Apple's Color Curse: Has iPhone 16's "Autumn Pants Color" Marked the End of Apple's Color Aesthetics?

Apple's Color Curse: Has iPhone 16's "Autumn Pants Color" Marked the End of Apple's Color Aesthetics?On September 10th, "Apple's color scheme is ugly" climbed to second place on Weibo's trending search list, garnering 100 million views, overshadowing other iPhone 16 discussions. Netizens criticized the iPhone 16's new color scheme as "autumn pants color," branding it "one of the worst designs in Apple history

Apple's Color Curse: Has iPhone 16's "Autumn Pants Color" Marked the End of Apple's Color Aesthetics?

Since the iPhone 12 in 2020, the iPhone's appearance has remained virtually unchanged, except for its colors. Four years later, the iPhone 16 continues the overall design of the previous four generations. For this reason, color has become the most prominent marker distinguishing new iPhones from older models. This is why people often jokingly refer to new iPhones as "technology based on changing shells." But this year, even the iPhone 16's shell change has "crashed."

On September 10th, "Apple's color scheme is ugly" climbed to second place on Weibo's trending search list, garnering 100 million views, overshadowing other iPhone 16 discussions. Netizens criticized the iPhone 16's new color scheme as "autumn pants color," branding it "one of the worst designs in Apple history." In the past, almost every year, a new iPhone would birth a popular color, like the "gold rush" and "rose gold" that came before. The "crash" of the iPhone 16's color scheme is not something that has happened often in the past. This shows that making color schemes work, turning the "shell" into a promotional tool, is not a simple task, even for Apple. The colors of iPhones were once so stunning, now they are so outrageous. Has Apple's color aesthetics really declined?

What's wrong with the iPhone 16's color scheme?

Aesthetic preferences are subjective, and color preferences vary from person to person. Some people might find the new colors retro or unconventional, while others might find them unique. However, the fact that the iPhone 16 has attracted so much criticism and negativity clearly reflects that the new colors are indeed unappealing.

From a color perspective, the iPhone 15 emphasizes light colors, while the iPhone 16's color saturation is significantly higher, the colors are deeper, and more eye-catching. These colors are considered by some netizens to be unfashionable or even tacky, with some comparing them to the colors of autumn pants and garbage bags, arguing that the iPhone 16's colors are too saturated and lack sophistication.

In fact, netizen opinions are not entirely subjective, they have some aesthetic logic behind them. The visual nerves of older people weaken significantly, requiring deeper colors for them to see clearly. Therefore, products aimed at the elderly are often deep and highly saturated colors. This is why many people think the iPhone 16 looks "like an old persons product." The "autumn pants color" is the same, as no one wears autumn pants outside (except maybe Superman), there's no need to design autumn pants colors for a specific purpose. Over time, autumn pants have mostly adopted relatively dull colors.

However, it's understandable that young people who are the first to complain on social media don't like "old persons colors." Whether most Apple users think the iPhone 16 is ugly is uncertain. Moreover, there can be differences between the actual colors of a product and the rendered images on the official website. Whether the iPhone 16 is actually ugly or not will be clear after the official launch on September 20th.

Of course, regardless of whether the iPhone 16 color scheme has "crashed," Apple's understanding of phone color is undoubtedly ahead of its competitors, which is why the iPhone 16 receiving even a little criticism is noteworthy. After all, Apple has a lot of experience in "playing with colors."

Material is the Foundation of Color

In fact, the color of every iPhone is closely intertwined with the choice of material from the design stage.

In 2010, when other manufacturers were still focusing on plastic shells, the iPhone 4 emerged, with a stainless steel frame and glass panels on the front and back, elevating phone shell design to an art form. However, the difficulty of controlling the color of glass material led Apple to a setback in developing the white iPhone 4, resulting in a product delay of several months.

The subsequent iPhone 5 was a material revolution, adopting a unibody design, with the entire phone machined from a single piece of aluminum, not only improving the structural strength of the body but also opening a new chapter for the iPhone's color world. The iPhone 5s boldly injected a touch of gold into the "sexually neutral" iPhone, ultimately creating the highly popular "gold rush."

