Marc Newson to Join Apple’s Design Team

Excessive rounded edges, bright pop-colors and lots of plastic seem to me a staple of the 90s. CAM techniques were just starting to hit their stride, so the work from the period often feels like it's just a direct product of the software. Newson's work looks to me like it popped out of a rendering on a Silicon Graphics machine. Karim Rashid, Greg Lyn are easy references. There are many others I can't think of.

It's not just that his work fits the style, but that even his recent work still employs the same techniques.

That seems like the smart way to go. Regardless of the features, for most people, it's a fashion accessory first. Take Google Glass for example. I tried one for a week. It was cool tech and I could see how it would be useful for me but there is no way I wearing that thing. Same goes for the watches.

1) are very pretty/trendy/fashionable

2) have a very high build quality(no cheap plastic, lots of aluminum)

3) "just work"

Honestly 2 and 3 are why I stick with them. After owning a mbp and iphone I can't go back to the crappy plastic that every piece of tech seems to be made out of these days, and I never have to worry about something not working on my phone or laptop like I had to with my countless android devices.

When I need to get work done I'll open up my vm or boot into ubuntu/fedora/etc. but other than that I don't need/care about endless customizability that android/linux offer me. I want something works and is easy to use.

She is a much needed and highly qualified replacement for Ron Johnson.

The YSL hire was specifically to help sell the iWatch.

In any event, not trying to have the most features is a good thing. It's pointless to have the most features if the features aren't appropriate for the product. A big part of good product design is making sure that every feature that is in the product has a damn good reason for being there. Companies that pursue feature bloat for its own sake are usually just trying to pad out their marketing blurbs, or have a screwed-up management structure that incentivizes everyone involved to cram their pet features into everything for the sake of internal corporate politics.

Feature creep isn't the sign of high tech products, it's the sign of an unhealthy organization that doesn't know (or care?) what it's actually creating.

Google really needs to start working on the Android UI and forcing vendors to use it, windows phone/iOS blow android out of the water when it comes to design.