It could just be a coincidence - but since the release of Windows 10 I've noticed a new trend in the design world. Long gone are curved corner squares, and the white and grey colour palette; this season it's all about good old fashioned squares, with pointy corners and a black and blue colour palette.Is this a sign that Microsoft is now the No.1 trendsetter?
This hasn't happened overnight, there has been a growing trend towards removing curved corner for a few years now. Although could this also have been influenced by Windows 8 and the early Nokia Windows phones.
People are still paying attention to Apple of course. When they stopped designing icons which closely resembled their real-life counterparts they launched a whole new wave of minimalist icons.
When they removed shadows overnight, to the glee of Flat-Word Society Members and 15th Century scientists*, the world was once again flat!
But this isn't 2009 anymore. Designers are now looking further than their iPhone for inspiration, and it might be that Windows has embraced a trend and not started one. But we are seeing more and more apps and sites which look more like Windows. The tide is definitely changing and Apple doesn't hold the influence it once did. For example a few years ago could you ever imagine designers aspiring to a Windows 7 "look", like some have been with Windows 10.
To be fair to Apple they haven't had a recent big OS launch, like Microsoft, to try and exert any influence on recent design trends. But it's not always just been their software design which was influential, it wasn't long ago when even their TV ads were starting trends. Remember the original iconic iPod adverts? Everyone parodied the ads, from Family Guy to Squids.
The new Apple Watch adverts are prime examples of a beautiful looking campaign that's just missing that Apple je ne sais quoi. You could replace the Apple Watch with a Rolex and it wouldn't look out of place. They have looked at the watch industry and mirrored what's already out there. Nobody is going to remember these ads in 10 years time - unlike the iPod ads. You could argue it's a different target market and that you can't do an iPod-esque advert for a high-end watch. But it doesn't need to be bright and childlike, it just needs some of that Apple ZaZaZoom!
Copying what's already in the market isn't new for Apple. They of course weren't the first to create a portable MP3 player or a tablet, both had been around years before Apple evolved and improved on the ideas, but to most, the MP3 player and tablet industries started with the iPod and iPad. The difference between iPods and what Apple is doing now is they did something really different, something we hadn't seen before, they took something already in existence and made it the best it could be - this is what Apple do, or should I say used to do?
There will be a lot of pressure on their next big OS redesign to create something really revolutionary (Although Apple tends to slowly evolve rather than revolutionise, iOS7 aside, so with their current track record we can't expect another big design overhaul until iOS14!) and change the world once again. With it we'll get to see just how powerful the Californian company still is, or whether the power has shifted up the West Coast to the Washington State based Microsoft.
Let me know your thoughts - Is Apple still leading the way or has Microsoft (or someone else) taken over?
*Apologies to all you 15th Century scientists if you were already fully aware the world was round and I should be poking fun at earlier scientists!
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