Wedding photographers offer iPads preloaded with the couple’s wedding album:

This only works because the iPad is itself both beautiful and intuitive. A photographer would need to be confident in both these qualities before presenting an iPad as an option.

NYT on Why HP Fired Mark Hurd:

The way H.P. made its numbers, Mr. House said, was not just cutting any old costs, but by “chopping R.&D.,” which had always been sacred at H.P. The research and development budget used to be 9 percent of revenue, Mr. House told me; now it was closer to 2 percent. “In the personal computer group, it is seven-tenths of 1 percent,” he added. “That’s why H.P. had no response to the iPad.”

Now I know why my HP LaserJet 3055 still won’t scan in Mac OS 10.6.

Your iPhone is a blank slate—a chameleon—by design. Consider what it says that there’s no Apple logo on the front of your iPhone:

Respectful. “You and your content are important.”
Tasteful. “Why mar an elegant design with logos. And how does that help you?”
Determined. “Hey, your carrier’s logo didn’t just not appear there all by itself.”
Confident. “You’ll recognize it’s ours even without the logo.”

Now, consider what it says when a competitor slaps a prominent logo on the front of their device:

Disrespectful. “We’re important. You take second place.”
Tasteless. “The logo stays, period.”
Timid. “Sure, we’re happy to put your carrier logo on there, too!”
Unconfident. “Without the logo, how will you know who made it?”

This goes double for wordmarks, which when placed on the face of a device on which you’ll be reading can only hamper that reading.

In this sense, good design requires courage. Apple’s not shy about displaying their logo, but they are judicious. On a small device like the iPhone, where there’s simply no room to display a logo without intruding upon the content itself, the logo goes on the back.

When Steve Jobs at the recent Antennagate media event said Apple loves its users, this is what he meant: “We work really hard for you, and when a tough decision has to be made, we ask the same question: How does this help the user?”