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Apple Designing More Functional Products Since Jony Ive's Departure, Argues Bloomberg Reporter
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The "ugly port" would be on the nose of the mouse where you never see it. I don't automatically think to put my mouse on the charger. When I do need to charge it, I don't want to stop what I'm doing and wait for it to charge when I could be using it and charging it at the same time.
I maybe didn't do a good job explaining my point. It was easy pickings in hindsight and they deserve all the credit for being the first to envision how to exploit those easy pickings. However, at the time they righted a bunch of "easy" wrongs by focusing on fixing the functions and in a nice form. At some point after all exploiting the "easy pickings" and then refining things further over a few years while coming up with a few more genius innovations (touch screen phone, touch pad, air-like think laptop, etc), at some point there's not much more to exploit and create a "splash" like before. Sometimes designers start putting lipstick on pigs. Once you see you can't refine function/features too much more, what are you left to do other than to either start stripping things away...or adding solutions to problems that don't yet exist...or making products look purposefully different because you can. That to me was Apple since around 2014.
This article is nuts. The lifecycle of product developement, especially at Apple takes YEARS. He *just* left two years ago. The products that are being released today were developed while he was at Apple.
I think Apple are splitting the pro line from the normal consumer lines quite heavily and their designs will follow that in the future. The pro lines are so expensive that I dont think they add that much to apples bottom line. It’s the MacBook airs that make their money.
so Tim has probably said just to give the pro’s the edge case scenarios that they crave and get the marketing halo effect from that. But they need to carry on with pushing the boundaries and making devices that arent always “pro” focused.
how else do you come up with new stuff if you don’t break convention? You just can’t do it. So I’m hoping this is more of a limited stance by apple as they will end up being indistinguishable from the competition.
also, just to add. The removal of ports was more about a future that hasn’t quite come yet in terms of wireless communication. The long term view was that most people would use the cloud, Bluetooth or some other wireless protocol. And that has pretty much happened for everyone who doesnt need pro workflows (I.e. Video / audio ). Things like low latency or external gpu’s/hard drives are needed by a minority now. howeever, that minority is very vocal.
the keyboard failures are inexcusable though. That was utter madness.
so Tim has probably said just to give the pro’s the edge case scenarios that they crave and get the marketing halo effect from that. But they need to carry on with pushing the boundaries and making devices that arent always “pro” focused.
how else do you come up with new stuff if you don’t break convention? You just can’t do it. So I’m hoping this is more of a limited stance by apple as they will end up being indistinguishable from the competition.
also, just to add. The removal of ports was more about a future that hasn’t quite come yet in terms of wireless communication. The long term view was that most people would use the cloud, Bluetooth or some other wireless protocol. And that has pretty much happened for everyone who doesnt need pro workflows (I.e. Video / audio ). Things like low latency or external gpu’s/hard drives are needed by a minority now. howeever, that minority is very vocal.
the keyboard failures are inexcusable though. That was utter madness.
Exactly lol these designs would have happened anyway. It was really just timing/coincidence.
Except the 24’ iMac was released this year. If they company is doing a 180 now that Ive is gone why would they have released this product?
Apple literaly states ive was responsible for it.
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
Except iPhones were getting thicker while Ive was still working at Apple. People blamed the iPhone camera bump on Ive’s obsession with thinness yet the 13 has the biggest camera bump yet. What evidence is there Ive was anti USB-C?
So nobody else on this page had anything to say about Apple’s pro laptops at the time? Not Phil Schiller, not Craig Federighi, not Dan Riccio? If that’s true it doesn’t say much about them as leaders. Phil Schiller is in charge of developer relations. Shouldn’t he have known pros wouldn’t be happy with these changes and shouldn’t he have no this is the wrong thing to do and I won’t support it? Instead he was on stage happily showing off these new laptops. As was Federighi who demoed the Touch Bar (which Apple marketing referred to as a ‘touch of genius’).
Maybe the 4 year detour was to keep Intel/AMD from figuring out what they were doing with the RISC chips for the mac. Since that group is completely function over form, they would have figured that Apple had given up on the Mac and was willing to do whatever Intel gave them. But by going overboard on form, they were stealth to the Intel group.
