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Apple Dropping Product Design Chief Role, Team to Report to COO Jeff Williams
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I don't view "the interior brains of the computers" as innovations. I'm talking about inventing entirely new classes of computers like the Newton, iPod, iPhone, or even the all-in-one original Mac, which was brought back in a new form by the iMac.
Product strategy and vision are absolutely part of the concept and design work they should be doing, not just repackaging the same computers people have been using for 40 years.
By the end, Jony wasn't fighting for anything. He had completely checked out and was already doing freelance work and likely laying the groundwork to poach Apple's most talented designers to move over to his own firm, where he would retain Apple as a client for the first few years.
He pursued design that was driven by aesthetics, not by functionality. That's how we ended up with "Pro" machines that had only one kind of port on them, the butterfly keyboard that led to multiple case replacements and was so bad Apple settled a class-action lawsuit over, and phones that compromised battery life and enclosure integrity, all in the name of "thin and light above all."
Jony Ive “fighting for the user” is the biggest joke.
And Apple released them because they have no product people in the company?
I know that's not a popular thing to say around here, but for most of his time at Apple once Jobs returned Ive turned out an extraordinary phalanx of designs that were both beautiful *and* functional. I try not to let my frustration about 2016-era laptops outweigh his other accomplishments, which were central to Apple products being as nice as they are.
the people who think an entire product range is down to 1 person are delusional.
selective memories.
only think about the bad, and ignore all the good.
Yup.
Yes! A fantastic era and some wonderful products, they are the reason Apple lives and is healthy today.
If you had read the post I was answering better, it was about the first generations of Apple Watch Edition. “Old generations” in my country means “at least the first two, but maybe even more”. The ceramic Apple Watch Edition is a designer’s product, the gold Apple Watch Edition or the Hermes buffoon is the product of a fashion victim (Burberry..). From a commercial point of view they both have their own reason, from the design point of view ceramic ones is a challenge, the gold one is a banality.
The MacBook Retina works great, I have 3, how many do you have? So if you can't understand why a product is built in a certain way and how it is placed in the market because you don't know how a price is composed, limit yourself to what you know, I've already said it: “Those like you” are those who exalt Apple garbage because they think it made by engineers and do not understand that one of the key points of selling Apple products is a refinement in terms of design as well as function. Design, not aesthetics. But you have to understand the design, to talk about it. Once again, limit yourself to what you know, but above all buy useless iPad Pro in the hope that one day they will become Macs.
Their product has gone downhill for a long time.
Like discontinuing homepod and bringing it back due to “customer requests”? Don’t they have a product plan themselves?
Going back five years, there are always exciting new rumors for novel designs and devices, a lot didn’t came to fruition, but at least they are exciting. Now things are going back: removal of touchbar, going back to scissor keyboard, bringing back magsafe, etc. I know a lot of ppl like them, but they are just making Apple a generic tech brand.
I don’t think innovating and disrupting the chip market with apple silicon is repackaging computers that people have been using for 40 years. And quite frankly the iPhone simply refined what other smartphones at the time were already doing in terms of form factor. It was the software and inner technology that was more significant in its innovation. Again the original iMacs were form over function, though they were cute for sure.
Am I the one who can't read or you who can't explain? “But the first couple of years of Apple Watch Edition were just pretentious”: first year, 2015, Gold edition, second year, 2016, Ceramic edition. And, by the way, Ceramic edition was the same exercise also more complicated: different material, same Watch.
I think it’s more sought after as a procedure, but for someone were enough the titanium edition. Then that ugly huge product that is the Ultra was enough, which obviously wears those who have to show that he can afford it, certainly not those who do extreme sports.
The "chin" has been with us since the original 1998 iMac.
Even the last Intel iMac has them.
In the 2021 iMac 24" the "chin" is used to contain the
- speakers
- M1 & its logic board
- heat sink fan
Your link shows that it was relocated those components at the lower back of the screen results in a "butt".
Which reminds me of the butt of LG OLED TVs.
Macbook notch allows for the bezel to be thinned to less than 5mm without causing a bump on top.
Although the wideness of the notch makes you assume it has FaceID.
Personally I'd prefer the built-in webcam be removed.
Instead depend on the iPhone's back camera as the webcam of all Macs. iPhone back camera's the best in the business.
Smartphones tend to be replaced ~50% more often than any laptop/desktop resulting in a better camera after each upgrade.
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I don't know about you, but I was an Apple customer at the time of the iSight FireWire, and that iPhone placed like this on an aluminum Mac is a joke, it's exactly the symptom of how much Apple is unable to find solutions (or not find them) and believe it: Jobs waged a war to convince people to hold an iPhone 4 well. Do you know what happens if an iPhone falls on a Mac? He dens him. You can not believe it, but I saw an iPhone 6s Plus fall on the thin side of my MacBook and bruise it: 600€ of damage to change the whole screen.The "chin" has been with us since the original 1998 iMac.
Even the last Intel iMac has them.
In the 2021 iMac 24" the notch is used to contain the
- speakers
- M1 & its logic board
- heat sink fan
Your link shows that it was relocated those components at the lower back of the screen results in a "butt".
Macbook notch allows for the bezel to be thinned to less than 5mm without causing a bump on top.
Although the wideness of the notch makes you assume it has FaceID.
Personally I'd prefer the built-in webcam be removed.
