'After Steve' Examines the Tensions That Led to Jony Ive's Departure From Apple

[hugodrax]

I would like to see an OS X feature freeze for a a year at least and squash bugs. They did this in the past I forgot which version.

I would have bought the book but I prefer a more neutral balanced reporting this one seems a bit one sided.

 

[Analog Kid]

Wow, that title/subtitle sound like they were algorithmically designed to maximize clicks from MacRumors.

 

[Bull 07]

Now macs are thicker but their keyboard is good.

 

[nastysailboat]

Lost its soul… if anything they’ve gotten their soul back. Ive thought Apple a lot but design isn’t all that matters

 

[Mr. Dee]

Maps were a mess, but Forstall’s contribution to Next, Apple, Mac OS X, iOS was overwhelmingly positive.

Yes, he made great contributions, but the fact that he was ignoring glaring problems with the Maps app that was potentially put users life at risk outweigh all those contributions.

 

[pacalis]

Apple's worst executive decision was Angela Ahrendts. If Ive wanted more of that, it was good that he's gone.

Apples products are remarkably compelling which is why their profit margins are so high. It's hard to fault Apple under Cook.*



* I reserve the right to retract my comments if the new macbook isn't light...

 

[kwikdeth]

If Ive was still around the new MacBooks would be portless, fanless, thinner, and sealed, still getting the same battery life and performance as the Intels because he'd use it as a chance to make it thinner with a smaller battery and impossible to cool properly. I'm glad he's gone.

 

[candyapplekid]

lost its soul? With the possible exception of the Apple Watch there hasn’t been a single product that Ive was responsible for after Jobs’ death that was on par with the iMac original, the iPod, or the iPhone.

By contrast since he’s left Apple’s product quality has finally returned to its prior status and they actually have started to reimplement some personality into their computers (ref: pleasantly vibrant new iMac colors)

I’ll just leave this here:

Jony Ive Was Involved in the New M1 iMac Design, Despite Leaving Apple in 2019

Despite leaving the company in 2019, Apple's former chief design officer, Jony Ive, helped design the new 24-inch iMac, according to an excerpt...

www.macrumors.com

 

[jaw04005]

Apple has grown exponentially since Jobs died.

It sounds like Jony Ive was tired and mourning the loss of his friend. He tried to fill the void by branching out and trying new opportunities like marketing and software design. However, it didn't work.

At some point, it's just time to step back and enjoy life.

 

[SoldOnApple]

Surprised to hear that managing a team of a few hundred people was too much for Ive. Really makes you appreciate just how big a job Cook has had since Jobs died, but Cook makes running Apple look easy. He always seems so calm and relaxed.

 

[RadioHedgeFund]

People bemoan the increasing trend of form over function but this was the same Ive that designed the original Macbooks with their clever design touches like Magsafe, removable batteries (with little LEDs on so you can tell the level without booting the computer) and user accessable RAM and Storage.

The MacBook line went down the Unibody, USBC route because the MacBook Air was so popular.

The introduction of things like the butterfly keyboard also happened alongside Ive's watered down role within the company. The man was an industrial designer, not a manager. He wanted to create, not delegate. People expected him to be the next Jobs but he never wanted to be.

The NYT article is a load of gumph because anyone that has read Brian Merchant's 'The One Device' will tell you that the iPhone was the culmination of years of R&D as well as a skunk works project started outside Jobs jurisdiction.

 

[planteater]

I like a balance but i'll always opt for form over function. Less is more, if it doesn't need to be there it shouldn't be there. The latest MacBook Pros look like they were designed by a committee of basics.

It is what it is - at least the screen and processor is good.

I think the new MBP is minimalistic and functional. It has a clean profile that is pleasant to look at, comfortable in the hand, its chassis designed to accommodate ports, features and operation that customers have been calling for. It is the a good balance. Personally, I think it looks much better than previous designs. I wouldn't change a thing.

 

[dysamoria]

People who think Jobs tempered Ive obviously never tried to use the original iMac's mouse.

Yeah. That was a complete failure to even consider usability. Apple have never made a good mouse, and that was the beginning of form over function with their mice. The current design is still effing stupid.

 

[dysamoria]

If you couldn't use the original iMac mouse, you weren't holding it right.

Exactly. Nobody could hold it right without looking at it continuously…

 

[Think|Different]

Yikes, that cover art.

 

[Eriamjh1138@DAN]

Rebranding the Apple Watch to a fitness accessory saved the entire product line.

Absolutely, it did. The Fashion line never "fly" with ordinary customers. Fitness does, regardless if its actually used. Apple watches saving lives gave some great headlines and still does.

$25M to move a dozen trees and put up a tent. This is probably the same guy who came up with the $10,000 Watch Edition.

Exactly what I was thinking. I fell for the $1200 Space Black Apple Watch with Link Band. Good thing the band still fits existing watches, while my S0 is now non-functional tech junk.

What bs. Apple is better now than ever.

Agreed 100%. But based on posts here, Apple is the worst $2.5 trillion company ever and has completely lost its way!

 

[Yr Blues]

Ive should start a new computer company. I'd be the first in line.

