Apple seemingly stops sales of 'Designed by Apple in California' photo book
After nearly three years in print, Apple appears to have halted sales of "Designed by Apple in California," a massive photo book that chronicles 20 years of the company's iconic consumer electronic designs.
While a dedicated "Designed by Apple in California" mini-site remains live on Apple's servers, links to purchase the book from Apple's online storefront are no longer active.
Conducting a search in the Apple Store app for iOS yields similar results. Entering the title's first few letters auto-fills the search text box with what appears to be a valid entry under the "Products" category, but executing the query yields only a list of Apple-designed accessories.
The apparent halt to sales arrives some two months after stock began to dwindle. A Reddit thread in late June noted large versions of the book were sold out with no estimated return date.
Considering time on market and demand, Apple potentially ceased production of the book earlier this year or in 2018.
An ode to Apple's industrial design team, "Designed by Apple in California" debuted in 2016 in two sizes -- a $200 small version and a $300 large format copy -- both of which contained 450 high-quality photographs of classic and contemporary devices. Going beyond simple hero shots, the hardbound book featured photos of products in various states of construction and, in some cases, deconstruction.
The work of Chief Design Officer Jony Ive, who presented the book in an accompanying Apple-produced video, is on display throughout. In fact, when Ive announced his coming departure in June, pundits commented that "Designed by Apple in California" was effectively a well-produced portfolio of his efforts at the company.
While a dedicated "Designed by Apple in California" mini-site remains live on Apple's servers, links to purchase the book from Apple's online storefront are no longer active.
Conducting a search in the Apple Store app for iOS yields similar results. Entering the title's first few letters auto-fills the search text box with what appears to be a valid entry under the "Products" category, but executing the query yields only a list of Apple-designed accessories.
The apparent halt to sales arrives some two months after stock began to dwindle. A Reddit thread in late June noted large versions of the book were sold out with no estimated return date.
Considering time on market and demand, Apple potentially ceased production of the book earlier this year or in 2018.
An ode to Apple's industrial design team, "Designed by Apple in California" debuted in 2016 in two sizes -- a $200 small version and a $300 large format copy -- both of which contained 450 high-quality photographs of classic and contemporary devices. Going beyond simple hero shots, the hardbound book featured photos of products in various states of construction and, in some cases, deconstruction.
The work of Chief Design Officer Jony Ive, who presented the book in an accompanying Apple-produced video, is on display throughout. In fact, when Ive announced his coming departure in June, pundits commented that "Designed by Apple in California" was effectively a well-produced portfolio of his efforts at the company.
Comments
By the 3rd version, printing photos was a thing of the past (archaic)...
Now buying physical copies of movies seems silly...
I guess my question is... Why?
Apple's designs have predominantly been for the mass market, meaning there is little need to produce a book since the designs and design language are already well documented, known and celebrated.
There’s more to life than money; learned this a long time ago. Likely the real reason most of us want collector sets and items—fear. Sure, we all fantasise about a car boot sale antique find, or our fifteen minutes on The Antiques Roadshow with the Native American blanket from Grandad’s attic—everyone loves a good underdog story. The reality is this book is at best a $300 or $400 profit maker while taking up valuable home-space and headspace for decades to come. My advice, live a little; give a little: take the same amount of money and buy gifts for the people you know and love they’ll appreciate right now. Life’s too short. Saving this book, wrapped in the attic for what it could be worth decades from now is in my opinion, a sad legacy.
By all means it’s your money. Do what you will. Just do so consciously.
Going to the library or ordering online, it seems like new books start falling apart almost immediately. It doesn't matter if it is a kids book, or one of the new "The Art of {insert movie title here}". They are flat out garbage. I wouldn't purchase this book just because of that alone.
People buy books for a large variety of reasons. From collecting, to displaying, as investments, knowing that their digital copy won't be removed silently because some secret deal with a publisher has ended or the ebook store closes down, to the. experience itself.
I try to limit to my physical books and yet this Summer I've bought physical books for studying simply because I prefer it. I also bought a physical logbook when there are excellent digital iPad OS options. Of course, not having an iPad would mean that my flight logbook would be hundreds of dollars, not $10, but even if I had an iPad I was still going to buy the physical logbook so I can have it as a memento of my first 40 hours of flying.
Who said anything about an attic? Why do you think we have a study with our collection of books?
Do you likewise lecture collectors of baseball cards? Comics? Classic film posters? Any fucking collectable of interest other than your own? Etc...
Then you'd be pretty ignorant of how this book was put together. There were many articles at the time, look them up.
Or, just keep believing it's the same as a Twilight novel. Shrug.
What happens to all your "books" when you die? Which of your friends and family get which parts of you, to enjoy and keep close and remember? Oh, that's right, none. Even if they had transferrable licenses, there is less appeal to a folder of e-books.
In our home, our bookshelves are a major focal point and expression of what we enjoy and value. We love sharing that with loved ones.
Look pal, the book industry did this to themselves. It isn't my fault I need to research how each book was made to figure out if it's worth purchasing a physical copy or not.
If you don't have an interest in books, you don't have an interest in books. Nobody cares. It's not an excuse to paint with a wide brush, but it is what it is.
Book makers have not forgotten how to make a good book. It just costs a lot more money than it used to.
What a load of bullshit. The book is a collection of many of Apple's designs, beautifully illustrated in an terrifically made book. There are still people who read and can appreciate books, especially a beautifully bound volume as this.
You post as if everybody is well aware of Apple's history of design and that there is some central repository of this 'well documented' material. It's already been celebrated by somebody else, so nobody else need to? More bullshit.
If you can't appreciate this or any book, fine. But don't be an idiot and try to make a case that nobody else should either.
If there's a saving grace to this thread, it's that most of these 451ish posts don't have nearly the stupidity, arrogance, ignorance, and connection of ireland's ridiculousness above.
All y'all need to worry more about your character and less about other's media preferences.