And I thought it was us middle-aged (40+) and older who was the only one who still used them literally. Gotten the impression that younger generations invented non-obvious meanings that spread in trend waves, then stopped using emojis when it became too hard and social anxiety-inducing to keep track of the various interpretations of what a "slight smile" might possibly mean to the receiver. 🙂

The color stage is the best one. Thats when the consumer-part of a product is "done" and they dont really know what to add except advertise more. The muted colors are when they have turned corporate and are trying to get into B2B deals, and consumers dont really matter as much any more. Then return to a mono-color when they try to trim anything unecessary to earn more money without getting more customers. And two-color choice when they need to convince investors that they "are still fresh and not out of ideas".

besides, the third party skin and case industry is thriving

By thriving you mean the 3rdparties are only selling customization thingies for the most popular-selling products. Usually products that has gone so far into shittification that they are halfway filled with advertisement and B2B deals. Yay, I can put a red shell on my handheld advertising platform..

The custom color product trend goes in waves. From one default, to multiple bright colors, to a few selected and much more muted colors, back to a single white color, then they exitedly advertise black and white as two "choices". Or variations of that.

Browsers. Firefox hasnt given me reason to doubt. Yet. And I find that odd. Still uses it. Because every other big browser have given me reasons.

Generally "free" stuff from big companies is giving me more and more the heebie-jeebies. Even if they have good reputation. But there's NO WAY I could ever pay for everything I use. Nor donate to every deserving person who has given their free time to create and publish FOSS.