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Apple Ends Partnership With Former Design Chief Jony Ive
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The current iMac design.
Really thin for a desktop computer.
And colourful.
Definitely elicited a „wow!“ from me, although all-in-one computers aren’t my thing.
Same for the MacBook 12 - though they went to far in their reduction (ports, keyboard).
Apple is the one that claims they are the greatest in design.
I moved away from Apple in the last six years, mainly because the Mac line was not suitable for me. I was in for a new laptop when the thinner-lighter craze really started to compromise functionality. At that time Apple communicated that the Mac was no longer in their focus, and they tried to move the people to the tablet range. For that they have made the keyboard borderline unusable, removed the F-row, and of course removed the ports. Upgrading memory or ssd was no longer an option.
With the leaving of Jony, I think they made a radical course correction, now thermals and performance are not sacrificed for thinness, the new keyboard got a proper (now full sized) F-row back for power users, and the ports are back. Magsafe is back. I'm happy that Jony is gone.
With the leaving of Jony, I think they made a radical course correction, now thermals and performance are not sacrificed for thinness, the new keyboard got a proper (now full sized) F-row back for power users, and the ports are back. Magsafe is back. I'm happy that Jony is gone.
And I do agree and you are welcome to disagree. Pretty subjective matter.
Minimalism as the overriding design criterion is tricky to evolve - once you are close there simply isn’t much to do anymore, and you start cutting out things that are actually instrumental to functionality. There’s a reason tea cups have ears, computers have ports, and so on.
Assuming Apple is good as assigning value, when he was employed with Apple, he probably wasn't getting paid $100M beans/few years. (Executive Mgnt is ~25M TC/yr).
And he had full subordination to Apple, and all his designs would be Apple IP.
It's understandable why Apple doesn't value the same/higher expenditure under a less advantageous employment agreement.
Once upon a time he created the TAM... but yeah - good riddance to him now. He had too much control.
Very much agree. Apple is beginning to find a new balance now without him, which is something they’ve needed to do with him for the last 10 years. The hint should have came when the iMac became “unnecessarily” thin in 2012, especially when the design sealed the 21-inch model from being upgradable for memory.
Some of his designs were great, others bordered on unusable. I think he imagined more than the technology could give, and that his imagination actually pushed the technology more towards his dreams. Unfortunately, sometimes usability was sacrificed along the way.
He had some outstanding designs, some good designs, and some bad. Also a $17,000 watch that wasn’t upgradeable and had a limited life, which was an idea that goes beyond bad and right into arrogantly dumb
He had some outstanding designs, some good designs, and some bad. Also a $17,000 watch that wasn’t upgradeable and had a limited life, which was an idea that goes beyond bad and right into arrogantly dumb
He really does need to come back. I mean widgets are back. Sk- “ackshually 🤓 it’s neumorphism” icons are back. Lol and Maps is finally what he envisioned.
This just shows how blind they have become. Instead of reflecting on why designers are leaving, they simply cut ties. Jonny Ive is an incredible asset to Apple. I don’t understand how many of the issues that people are complaining about can be attributed to design.
True. Whether or not you liked his designs he helped set Apple apart. His golden years were, IMHO, when he collaborated with Jobs since both had a focus on design.
This are a good example of what happens when design overshadows engineering.
Great design and great products are not always the same thing. Form must follow function. Ive had some really good designs and some blunders arising from his approach. Don Norman, in "The Design of Everyday Things" provides a good explanation of what is good industrial design.
It was a collaborative mishap.
I think Cook is also product focused, but design is one part, not the be all end all, of a product. He is not willing to sacrifice good engineering design or cost for teh sake of something with a cool design but usability flaws.
Apple will be fine.
Possibly, but there are those that appreciate good industrial design where form and function work together to create a special product.
Just as there are designers would make a really cool product hat is basically a user nightmare.
As a side note, re "home-assembled concoctions," people have differing opinions on what is a good design for a device. I am not a fan of those designs, just as some thing yet another silver box that looks like every other silver box isn't to their taste.
Perhaps, but a number of their design choices made machines less usable or problematic and it is reasonable to complain about taht.
While I totally understand the genius of Ive, I also think that he needed someone like Jobs to reign him in.
I sense that this balance was missing after Jobs' untimely death in 2011.
Ive had a tendency to go a bit too far with some design choices since.
It is OK to do this on some vanity projects, to compromize form over function, as these vanity projects can push the envelope for everything down the line, trying out new advanced designs, but doing this for all products somehow ended up a bit of a mess taking away too much functionality especially from some pro products.
The "Trashcan" Mac Pro was a good example (introduced 2 years after Jobs' death).
Also the complete focus on USB-C ports only in laptops. Or his refusal to have cursor keys arranged in an inverted-T layout. It "looks" nicer the way Ive laid out the keyboards, more symmetrical, but it is also less ergonomic. Maybe OK in a consumer product, but not for a professional product, I think.
So the saddest point IMHO is not that Ive has left Apple, but that Apple had no one else outside Jobs who could reign in Ive's designs.
Which only seems to prove that no one of the higher up executives has any understanding of usability and design. They are all engineers, operations officers, marketing people or accountants only by the looks ... and that mix does not bode well for the future IMHO.
Ive and Steve were a fantastic duo. Steve needed Ive to relaunch Apple and make beautiful products. But Ive needed Steve to reign him in and tell him honestly if something was good or not.
Since losing Steve. I suspect no one felt comfortable telling Ive (by then a well known and prestigious designer) that his design was flawed. OR they did and I’ve was too pretentious to value their opinion like he did Steve’s.
Since losing Steve. I suspect no one felt comfortable telling Ive (by then a well known and prestigious designer) that his design was flawed. OR they did and I’ve was too pretentious to value their opinion like he did Steve’s.
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Without Ive, Apple might not exist at all right now. Around the time Steve Jobs elevated his ideas, Apple was drowning in debt, not profitable, had a number of different Macs that looked exactly like all the other beige boxes, including both Apple's MacOS competitors (e.g. PowerComputing and Motorola) and PCs. Enter Jony Ive., with his white iBook and the initial Bondi blue iMac, then the colored iMacs, all the marketing around that, they saved Apple. Gave Apple not only notoriety from the consumers who'd abandoned them, but back into the schools, people were excited again about Apple, instead of watching it limp toward death. Then iPod, iPhone, iPad, especially iPhone, which more than anything else helped Apple become the largest company in the world. So, during Ive's time, Apple went from the company Michael Dell thought should be bought and parceled out for its parts (killed) to the largest company in the world. Much of that is due to the rebounded excitement about "Think Different" around Apple. I know that there were many others who need to be given credit, including Steve Jobs, Tim Cook, and all the software engineers behind OS X, iOS, WatchOS, etc. I remember very clearly though being excited for Apple for the first time in years when all these bold new ideas, forms, shapes and colors started coming out of Cupertino instead of Apple trying very hard to kill itself with blandness. I remember buying one of the most expensive Macs you could buy in the Mid-90s because I thought Apple was going to die and I wanted a Mac that would last as long as possible. Thank you Mr. Ive for your central contribution to what Apple has become, for now anyway, and because I get to type all of this on a Mac that almost certainly would not exist today without your incredible creativity, vision and hard work.