Its interesting to know various points of view when it comes to design hype. For me, every time I think of those two words, I remember a particular incident in my life. Few years ago, I had a tough time deciding if I should buy a Creative Zen Vision: M or an Apple iPod.
At that time the Apple iPod was a rage, it still is, except today we have the iPod touch. But for me I finally chose the Vision M because of the host of features it had to offer, as compared to an iPod. But many of my friends choose the latter, because it was considered to be cool.
The main requirement of any design is a good-looking product, and of course it needs at least the average market functionality. But what it needs to push it to the frontiers where it traverses across consumer segments beyond just the intended target audience? Since we are talking about Apple, how can we miss out on Steve Jobs, known as the marketing guru all around the world, his unfulfilled desire for innovation and excellence perhaps is a driving force of Apple's Design Hype. Here's what Jobs has to say on design, "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like, design is how it works."
While Carl D'souza, a copywriter for an ad agency, explains, "Firstly I think design is far from hype, design is very real and admirable, and people lap it up without requiring too much hype. So I think it revolves around the design itself and not the brand, people or movement. Because it most often works in the reverse where good design elevates a brand, person or is the seed of a movement."
The latest gizmo that has become a must-have among the younger generation is Blackberry. Initially Blackberry was associated with enterprise users who could access their corporate email accounts on-the-go, or out of office. But now the focus is also on the tech-savvy youth, who want to socialise and network through technology.
Simoni Shah, a regular user of Blackberry and gift designer, says, “Basically the hype is about socialising and the product designed for this hype is a brand called BlackBerry. The consumers are the youngistan (a term used by Pepsi in their ads) in the constant quest of keeping in touch for fun, networking, and absolutely everything.”
In fact Blackberry launched the Curve 8520 especially for the youth segment and its become a popular choice too. This phone was designed keeping in mind the social networking habits of the Indian youth, messaging, the love for music, entertainment, etc. This shift in consumer mindset was led by the company itself, who introduced lower subscription fees for as low as Rs 299.
To go with their Blackberry, the biggest fad amongst youngsters are fanciful Ed Hardy mobile covers priced at Rs 1890, cheaper than the original leather case of Blackberry that costs around Rs 2000. Mobile covers are available in varied designs, patterns and are generally very colorful. 
Today's youth get fascinated by a functional, trendy design that is affordable, can be customised according to their needs, and also helps them stay connected!