Unity: Verizon iPhone 5 faces smaller twindom to iPad 2

As the months evaporate on their way to the iPhone 5, Apple's efforts to bring unity to its products are more clear than ever: nearly every one of its desktop and laptop computers is made of brushed metal. And the iPad 2 has taken a similar tack. While it's clear that the Verizon iPhone 5 and AT&T iPhone 5 will be twins to each other, if not literally the same hybrid model, there's new buzz that the iPhone 5 could also find itself collapsing into the now of Apple's brushed metal ethos. And while that buzz is sketchy for now, there have been previous hints that Apple wants to go there in terms of, one way or another, bringing visual unity to the product line.

Consider the launch of the original iPad and then the iPhone 4, both inching close to having been a year ago. Both devices opted for a brushed metal band running around the entire outside of the device, covering the top, bottom, and sides. While other design elements of the two products remained disparate, most notably their rear surfaces, it was an early sign of where Apple truly wants to go with its product design. And it's nothing new, of course. At the height of the popularity of the classic white iPod era, Apple redesigned the iMac, which had at that time looked more like a lamp, into an all-white flat panel computer with many observing that it resembled a giant iPod. Now Apple sees itself launching its two biggest known products of the year, the iPad 2 and the iPhone 5, and it's merely a question of just how much further Apple is willing to go in its long running quest to visually unite its product line.

Are a three inch product like the iPhone 5 and a ten inch device like the iPad 2 really meant to look and feel exactly like each other, right down to the physical shaping and even the buttons? These are questions Apple has been asking itself for some time. And now that the iPad 2 is a done deal, its design sealed and revealed for all the world to see, Apple must choose just how far down that road is wants to pursue things when it finalizes the external design of the iPhone 5. The AT&T and Verizon iPhone 5 will be one and the same whether they literally are or not. But will they become shrunken head versions of the iPad 2 in the process? Here's more on the iPad 2. Here's more on the iPhone5.