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The ball that SJ got rolling is what Tim is going to take credit for, for the next few years. Everything that is interesting with Apple even today is all driven by SJ. Still waiting for Apple to do something more with Steve's legacy. They can't beat google or the others at AI. They won't be able to beat China with the amount of innovation and products that will come from there. Wondering if this is it for Apple's product line.
 
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It was time for him to move on, he did great things even before Steve Jobs came back and he will continue to do great things outside of Apple.
 
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Tripp Mickle, a technology reporter who recently moved from The Wall Street Journal to The New York Times, is releasing a new book on Apple this week, entitled "After Steve: How Apple Became a Trillion-Dollar Company and Lost Its Soul," and an adapted excerpt of the book was shared today that provides a look at the tensions between Tim Cook and Jony Ive that ultimately led to Ive's departure.

after-steve-background.jpg

The main anecdotes in the piece focus on the Apple Watch, which Ive wanted to be a fashionable accessory launched with all of the glitz of a runway show complete with a $25 million white tent. Apple's marketing team questioned the expense and the emphasis on fashion, preferring a more traditional introduction focused on the Apple Watch's capabilities.

While Cook ultimately sided with Ive on the fashion-oriented introduction, sources interviewed for the book suggest it was the beginning of the end for Ive's time at Apple.As the Apple Watch was pivoted to become a fitness-oriented device with broad retail distribution, Ive reportedly began to chafe at the "rise of operational leaders" within the company and an increasing emphasis on services rather than hardware, and ultimately he transitioned out of Apple to found his own design firm, Lovefrom.

The piece goes into more detail on Ive's early days at Apple, his relationship with Steve Jobs, and additional anecdotes on Ive's evolution following Jobs' death.Cook and Ive ultimately agreed on a new Chief Design Officer role for Ive that would see him turn over daily management of the design group and shift to a part-time role laser-focused on product development.

Ive's participation and presence waned with his new role, with Ive reportedly often going weeks without weighing in on work going on in the team. The report includes an anecdote from the iPhone X development process when Ive called an important product review meeting that he ended up being nearly three hours late for and ultimately concluded without making any final decisions.

In Ive's absence, Apple continued to pivot more toward services while Cook's eye for operational efficiency evolved the company even further. With Apple Park essentially finished in mid-2019, Ive decided it was time to move on.A review of After Steve by The New York Times praises it for Mickle's thorough efforts to interview over 200 former and current employees and advisors. It takes issue, however, with Mickle's epilogue that places blame on Cook for being "aloof and unknowable, a bad partner for Ive" and largely responsible for Apple's failure to launch another product on the scale of the iPhone. The review argues that the iPhone was a singular opportunity as evidenced by the fact that the Jobs–Ive partnership never yielded anything else on that scale, either before or after.

"After Steve" debuts this Tuesday, May 3 in the U.S. and is available from Amazon and other retailers.

Article Link: 'After Steve' Examines the Tensions That Led to Jony Ive's Departure From Apple
Sounds as though Ive has a ghost writer.
 
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To All those who blame Jony Ive for thinness and other things like butterfly keyboard, thinness existed even when Steve was there. You can't say that ever since Jobs wasn't at Apple anymore, Jony was obsessed with thinness. Also, if you see some of Jobs Keynotes, he too mentions how thin they were compared to previous generations etc. (Not Talking of MacBook Air, but if you see iPhones and Mac, they too were described thinner than previous generations). Jony was one of the few guys remaining at Apple who closely worked with Steve. Apple was never Function over Form, or Form over Function. They were equally prioritised in my opinion. If it was Function over Form, it wouldn't have been much different from Modern PCs like Dell and HP. Form over Function bought us the 1984 Mac, Form over Function bought us the iPhone, Form over Function bought us the MacBook. During its era, No one expected the a Computer could be So Compact, No one ever thought a Phone could be like this, No one ever thought a Personal Computer could be so integrated in a compact system. So stop saying that Function over form is better or form over function is better.
Screenshot 2022-05-02 at 8.51.06 AM.png

and to All those who say he was against ports and other things, that may be the other Apple Executives who for the sake of marketing may have done that, and note that Jony designed the most Modular Mac ever made, the 2019 Mac Pro (which was way bigger than it's predecessor, So stop blaming him for making things small and thin)
And people saying Apple is more innovative in its design since Jony Left, honestly, the designs of iPhone 13 Pro, 12 Pro are just the same as 11 Pro (except the Flat Edges) (designed the Jony was in Apple). The iPad Air, same as iPad Pro, Apple TV, nothing changed since many years. MacBook Air, same design. iPad, Same design since 2013 (almost same as iPad Air from 2013). So the innovation is just chip and nothing else. Stop claiming the new products look revolutionary and are better of than during his era. The only thing that has changed is the Design of MBP, and AirPods 3 and the iMac (which again is believed to be designed by Jony Ive). It may be was a marketing thought of Apple that most professionals may be using Thunderbolt accessories, so they may have removed HDMI Port in 2016 MBP, and those who want them may take up dongles from Apple. It is upto the HW Engineering team to decide what ports to Add, What not, and Jony designs for them. Most guys here are behaving as if Jony designs, Jony decides what chip to add, what ports to add, Jony decides what keyboard to put etc.
What I want to say is please let us not blame him for every problem at Apple.
Even if he designed Apple Products, Jony; Having worked with Steve, He knew idea of Apple better than all of us
 
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Wow, thank you, MacRumors, for posting this! I never knew about this book until reading the OP. Out of all the new products discussed on MacRumors these past few years, this book is the one I’m the most excited about.
 
