Microsoft will launch its first Windows 10 phones on October 10th

To say that the emphasis on handset design and appearance has only recently come into vogue, would be ignoring the hundreds of smartphones that existed before Apple’s iPhone — people have always wanted their devices to look good and feel premium, even if they were “just” geeks with a much greater focus on functionality. There was, however, an industry-defining moment in the release of the Apple handset’s fourth iteration, the (Gizmodo-leaked) iPhone 4: this beautifully symmetrical, glass-sandwiched slab had some of the tightest machining tolerances that the average consumer had ever experienced (and been able to afford). It was like an object that should only rightfully belong to the wealthy had somehow fallen into the hands of the common man. It even convinced me to leave the Windows Mobile fold for a brief, year-long iOS affair. While Apple has since moved on from that glass-and-metal sandwich (and probably with good reason, as glass-backed phones are as slippery as they are shatter-prone), its repercussions are still being felt in this industry, most prominently with this year’s Galaxy S duo from Samsung, the S6 and S6 edge — both of which feel like spiritual successors to that revolutionary device.