Four Colors
ca. Mid 2000s - present
The use of four particularly common colors in tech and general product design throughout the mid-2000s: Electric Lime, Sky Blue, Hot Pink, Tangerine Orange.
Its use was particularly noticeable during the rise of Frutiger Aero and Superflat Pop, since a driving force in these trends was the personalization of products through color (see: various incarnations of the iPod like the Mini & Nano, as well as cameras like the Kodak DC240i Zoom [1999] and Fujifilm Finepix Z20fd [2008]).
We've observed that this trend has significant ties to consumer product design in Japan, which is especially visible in stores like Daiso. The meaning of the colors has also recently been noted as possibly being a reference to the colors of different seasons in Japan, specifically:
Pink -> Spring
Green -> Summer
Orange -> Autumn
Blue -> Winter