In an interview with the Independent (and an identical, but apparently "exclusive" interview with the Evening Standard), Jonathan Ive, the recently knighted designer for Apple, talks rather unfavourably of his rivals:

Most of our competitors are interested in doing something different, or want to appear new – I think those are completely the wrong goals. A product has to be genuinely better. This requires discipline, and that's what drives us – a genuine appetite to do something that is better. Committees just don't work, and it's not about price, schedule or a bizarre marketing goal to appear different – they are corporate goals with scant regard for people who use the product.

This has a ring of truth (as well as smugness) about it – yes, no matter how many "crazy" gimmicks you market your products with, and how many creative meetings you have – if the product ain't good, it won't beat its rivals. This rather dry observation makes a nice contrast with the way in which, during the same interview, Ives describes his own creative process:

What I love about the creative process, and this may sound naive, but it is this idea that one day there is no idea, and no solution, but the next day there is an idea. I find that incredibly exciting and conceptually actually remarkable. The nature of having ideas and creativity is incredibly inspiring. There is an idea which is solitary, fragile and tentative and doesn't have form. What we've found here is that it then becomes a conversation, although remains very fragile. When you see the most dramatic shift is when you transition from an abstract idea to a slightly more material conversation.

I am still surprised how difficult it is, but you know exactly when you're there – it can be the smallest shift, and suddenly transforms the object, without any contrivance.

It would be nice to know what these creative ideas are. He doesn't talk us through them, but does mention the frustration of working behind the screens:

 Some of the problem solving in the iPad is quite remarkable, there is this danger you want to communicate this to people. I think that is a fantastic irony, how oblivious people are to the acrobatics we've performed to solve a problem...