Instead depend on the iPhone's back camera as the webcam of all Macs. iPhone back camera's the best in the business.
Smartphones tend to be replaced ~50% more often than any laptop/desktop resulting in a better camera.
Do you know how happy the Mac hinge is to have to withstand a load of 300 grams added constantly for which it was not designed? How happy were the screens of those MacBook Pros with the iSight hidden with a third-party product shattered.
I have an iSight FW camera from 2003. I've been using Macs since 2000.
I rarely, if ever use webcams and when I do I am always disappointed about their image quality.
No one whether it be Apple, Dell, HP, Asus or other laptop/desktop brands has found a built-in webcam solution that provides image quality equal or exceeding those of the iPhone's back camera.
This is because the lid of laptops are so thin when the webcam's camera needs a thicker space. Adding the space needed may result in a "pimple" on the top lid.
During the last 3 years people wanted superior image quality that they resorted to using very large image sensor cameras as webcams and professional lenses.
Apple does not plan to name a replacement for vice president of industrial design Evans Hankey when she departs the company in the coming months, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Instead, the report claims that Apple's product design team will report directly to the company's operations chief Jeff Williams, in what is a major internal shift.
Apple plans to give key product designers larger roles within the team, but the new arrangement has still "irked" some of the employees, according to the report. Alan Dye will continue to lead Apple's software design team, the report adds.
A spokesperson for Apple confirmed that Hankey would be leaving the company in a statement shared with Bloomberg last October.
"Apple's design team brings together expert creatives from around the world and across many disciplines to imagine products that are undeniably Apple," the statement said. "The senior design team has strong leaders with decades of experience. Evans plans to stay on as we work through the transition, and we'd like to thank her for her leadership and contributions."
Hankey succeeded Jony Ive as Apple's de-facto design chief after he left the company in 2019, reporting to Williams. The report notes that Apple could eventually choose to hire a new industrial design chief, but as of now the company has no such plans.
Apple has placed more of an emphasis on function over form since Ive left the company, although it's unclear if his departure directly led to such a change. For example, Apple brought back ports like MagSafe, HDMI, and an SD card reader on the high-end MacBook Pro, and Apple also revamped the Siri Remote with a more traditional touchpad and layout after some Apple TV users complained about the previous remote's design.
Article Link: Apple Dropping Product Design Chief Role, Team to Report to COO Jeff Williams
Why would the design group report to an Operation suit, that makes no sense. It's that stupid corporate mindset... Once you managed something you can manage anything. I've worked too long in computer biz and know that thinking doesn't work.
I imagine Ive became bored once Apple started putting out phones that looked identical for years on end.
Can't be very interesting for a product designer.
Steve Jobs counterbalanced Ive's too extreme design ideas.
Like transitioning all the Macbooks to USB-C only ports by the next product refresh in 2016.
Or the Butterfly Keyboard that further pushed that "thinner is better" mantra even when Intel was stuck at 14nm from 2014-2020 resulting in throttled Macs as time moved on.
It caused so much problems with this abrupt upgrade. Accessories industry wasn't ready and it resulted in everyone buying new cables with USB-C on one end or buying insane number of unsightly dongles.
If I were in charge of the Macbook Pro I/O port transition I'd have done this.
Year | MagSafe | SDXC | HDMI | TB3/TB4/USB4 | TB2 | USB 3.1 | Total USB ports |
2015 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 2 | 4 |
2016 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
2017 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
2018 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
2019 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
2020 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
2021 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 2 | 4 |
2022 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
2023 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
2024 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
2025 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | 4 |
As we are in 2023 I think USB 3.1's traditional USB rectangular shape is ready for its last apperance in all 2024 model Macs. Those who bought that 2024 Mac with that single USB 3.1 port will use it until year 2028, 2029, 2030 or by my use case until year 2034.
By the 2030s only people using patchers would be using USB-A. In the same sense that brand new computers with COM, Parallel and VGA ports are used very rarely by consumer or office work.
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This might be a good thing, Mac products are better without Ive.
I guess it depends who gets to make the call on if the new Apple Silicon Mac Pro is upgradable or not. Sometimes the market needs something regardless if you want to quote that Henry Ford quote about the "faster horses". It's not a all or nothing quote to die by. There is a balance of innovation and also meeting the needs of people.
I guess it depends who gets to make the call on if the new Apple Silicon Mac Pro is upgradable or not. Sometimes the market needs something regardless if you want to quote that Henry Ford quote about the "faster horses". It's not a all or nothing quote to die by. There is a balance of innovation and also meeting the needs of people.
The Apple design team has gotten very small. I wonder if half of these people still working at Apple today?
Here's the first group picture of Apple's new Industrial Design team
CUPERTINO, Calif. — This is the first group photo of Apple's new Industrial Design team -- the men and women behind the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch andwww.cultofmac.com
You hit the nail on the head here.
Most specifically of the title role Product Design Chief Role, as you notice whom is in this picture, Jony Ive.
Cook does NOT want ANYONE with equal Power, Influence, or PAY as him!!
This is a chess move not a political or financial! This has nothing to do with Form or Function and all that other jazz.
lol yes, but there is another term that is no longer PC to say. not going to say
A "chess move" is an analogy for a political move, actually.
Wouldn't preventing someone from having power ultimately be a political (and in this case, financial) move? I think so.
Yeah our right and rethinking I agree