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Apple Designing More Functional Products Since Jony Ive's Departure, Argues Bloomberg Reporter
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Where have you been? He's been the target of many people's complaints about apple's products for a long time. And JUSTIFIABLY SO!!!
Yeah, exactly. I almost never need to plug into anything via HDMI but when I do, I know in advance so bring an adapter. This idea that people lug around all their dongles is just strange.
And why should they have to? Moreover, if they visit other people's conference rooms, one may often find a conference table & chairs, a screen, and one end of an HDMI cable that's attached to ... something, somehow. At that point, you're either crawling around under their table to try to connect your cable directly into their device (gee, that looks professional), or you're putting, what, an HDMI female-to-female adaptor on the end of their HDMI cable so you can plug in your USB-C to HDMI cable.
Wouldn't it be a whole lot simpler, and more professional, to plug the end of the HDMI cable they provide, directly into your laptop, so you can get on with your presentation?
I say this as someone who doesn't personally have much use for the HDMI port (at the office we just used AirPlay to present, back in the Before Times, and we weren't going to other people's conference rooms), but I can totally see it being a big help for other professionals.
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Apple products these days are completely pedestrian and devoid of any aspiration or innovation.
Apple's product design has improved since former design chief Jony Ive left the company in 2019, according to an opinion column by Bloomberg reporter Alex Webb.
Webb believes that Apple has reemphasized function over form since Ive's departure. For example, while the design of the previous Siri Remote for the Apple TV made it easy to pick up the remote upside down by accident, a new Siri Remote was released in May with an improved design and added power and mute buttons for a TV.
There's also the new 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pro models this week, which feature the return of several ports that Apple had removed in 2016, including an HDMI port, an SD card slot, and MagSafe. Function over form certainly applies here, as the new MacBook Pro models are slightly thicker and heavier than the previous-generation models, but gain back expanded connectivity that many professional users appreciate having.
Webb argued that the flat edges on the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 models also prioritizes function over form, arguing that the curved edges on previous iPhones made the display prone to cracking if the devices were dropped on their sides.
"There is merit in sometimes listening to your customers, particularly when the pendulum has swung too far away from function and towards form," wrote Webb. "After all, you're liable to lose professional customers – architects, musicians, film-makers – if they can't plug their laptops into external monitors. And professional users can afford to pay for the top-of-the-range devices that are more profitable to Apple."
Webb acknowledges that perhaps at least some of these design changes would have happened under Ive, but he ultimately feels there has been a change of philosophy.
We also thinks it's worth noting that Ive might have had a hand in designing some of the aforementioned products before his departure, and possibly even after given that Apple announced it would remain a primary client of Ive's independent design firm LoveFrom. Apple said that Ive was involved with the design of the colorful 24-inch iMac released last April, well over a year after he departed the company.
Of course, as Webb notes, Apple would not be the same today without Ive, a highly-respected creative who helped design some of the company's most iconic products, ranging from the iMac and iPod to the iPhone and iPad.
Article Link: Apple Designing More Functional Products Since Jony Ive's Departure, Argues Bloomberg Reporter
Hey Jony Ive showed up in cognito. Too bad you're just about the only one here who thinks form over function was actually a good idea.
For the rest of us, crippling key usages of a product just so it's a little thinner and debatably 'prettier' is a worthless goal.
FYI: Good design makes the product look good while INCREASING functionality.
Whatever/whoever was causing the mac dysfunction over the last 5 years at Apple, Ive or someone else, I'm just glad they are fricking gone.
The irony of all this, of course, is that Apple now contracts LoveFrom to design many of their products.
Scapegoat? No. He did a lot of good work. He had a good balance with Steve. Unfortunately, after Steve died, he was put totally in charge of design, without a counteracting force to keep things balanced. He ended up sending some products out the door with design choices that leaned way too far in the direction of form over function. Steve said, "Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works." Ive leaned too heavily into how it looks, and we all suffered a bit for it.
Well - what about the last minute funeral home slideshow you gotta do? How about Fortune 100 executives at their HQ?
I can list a few times I was going to do a keynote, and I thanked my lucky stars that I spent hundreds and hundreds of dollars on dongle’s “just in case” I had to deal with a world that has no clue. Yea they have a “projector” - but the cables are ??
Maybe having that HDMI is worth it. Sometimes “pro“ means dealing with the lowest common denominator. Courtesy takes precedent over computer tech knowledge.
You need to be able to do your slideshow or you’ll miss the millions of dollars sometimes.
Internaut
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Mine is currently charging like an upside down turtle.Good Riddance Jony Ive.
Yeah I think history is important to consider. If all of his designs were dumpster fires, I doubt Apple would be near as big and important in our current tech economy.
Ergonomically, the Magic Mouse is a disaster. Sure, it looks nice…
I have Logitech MX3. I think it looks nice. You can charge while using, nice. You have to try hard to see the USB port…
Let’s be realistic, no one is going to look at a mouse and comment that the charging port is ugly. It’s a tool, not a fashion item.
Eh, they contract with LoveFrom for design input. That's quite a bit different from LoveFrom "designing many of their products". When it's an outside design firm, it's much easier to say, "thank you, we appreciate your input, we're going to go in a slightly different direction." I don't think either Apple or LoveFrom has made clear exactly how much of their designs have actually been used.
Not very well 😂 Imagine how bad would the system wide redesign would be. I mean, they couldn't get even the most simple thing done right. It's sad. Apple used to be the leader in these things.
with out these extra dongles the laptop is useless if you are using it for anythingelse but browsing the internet
Apple wouldn’t be where it was if it wasn’t for Jony and Steve. Can’t just piss on him once he leaves when he was designing what is now the blueprints of the products.
There used to be some company making SD cards for older MBPs that fit flush into the slot, so you could leave it in permanently without worries of breaking it off (or it falling / getting knocked out). I wonder if someone is doing - or will do - something like that for the new 2021 MBPs.
I kinda disagree with your first statement, I think to many in this forum (maybe even most), the statement is most often looked at per your second sentence and not an either/or. I.e., don’t prioritize form to the extent that there’s a noticeable reduction in function, especially when compared to a prior model say just 1 year or generation before.
I haven’t consdered updating my 2014 MBA with another macbook due to all the form-first prioritization given to macbooks until this past Monday.
On one hand, the premise may be correct. After all, the design on that premium luxury polishing cloth is just out of this world.
On the other hand, didn't Ive have a role in putting the notch at the top of the iPhone X? Look where the notch is now!!
On the other hand, didn't Ive have a role in putting the notch at the top of the iPhone X? Look where the notch is now!!
Without Jonny, Apple is missing the fine details in their designs. You can already tell by their latest products that Apple is getting sloppy in their designs. Sure the new computers might hit the mark when is comes to “spec requirements” for the so called “power” users and I’m sure these users think they look good, but the design is missing that little extra care that makes them Apple products. Not everything Jonny designed was great, but overall you could see the extra time he spent in the details.
It’s like saying Apple software has been a little flaky lately, Craig should really pull up his socks