Once the color tone is set, how to name it becomes a field of expertise for Apple. "White" is called "Starlight," "Grey" is called "Space Gray," and even ordinary "Black" is shrouded in the mysterious veil of "Midnight." Behind these seemingly flamboyant names lies Apple's marketing philosophy.

Among them, "Rose Gold" is a classic.

When the iPhone 6s series launched its rose gold color scheme in 2015, it sparked considerable controversy, as there were few pink-shelled phones before then. Pure pink was too delicate, so Apple called the color that emanates a subtle pink from gold "Rose Gold." Compared to the straightforward "Gold Rush," "Rose Gold" cleverly integrated the elegance of the rose with the luxury of gold, creating not only a visual enjoyment but also a bold attempt in rhetoric. This color not only represents qualities like empathy, warmth, and composure but is also widely considered to be a symbol of romance and fashion. With the added value of the Apple brand, "Rose Gold" transformed into a symbol of refined elegance. This classic rose gold 6s is still fondly remembered by many female users on Xiaohongshu.

Furthermore, in product design and marketing, semantics is a spell that subtly influences people's perception of brands and products. It is no coincidence that tech giants like Apple carefully select catchy names for their product colors, hoping to use these "spells" to change people's perceptions of their products and brands. Today, domestic mobile phones have also embarked on a wave of name-giving," such as Huawei Mate60's color schemes, Chuan Ya Qing and "Ya Dan Black" inspired by Chinese traditional aesthetics, highlighting Chinese traditional aesthetics.

In addition to mastering the game of name-giving, the "storytelling" after the product launch is a secret weapon for tech giants to stimulate users' desire to purchase. For example, when Apple first launched red for the iPhone 7, it was actually a collaboration with (PRODUCT)RED. Apple promised that all profits from the red phone would be donated to the organization to help eliminate AIDS in eight African countries. At the time, many domestic netizens mistakenly believed that this was Apple's move to cater to the Chinese market, as red symbolizes celebration in our traditional culture. However, Apple did not clarify the situation in the domestic market, achieving a win-win in marketing.

Of course, Apple also knows the charm of "Chinese Red." As early as the 2016 Spring Festival, the Apple Watch launched a special edition for the festival, brimming with a festive atmosphere. The red strap paired with the gold case looked like a walking red envelope. More interestingly, even the box was donned in festive red attire, hiding a red envelope inside, highlighting Chinese traditional culture.

Of course, as a commercial company, Apple won't forever indulge in so-called "artistic choices." The new colors launched for the new iPhone will also become a sales barometer for some colors of the previous generation of iPhones. According to CIRP, a market research firm, the purple iPhone 14 Pro was highly popular, possibly related to the market performance of the purple iPhone 12's launch in 2020. At the time, purple became the second-largest favorite among users, after black. Two years later, over 40% of users chose the dark purple iPhone 14 Pro.

Apple's Color Obsession

Apple's passionate pursuit of color stems from Jobs' obsession with perfection. Before the millennium, when computers worldwide were still stuck in a monotonous world of black, white, and gray, Jobs was already envisioning a colorful, minimalist iMac. This philosophy became not only the soul of Apple products but also infused a splash of color into the black and white digital shells of the time.

In 1998, Jobs' "Bondi Blue" iMac, named after a famous beach in Sydney, was born. A year later, he engaged in a "fruit battle royale," launching iMacs in five fruit colors: lemon, strawberry, blueberry, grape, and orange. Twenty years later, the iMac, known in China as the "Dopamine color scheme," has revived the colorful spirit of the last century.

Interestingly, ten years ago, Jobs was a "minimalist" (MinimalArt). On a trip to Japan, he was captivated by Sony's uniforms, even entertaining the crazy idea of having a set for every Apple employee. As for himself, he went to Japanese design master Issey Miyake to custom-make hundreds of black turtlenecks, filling his closet, boasting that he had "enough to wear until he died."

Twenty years later, in the iPhone era, Jobs returned to the embrace of minimalism, which explains why the first generation of iPhones only had three "boring" colors: black, white, and gray. But in Jobs' dictionary, minimalist does not equate to monotonous, all designs should follow the truth of simplicity.

Jobs' back-and-forth