Recently I saw a video of the upcoming Blackberry 9000. You know, the one that looks like an iPhone? This is apparently RIM's answer to Apple's innovation -- a cheap clone that's Zune-worthy in its blatant imitation.

Obviously the thing's hopelessly useless and nothing like an iPhone in functionality, but RIM's just hoping a few people will buy one by accident and that by at least having their own "similar" phone they can assuage the fears of their stockholders that they are trying to compete.

But there was one thing about the device that struck me as fascinating and is a telling example of the design mistakes companies make. Steve Jobs once famously said: "Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works."

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