Apple Confirms Retirement of Senior Designer Greg Christie Later This Year

[springsup]

I say not good for Apple.

Indeed. All of these stories about how iPhone sales growth is slowing, how Apple misjudged the market for larger screen sizes as well as the market for on-demand streaming services (I mean seriously - how can they miss something that obvious?), how Apple's marketing team has been struggling to find a narrative for the iPhone, together with the retirement of Apple's head of HI (possibly due to a falling out with Jony Ive) really paint Apple in a struggling light.

This week has really changed my view of Apple. The competition in all areas is getting much better, much faster, and Apple don't seem to be able to keep up.

 

[Yojimbo007]

I never thought I'd be saying this, but with this new turn of events, and the never ending reaction to external 'make more money' forces, I am beginning to feel that Apple is losing its way. But then maybe it will take a new crisis before Apple gets a grip on itself. Or maybe it's true that without Jobs, our beautiful Apple, is slowly but surely morphing into a faceless megalithic money machine.

So some not liking the ios color palette and contrast defines the entirety of apple?
Imac, MacBooks, mac pro, iphons, ipads, osx... Etc etc!

 

[inscrewtable]

It seems to me that ios would be better served by taking design cues from osx. In hindsight it probably would have been better for Forstall and Ive to blend their ideas together rather than one winning over the other. I think Apple missed the boat by going from highly skeumorphic to out and out flat, where what they should have done is develop the often corny skeumorphism which had it's roots in the original osx almost 15 years ago, into a new more modern skeumorphic look. That would have been a genuine and worthwhile challenge and maybe would have given Christie the motivation that people like him, need.

 

[Yojimbo007]

I say not good for Apple.

Why? You have no idea who effected what!
No one outside of apple knows!

 

[Michaelgtrusa]

Why? You have no idea who effected what!
No one outside of apple knows!

Apple needs tons of staff for IOS/MacOS.

 

[Rogifan]

Apple employees at this level have been making a lot of money in the form of stock and bonuses for many years. After 20 years of service, he well deserves some time to start spending some of it. Smart move!

But retirement doesn't get page views the way Gurman's story did.

 

[Yojimbo007]

Will be interesting to see where iOS and the iPhone are in 2 years now.

Lots of rats have escaped this ship since Jobs died, wonder if it's sinking and no one knows yet?

Lots of rats have been ousted! Greg and Scott.
Lots of amazing talent has joined! YSL CEO Paul .. BURBERRY CEO Angela to name a couple!

 

[Rogifan]

Apple needs tons of staff for IOS/MacOS.

In the past 6 months or so Apple has posted for/hired at least 20 people into the Human Interface team. And it was a small team of around 20 people when Forstall left.

 

[Smartass]

Indeed. All of these stories about how iPhone sales growth is slowing, how Apple misjudged the market for larger screen sizes as well as the market for on-demand streaming services (I mean seriously - how can they miss something that obvious?), how Apple's marketing team has been struggling to find a narrative for the iPhone, together with the retirement of Apple's head of HI (possibly due to a falling out with Jony Ive) really paint Apple in a struggling light.

This week has really changed my view of Apple. The competition in all areas is getting much better, much faster, and Apple don't seem to be able to keep up.

this has been happening for quaite a while now... but apple is not doomed, they're just lost because of bad leadership.

 

[Frost7]

I don't understand, do the iOS7 icon haters stare at the icons more than they use the actual apps? Get over it.

No, the problem is the apps are as visually hideous as the icons that lead to them.

So much white. and red. And no intuitive interface. Gross.

 

[Tiger8]

No smoke without fire...

I think this gives a lot of merit to the rumors, I am a fan of Ivy but I'm also a fan of a balanced organziation. So is everyone supposed to orbit around him?

 

[dannyyankou]

I don't understand, do the iOS7 icon haters stare at the icons more than they use the actual apps? Get over it.

I don't know about you, but I always unlock my iPad, stare at the homescreen for 3 hours, launch an app and use it for 2 minutes, then exit and stare at the homescreen for another 3 hours.

 

[mengel]

This...

No, the problem is the apps are as visually hideous as the icons that lead to them.

So much white. and red. And no intuitive interface. Gross.

