?" But which prize to bestow? What award would speak to the way the iPhone has revolutionized the mobile-phone landscape, the way it's inflamed consumer lust, the way the gesture and logic of its user-interface have already entered the popular vernacular? "It can't be an Honorable Mention," Mackay concluded.

And so at the risk of generating Onion-style headlines ("iPhone Delights, Amazes Roomful of Design Types"), the jurors crowned Apple's mobile-phone debut Best of Category. "It's the most successful combination of hardware and software in one product that I've ever experienced," said Barratt (who, tellingly, was often called upon to use his own iPhone to test out the peripherals in the competition). Mackay, while not an owner, said her a-ha moment came on a dark, rainy Soho street, when a designer gave her an impromptu presentation of his portfolio on the iPhone. "The images were perfect," she said. "After viewing more than 30 images I remained fully engaged." Brubach lauded Apple's tradition of powerful designs that don't seem to try very hard. The design of the iPhone, she said, "arises from its function in a remarkably seamless way, and neither gets in the way of the other. This seems simple when you see it, but it's astonishingly difficult to achieve."

Mackay expressed reservations about the quality of the iPhone's service via AT&T—which is, after all, an essential part of its functionality. And Barratt did lament the lack of calendar synching. But as he put it, these were "granular criticisms" that could not take away from a singular truth: "This certainly has had the most impact of any product over the past 12 months."

Design Apple Industrial Design Team (Cupertino, CA)