It drives me nuts when laypeople do not understand the variability possible in industrial design—for example, those folks who feeel the iPhone is the only possible form factor for a smartphone and that therefore Samsung is in the clear. Apple reduced the shape to a minimalist rectangle, but the thing designers understand—that laypeople don't—is that even within those boundaries, there is a world of room for design and design innovation.

Until a competing smartphone designer comes along to demonstrate this, here's a somewhat broader example. Lately we've seen a multitude of variations on the idea of modular shelving. Up top you see takes on this by Ismail Ozalbayrak, Juan Pablo Quintero and Antxon Salvador. If I showed a layperson, say, Salvador's version, which is probably the most basic in the way the iPhone is, they'd probably have a hard time imagining any other way to do modular stacking shelves. But as you can see, up above are three different ways.

And here's a fourth, called the Unit Library and designed by Tel Aviv/Paris-based Itamar Burstein:

It's such a simple idea, made from just two repeating shapes, and I love how Burstein has tweaked the negative space. (And if you're wondering how it all comes together, it's meant to be user-assembled via dowels.)

While the Unit Library is new to us, Burstein designed it several years ago. An earlier take he had was called the Offset Library and used aluminum extrusions, seen below:

Anyways for now, if I had to demonstrate to a layperson the variations possible on a single design theme, these are the examples I'd show. But hopefully we'll one day be able to show you a rash of different smartphones done by designers seeking true innovation.