Cingular Joins Platform Committee

Is it possible that a lot of newer phones look a like because the major carriers and manufactures are part of this group?

I mean you have the RAZR, and then the Blade, and then the Katana, and now this LG phone... Is it really just a trend, or something that these guys decided was best for the customer, to offer a slim phone for all carriers produced by the top manufatures.

Personally I really don't care that everyone pretty much has a thin phone now. I think the thin phone has become a desgin rather than a copy of the RAZR. You have your candy bar phone, your peanut phone, your flip phone, and now your thin phone.