I’ve been doing this for long enough to know how certain stories are going to play out. That’s why I knew a year before Samsung even announced the Galaxy Fold that it would be a piece of junk. Samsung Mobile truly shines when it comes to refining designs and technologies that are already mature. That’s why phones like the Galaxy S10 are market leaders in nearly every conceivable way. But when it comes to innovating with new designs and new technologies, Samsung is almost always a hot mess. The company makes huge, unforgivable design mistakes on first-generation products. On top of that, it often tries to rush things out the door in an effort to be first. That’s right, Samsung is literally the corporate embodiment of a YouTube commenter. Remember when rumors started to pick up that Apple was getting ready to release an “iTV” with Siri voice control, so Samsung announced a voice-controlled TV at CES the following year and rushed it out the door? First! That TV almost never responded to voice commands the way it was supposed to, and it now lays claim to one of the worst user experiences of the past decade. Now, the Galaxy Fold is the same story all over again.
When I made my Galaxy Fold prediction more than a year early, I endured an endless wave of whiny emails from Samsung fans… right up until they realized I was right. But perhaps the response to today’s prediction will be less abrasive since it’s so obvious. Are you among the many, many people out there whining about the rear camera setup on the new iPhone 11 design we’ve seen leak time and time again? Well, you need to stop your incessant whingeing right now, and I’m going to explain why.
The iPhone 11 camera bump in question can be seen in the render at the top of this post, but here’s a closer look:
Designwise, it’s actually quite sleek. In fact, it’s a cut above anything else on the market right now. The camera bump is integrated into the back of the iPhone 11, so it’s a single piece of glass instead of a metal frame sticking through a glass back like other smartphones. The area in between the cameras will be color-matched to the back of the phone, which is also something you won’t find on other handsets. But it’s big and square, and people who haven’t seen a design like this before could certainly be put off.
In the time since Apple’s new iPhone 11 design first leaked, I’ve seen so many people whining about this new square camera array. The latest whingeing came in this New York Post article, which is titled “New iPhone design shows lumpy, squarish camera bumps.” Ugh. “Brace yourself,” the article opens. “The new iPhone’s camera bump will soon be bigger and uglier than ever.”
It continues, “A report on the design of the new iPhone — which some have speculated will be called the iPhone 11 — shows phones with a similar form factor as current models, but with a camera bump that’s twice as large as the bump on the current iPhone XS. The large, squarish bump, revealed in leaked schematics from the website Slashleaks, has been said to resemble a ‘stovetop’ as it will house three cameras plus an LED flash.” Uuuuuuuuugh.
Look… I can’t tell you how many times I’ve seen this movie and it always ends the same way. Always. Apple does something new and people whine incessantly when they first see it. Then they buy it and forget all about it. Why? Because Apple sets the standard in consumer electronics, so whatever Apple does becomes the new norm.
Remember when people first saw Apple’s notched display on the iPhone X in 2017? Do you remember how bad the whining was? People absolutely lost their minds and flooded social media with complaints. You could practically see the veins bulging out of their necks as you read their comments. Heck, even I hated the notch design the first time I saw it. Then when I bought myself an iPhone X, I ate crow because in reality, it was a great design. That’s why just about every Android phone maker on the planet stole it. And what happened when other people started buying the iPhone X? After using it for a short while, they forgot the notch was even there.
The iPhone 11’s rear camera design is new and controversial. Only one smartphone has had a rear camera setup like this before, and it’s made by Huawei so almost no one in the US has seen it. But before you head to Twitter for Facebook to cry about it, think back to the notch and every other controversial design move Apple has made with the iPhone. Once the iPhone 11 is released, tens of millions of people will be carrying smartphones with that square camera bump in a matter of days. And just like the notch, it’ll become the new norm.