This, this, this... is what's wrong with people these days. You assume that since you don't like it, then it must be hideous. Can you qualify why anyone should care what you think? Plenty of people like iOS7. Someone even posted a survey the other day showing that people largely prefer the iOS7 elements over iOS6. And the intuitive thing... just because you can't figure it out, does not in turn make it not intuitive.

[end rant]

 

[tongxinshe]

iOS 6 looked like crap, it was cute for 2007 but it was played out by 2011. The iOS 7 design is here to stay (for a couple of generations anyway), people really need to get over it. I think it's safe to say that with its incredible adoption rate the vast majority of people favor the redesign. I'm one of them. Scott was holding iOS back, and it would have set Apple back if iOS 7 came out without a complete UI overhaul.

No, the worst part of UI design (or design in general) is to make changes purely for the sake of change!!!!!!!

 

[bbeagle]

Lots of rats have escaped this ship since Jobs died, wonder if it's sinking and no one knows yet?

It's how companies work. It's nothing exclusive to Apple.

To call them rats and this a sinking ship shows a huge bias.

 

[AgentElliot007]

I don't understand, do the iOS7 icon haters stare at the icons more than they use the actual apps? Get over it.

I don't like the icons either, but this, this this. I don't stare at the icons and most of them are in a folder. It'd be great if they were a bit nicer because life is better when little things in it are nicer, la di da. But for the love, they're icons. There are bigger things to worry about.

 

[Swift]

Sounds good

The designer is not writing code. I think Ive should have approval on interface.

 

[AgentElliot007]

This, this, this... is what's wrong with people these days. You assume that since you don't like it, then it must be hideous. Can you qualify why anyone should care what you think? Plenty of people like iOS7. Someone even posted a survey the other day showing that people largely prefer the iOS7 elements over iOS6. And the intuitive thing... just because you can't figure it out, does not in turn make it not intuitive.

[end rant]

I'm not sold on people really preferring the whitewashed backgrounds. Lots of the changes, I get that they'll be polarizing and some will like them while others hate them. But if allowed to live with a version of something like iOS 7 that didn't feature all white backgrounds for a few days, to use in day and night circumstances, and then given iOS 7 with it's white backgrounds for a few days, I think they'd be preferring the latter.

I have never had any vision issues, never needed glasses, never had problems reading on screens for long periods of time, but iOS 7 has found a way to make my eyes literally hurt, and I know I am so, so, so far from not the only one to be dealing with this one...

 

[inscrewtable]

So some not liking the ios color palette and contrast defines the entirety of apple?
Imac, MacBooks, mac pro, iphons, ipads, osx... Etc etc!

I am not sure how you interpret that ?!

 

[IJ Reilly]

Apple says that Christie has been planning to retire later this year and is still within the company.

He's still within the company? Yikes. So Apple really is the Borg collective.

 

[macgabe]

The Rise of Ive

Is Jonny the new Joffrey?

 

[mdridwan47]

I don't understand, do the iOS7 icon haters stare at the icons more than they use the actual apps? Get over it.

I'm sorry. I thought details matter at Apple. Apparently fanboys are willing to compromise.

 

[69Mustang]

Indeed. All of these stories about how iPhone sales growth is slowing, how Apple misjudged the market for larger screen sizes as well as the market for on-demand streaming services (I mean seriously - how can they miss something that obvious?), how Apple's marketing team has been struggling to find a narrative for the iPhone, together with the retirement of Apple's head of HI (possibly due to a falling out with Jony Ive) really paint Apple in a struggling light.

This week has really changed my view of Apple. The competition in all areas is getting much better, much faster, and Apple don't seem to be able to keep up.

Apple will be fine. They will intro a larger phone with great sales. The marketing campaign will be dramatically different from the overly heavy Verse campaign. Apple is experiencing what all successful companies experience. In the past, all they needed was this to be successful. As you stated, the competition is getting bigger, stronger, faster. Apple realizes that.

This week has changed a lot of people's views of Apple. It's making people realize Apple is a company, just like all the rest. Full stop.

 

[CosmoFox]

So all the conspiracy theorists and Ive haters will keep quiet? Hmm, I think not...

 

[brendu]

So a report on an Apple blog has everyone on this website going ******* like the real housewives of Cupertino. The guy is retiring. He isn't being forced out. Why is everyone freaking out? Relax, breathe, your iPhones will be fine.