 

[planteater]

I’ll just leave this here:

Jony Ive Was Involved in the New M1 iMac Design, Despite Leaving Apple in 2019

Despite leaving the company in 2019, Apple's former chief design officer, Jony Ive, helped design the new 24-inch iMac, according to an excerpt...

www.macrumors.com

Yes, but now as a consultant he is on a leash. You can be assured that Apple gave him the requirements - number and type of ports, cooling needs as stated by engineering, etc.

That's how best to utilize Ive, with constraints. Best of both worlds. His design eye, but not his weight thrown at pushing the envelope to the point of what happened with the previous generation MBP mistakes.

 

[prometheus12]

Even with Ive’s departure, he painted the canvas of basically what Apple is today in terms of designs. I don’t care what the Internet says, he’s still a legend at Apple and always will be, especially being that he was handpicked from Steve Jobs, and he carried the company forward with designs that no other manufacture was doing in terms of execution for years, so for that, alone he made his mark in this industry as a ‘tech artist’.

Is it better that he’s no longer with the company? That’s not my place to make that judgment. I won’t remember Ive for leaving, I remember for what he was able accomplish while he was employed under Apple.

Hope you remember him for being stubborn for several years on the poor Macbook keyboards and the unnecessary removal of useful ports in the name of minimalism. His time was up.

 

[Zaft]

The Touch Bar on the non M1 macs was just terrible. So useless.

I work in IT and we got Lenovo X1 carbons with a similar Touch Bar… such a usability nightmare.

 

[szw-mapple fan]

Glad Ive is gone. Steve and Jony balanced each other. With out Job's feedback, Tim (weak) Cook let Ive run wild. Thats how we ended up with the 2016 generation of MacBook Pro with the butterfly keyboard. Jobs likely would have switched back to a traditional keyboard scissor mechanism a year or so later, not 4.5 years after.

I'm glad to see Apple focusing on actual usability like putting in larger batteries into their phones than making the thinnest devices that can't last a day. I appreciate the industrial design on Jony Ive, but if there's no one to keep him in check (Tim wasn't strong enough to do so), then I think Apple is better off with out him or his ideas.

There's a delicate balance when designing for form and function. Ive always went form over function. No ports on the MacBook Pro, no all day battery life on iPhone. No proper keyboard, etc. I feel that with Jobs around, there would be a happy compromise

It’s not really about strength or weakness, but about expertise. We’ve seen Tim make plenty of hard decisions over the years, but he isn’t an expert in product design and he didn’t pretend to be, so he trusted in Steve’s choice of Apple’s lead designer. Steve‘s close personal collaboration with Jony meant that Tim was out of the loop about how they ended up with the great designs that they did. That automatically made Jony the person with final say on design because Steve set up his position to be only answerable to the CEO, but unfortunately Jony turned out to be the kind of designer who is great at industrial design but less so at understanding the whole product.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

Glad Ive is gone. Steve and Jony balanced each other. With out Job's feedback, Tim (weak) Cook let Ive run wild. Thats how we ended up with the 2016 generation of MacBook Pro with the butterfly keyboard. Jobs likely would have switched back to a traditional keyboard scissor mechanism a year or so later, not 4.5 years after.

I'm glad to see Apple focusing on actual usability like putting in larger batteries into their phones than making the thinnest devices that can't last a day. I appreciate the industrial design on Jony Ive, but if there's no one to keep him in check (Tim wasn't strong enough to do so), then I think Apple is better off with out him or his ideas.

There's a delicate balance when designing for form and function. Ive always went form over function. No ports on the MacBook Pro, no all day battery life on iPhone. No proper keyboard, etc. I feel that with Jobs around, there would be a happy compromise

Absolutely.

Now we (almost) have function over form. I do miss the Ive genius, but it needs the balance of someone like Steve to control it.

We do, however, still have profits over function. There are many many deliberate design decisions at Apple that curtail function, in the name of profits.

The new M1 14/16" MBPs certainly are functionally wonderful compared to the disastrous 2016-19/21 era (enough so that I've finally upgraded my 2015 rMBP). However there are a number of notable and obvious improvements that could be made if the profits-over-function mantra wasn't the core soul of Timmy's Apple.

 

[jaw04005]

What bs. Apple is better now than ever.

I agree in every way except software and services. The current hardware product lines are top notch.

But they've stretched Federighi so thin he can't focus on anything. The OS updates are generally meager, lackluster releases with most of the update's resources going toward the iPhone experience.

And they desperately need a new cloud executive. iCloud is so frustrating especially if you're trying to use it in an education or business setting. Apple Music still has archaic device authorizations, Apple TV app is slow, tvOS interface, HomeKit is a disaster, etc.

All of it (services), frankly just sucks.

 

[44267547]

Hope you remember him for being stubborn

I don’t.

I remember his design contributions and efforts that Apples DNA is large part of what he was able to execute and change the industry forever away from the competition.

 

[sideshowuniqueuser]

You can clearly tell today Apple is praised for for everything Ive would have rejected. M1, ports, back to good keyboard, Apple Watch as health accessory

Huh, why would Ive have rejected M1?