The Wired article didn’t quote anyone at Apple as saying Ive was responsible for it just that he was involved with it. Which of course shoots down all these narratives that color is coming back to Apple products because Ive is gone. I guess the iPhone 5c never existed. Or what about these new pro laptops that only come in sliver and space gray. Oops. But my point was the fact this ‘thin’ iMac was released after Ive left the company shoots down the narrative that the company is doing a 180 on thinness now that he’s gone. And if he worked on this iMac then it’s probably likely he was involved with these MBP‘s as well.Apple literaly states ive was responsible for it.
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...
By damage do you mean helping create more the two trillion dollars in shareholder value and putting hundreds of billions of dollars in the bank? If so, he can come cause damage at my house any day of the week.
I don't see a super thin iMac as "pushing boundaries" - there is no use case that drives a desktop computer to be 11.5mm vs. the already-thin 21.5" and 27" models. I'd guess that most iMacs stay in place once they are set up, and consumer users (not pros) won't realize a benefit from the new thinness.
According to the Washington Post;
But to make a desktop computer that incredibly slender, something had to go. Unfortunately, left on the chopping block were some capabilities you might actually want in a $1,300 desktop computer.
Depends on whether you define the new stance as "designing products with maximum versatility in an elegant, useful form." I think that's a worthy goal for both Pro and consumer products.
Perhaps, but there may also be a large number of "non-pro" consumers that just live with the limitations of Apple's design missteps (such as the new 24" iMac) without ever frequenting online forums to express their displeasure. In fact, many won't realize what they are missing. "Oh, I need a dongle for that...okay, let me buy one" "Yeah, my desktop is a mess because of all these cables" "Be careful, don't step on the power supply". Jobs famously once said that "Apple's customers don't know what they want until we show them." Back in those days Apple showed customers amazing desings with elegant implementations of just what they needed. It's what built a loyal fan base.
I think your example of Bluetooth and latency is a perfect example. Non-pro consumers live with the limitations of wireless without knowing how they are compromising. With virtual meetings commonplace now, I suffer through many meetings with "non-pros" using Bluetooth headsets that cut out and only transmit/receive every other word. While I use my wired mouse and wired headest (both using a USB-A connection to a 27" Thunderbolt display), and am able to support a pro workflow with no dropouts and no latency.
I've also noticed that many car companies now classify wireless CarPlay as "entry-level" and reserve wired CarPlay exclusively on top-line models (you can't even get wireless CarPlay on some top models). I think mainstream consumers just want things to work. The wireless future sounds great, and we'll eventually achieve it with technology. But for now, I just want to pull the SD card out of my SLR, jam it in the back of my iMac, and start reviewing pictures. i.e.: "It just works."
Why I keep my 2008 MacBook. Does stuff that fell off over the years. And best for a time were my G3 900mhz iBooks. I know, I know, outdated but FUNCTIONAL and looked very nice at the time. May I say classic industrial design, not art? It’s an important bridge for Apple to cross and set the bar high again on the other side.
Consumers are not a monolithic group with similar wants and needs. It’s probably more accurate to break them down into different groups (mass consumer and pro market may be a good starting point) and think of how best to cater to their different needs while still maintaining a lean catalogue of products. Something that will become more challenging as your user base increases and becomes more varied.
I think the 24” iMac will suffice for the market it is intended for - not pro users. It’s clear that its thinness will not affect performance in any way, and no point making it needlessly thinner just to accommodate a couple of USB ports. You are just filling it with more air literally.
I think this is also why the 2016 MBP ran into issues - because Apple was trying to cater to both the mass and pro markets, and ended up alienating both. You had thinner and lighter laptops (which suffered from thermal throttling). The sacrifices made to achieve that thinness resulted in the problematic butterfly keyboards. I still believe in a USB C future, but it’s clear that many don’t (or don’t care enough to invest in it).
Moving forward, this is probably Apple’s continued challenge. Keeping the pros happy (even if it means maintaining the status quo), while continuing to push technology forward in a manner which remains both personal and intimate for everyone else.
He hasent "left"! Its already well known that his company works with Apple and has done so on a contractual basis since his employment there. It's all still his design work. 🙄🤦♂️
Or use my Gigastone/Lightning from iPhone to micro SD then into my Mac/PC SD and bypass iCloud. It’s about I use connectivity and ports. Dump lightning for art? Ivy has a part in both sides if this debate/unraveling. It’s undeniable Apple designs lead the pack and kudos to Apple and all its users for the passion.
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Yep. And this is also why so many cars today in showrooms look more like art portfolio padding than something a car enthusiast would actually want to own.
