I thought this was an interesting article...never saw these comments from Ive before.
Tim Cook, Making Apple His Own
Tim Cook, Making Apple His Own
Jonathan Ive, the head of design at Apple and a name nearly as adored by its followers as Steve Jobs, says Cook has not neglected the company's central mission: innovation. "Honestly, I don't think anything's changed," he said. And that includes the clamor for some exciting new thing. "People felt exactly the same way when we were working on the iPhone," Ive added.
"It is hard for all of us to be patient," Ive said. "It was hard for Steve. It is hard for Tim."
Almost daily, employees would spot Jobs having lunch on Apple's campus with Ive. These days, Ive said, he meets three days a week with Cook, generally in each other's offices. But Ive said the design processes are essentially unchanged.
"Steve established a set of values, and he established preoccupations and tones that are completely enduring," Ive said. Chief among them, he said, is a reliance on small creative teams whose membership remains intact to this day. The philosophy that materials and products are intertwined also continues under Cook. For instance, when the company decided to use titanium to build a laptop, Ive said, he and Cook and Jobs thought extensively about how to push the boundaries of the metal to get the look and feel they wanted. And Ive pointed to another enduring value: a complete focus on the product.
If Jobs was maniacal about design, Cook projects "quiet consideration," Ive said. Cook digests things carefully, with time, which Ive said "testifies to the fact he knows it's important."
Lower-level employees praise Cook's approachability and intellect. But some say he is less hands-on in developing products than his predecessor. They point to the development of the so-called iWatch - the "smartwatch" that Apple observers are eagerly awaiting as the next world-beating gadget. Cook is less involved in the minutiae of product engineering for the watch and has instead delegated those duties to members of his executive Cabinet, including Ive, according to people involved in the project, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to press. Apple declined to comment.