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.
Jobs also hand-picked Scully.....
 
Apple used to be product first company, Product team has arbitray over any other functions. but now it's not the case but company soul was not lost, just get changed. author is biased
 
I still can't figure out wtf they were doing with the Series 0 Edition. People buy a 10k Rolex to wear their whole life -- who's going to wear a 20K Apple Watch that will be outdated in 1 year?

That sure got a ton of media attention and free marketing for Apple entering the smart watch market. I'm guessing it was money well spent.
 
Yeah, the author has poor art style and chose a very unflattering photo of Ive (Maybe it was intentional). Not to mention, why did he [Tripp] feel the need to post his name above Ives head on the cover? Looks terrible.
That was most likely a publisher decision
 
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.
Agreed. The butterfly keyboard machines were a nightmare, but people's tendency to pin them on Ive has always seemed unfair. None of us know who made those bad decisions, but we do know the man was involved in some iconic designs.
 
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The book sounds highly reliant on -- and too beholden to — Ive's perspective. That's incredibly one-sided.

Hope that’s just the reviewers' spin and not the authors' actual viewpoint!

Wasn't Ive the one behind the “disastrous” iOS 7 and the thinness “insanity”?

His pompous videos on his design philosophy and the latest Apple product — which were entrancing the first time or two — quickly became tiresome, repetitive, and self-satirizing!
How was iOS 7 disastrous? The skeuomorphic design looked dated and was much harder to do well (what percent of third-party apps got it right?). The flat design makes it much easier to maintain consistency and has basically persisted since then.

You probably also forget that iOS 6 lacked basic functionality like the card-based app switcher and Control Center. Having just used it for about 2 months, it sucks, lol.

iOS 7 was function over form, and that's a good thing.
 
I disagree with the assessment at the end that Apple has not innovated, the AirPods and AirPods Pro have been a massive success for the company post-ivy
 
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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.
The removable batteries with the built in LEDs were great.
 
The Ive/Jobs partnership came at an opportune time. The technology industry is different now than it was 15 years ago when the iPhone launched. You adapt or sink.
 
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IMO Ive didn’t work without Steve. Steve was the practical balance to some of Ive’s more extravagant tendencies. I hated the original Apple Watch launch - it felt so pompous and like Apple wanted to be some sort of tech Burberry. That was the last thing I wanted.

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


I’m sorry but zMany are forgetting alive worked at Apple from the start BEFORE Jobs’ return.

Proof?

The Twentieth Anniversary Mac with a HUGE support with his long introductory video - still available on YouTube today, OG and without a fake British accent.

I’m sure in the see of beige Macs Ive’s work was under appreciative then as well all before Jobs’ return.


Apple Watch Edition was the premier Watch launch in Gold complete with Toronto’s rapper first leaking the watch on IG when Drake was then a huge Blackberry user and supporter due to both being Canadian as am I (ahem Drake started career in Degrassi Jnr a Hugh TV show for youth gawd that sucked) and based in Toronto.

Drake was at the launch btw. Also during iTunes streaming launch as well.


Watch Edition as a premium exclusive product could ONLY last so long! Jony basically wanted the Watch to be like the TAM which was over $15k US dollars along with the extra cost of a limo delivery to purchases in the USA. Doesn’t make sense for either and each were fantastic products. But the cost is just too much to make a significant profit to recover R&D.

This op-ed sounds more of a baby crying over spilt milk. I’ll give it a full read but the article paints it from a false beginning.
 
I knew that the iPhone X was in the end basically a rushed product, but I didn’t know Ive played part in that.
Considering he gave us the Butterfly Keyboard and too thin lids I’m still sour at him for his form-over-function approach. He stifled technical evolution at Apple with his form-over-function approach.
The fact he also is responsible for the user unfriendly and inefficient mess that was iOS 7 which left its traits in every single piece of Apple consumer software since then doesn’t help his case either.
When I first heard he’d leave Apple I was uncertain about Apples design future. Looking at the new iPhones and MacBooks I couldn’t be happier that he’s gone for good.
Can’t have someone wanting to be in a major position and not do their job then.
 
Ive is a good designer for sure. Everything he did looked great even if it didn't function all that well. My guess is he needed a good visionary critic for his designs and there was no one at Apple that could fill that role. Now Apple designs are starting to look like "design by committee".
 
“The art challenges the technology, and the technology inspires the art.” - John Lassiter

Without Ive, there is no art CHALLENGING the tech. He/SJ pushed people to do the impossible.

I think we can all admit things move a lot slower under Cook. Take it for what it is.
At least things don’t move to the trash that often anymore.
A top case with a battery that can’t be removed, trackpad that can’t be removed and a failing keyboard that can’t be removed isn’t really good for your case. If you mean things move slower now because there is certainty in the functionality and interoperability of products, then and only then you are right.
Ive pushed the envelope where there was no one to appreciate his handwriting anymore. Cook settled for reliable email.
 
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